The most prominent members of the Classic Austrian Fine Art are still not so popular but we all admire their works-enchanting landscapes, portraits and still life paintings. Rudolf von Alt, Ferdinand George Waldmuller, Josef Nigg.

 Many progressive artists, especially those in Munich, Berlin, and Vienna  withdrew from the established academic societies or exhibitions. The artists of Munich formed a secession in 1892 that spread to other German cities. The Berlin Secession split away from the Verein Berliner Künstler in 1892; in 1899 it held its first exhibition in its own building. The group was led by Max Liebermann and included Lovis Corinth, Hans van Marées, and Franz von Stuck. When, in 1910, young artists of the Brücke group were excluded from the Berlin Secession exhibition, Max Pechstein led the rejected painters and organized the New Secession group. The Vienna Secession was organized in 1897 by 19 leading Austrian artists. Their leader was Gustav Klimt.  He cofounded the Vienna Secession group, an alliance against 19th-century eclecticism in fine art, and in 1897 became its first president. In the following decade Klimt became the foremost painter of art nouveau in Vienna. He created many murals for public buildings, e.g., the frieze for the Palais Stoclet, Brussels (1908). Klimt achieved his greatest fame as a portrait and landscape painter of exotic and erotic sensibility. Delineating symbolic themes with extravagant rhythms, Klimt was the quintessential exponent of the fine art style art nouveau. The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, has examples of his work.
 1886–1980- Austrian expressionist painter and writer Oscar Kokoschka teached at the fine art academy in Dresden (1920–24), traveled extensively in Europe and N Africa. In 1937 his works were removed from German galleries by the Nazis, who considered his work degenerate. He moved to London in 1938 and after World War II lived in Switzerland and established an international summer school in Salzburg.

Kokoschka was influenced by the elegant work of Klimt, but soon developed his own distinctive expressionist style (see expressionism ). His early portraits (c.1909–14) emphasize psychological insight and tension (e.g., the portrait of Hans Tietze and his wife, 1909; Mus. of Modern fine Art, New York City). The same restless, energetic draftsmanship is characteristic of his expressionist landscapes and his striking posters and lithographs. His landscapes include Jerusalem (Detroit Inst. of Arts) and View of Prague (Phillips Memorial Gall., Washington, D.C.).