German etcher, painter, and sculptor, born in Leipzig, and trained in Karlsruhe, Berlin, and Paris. Depicting mythological and allegorical subjects, he achieved striking, unorthodox effects, first in etchings, which reveal a restless, tortured imagination as well as powerful technical accomplishments, and then in paintings. After 1894 Klinger devoted himself to sculpture in a forceful, realistic style, as in a colored marble statue of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1899-1902, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig) and a bronze bust of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (Museum der Bildenden Künste).