Hevesi concludes his review of Ver Sacrum with the following words:
All in all, we think that the artistic success of Ver Sacrum is irrefutable. The first steps have been taken and it has been proven that such an undertaking can work. More cannot be expected by a first issue – which is usually more of trial – or experimental issue. Ver Sacrum has in many ways even surpassed the expectations. Something similar has not been attempted in Vienna and with its success a cloud of suspicion has been dispelled.
Hermann Bahr penned the most important principle of the Secession: “We want art that is not a slave to foreign influences but at the same time is neither afraid nor hateful of them.”
Despite all the praise there were also problems with the magazine. One of the issues was confiscated by a district attorney because it “abrasively violated the sense of shame with its depiction of nudity and thus created public outrage”. Klimt responded to these charges that he did not want to deal with boorish people and that it was more important to him that there were people who liked the drawing. He was referring to his private patronage, his clients from the ranks of the Viennese upper class.
In the course of five years 70 issues were published, which had a purely didactic role and were often dedicated to one specific topic per issue. For example, one special issue was dedicated to Jan Toorop (1858-1928), whose symbolic picture-language was a great influence on Klimt. Another complete issue was dedicated to Khnopff-reproductions while the November issue of 1899 was an essay written by Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916) about the oeuvre of the Flemish painter Théo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926).
Ver Sacrum propagated the idea of holistic art, which stated that all art needs to form a synthesis and can thus be appreciated by everyone: the poor and the rich, the powerful and the powerless. The content varied between essays about art theory and practical, visual examples. Often the issues contained original prints. The magazine appeared roughly at the same time as another important magazine that was published beyond the Alps, in Munich, and was called Die Jugend (The Youth). The Munich magazine marked the beginning of the local Jugendstil-movement and was essentially the inspiration for their name.
In 1903, Ver Sacrum was cancelled and discontinued due to a lack of subscribers.
Let us return to the Secession. The Viennese art critics had already sufficiently pointed out the lack of innovation and strict adherence to conservative role models. All those conditions simply suggested a move towards Jugendstil and Impressionism, which was already in practice in Germany, England, and France. Soon a motto was found as well: “Every era needs its own art and all art needs its freedom.”
Thus, program and mission statement for the movement were set for the forty members who were all already established artists. In practice, their motto could also have been “Art for everyone and for every stratum of society.” During this decade, Vienna was basically obsessed with aesthetics and eroticism. It was an era of happiness, craze and a flurry of intellectual activity. The Secessionists were searching for new artistic expressions, had developed their own ideal of beauty and wanted to steer their movement into a direction that did not require submission to political, economical or financial constraints; in essence, they wanted a “typically Austrian Jugendstil”.