Art Collage JANG: Interesting Art Stories: 58. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt, ACJ Art Academy

How are you?

Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 58th story is “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” by Gustav Klimt.

“Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I”, also called “The Lady in Gold” or “The Woman in Gold”, is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, the model’s husband and a Jewish banker and sugar manufacturer, and is one of Klimt's representative works of his golden phase.

Gustav Klimt

It was the first of two portraits of Adele by Klimt, and the second was completed in 1912, and both portraits were part of several works by Klimt owned by the Bloch-Bauer family.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, Gustav
Klimt (1912)

Although Klimt's works belonged to her husband, Ferdinand, and not her, Adele's will, who died in 1925, asked that this portrait should be left to the Galerie Belvedere. When Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Ferdinand fled Vienna and went to Switzerland, leaving behind most of his fortune, including his vast art collection.

Österreichische Galerie Belvedere

The painting was stolen by the Nazis along with the rest of his assets, after Ferdinand was charged with tax evasion in 1941. The lawyer representing Germany gave the portrait to the Galerie Belvedere, claiming that he followed the wishes Adele had made in her will. Ferdinand, who died in 1945, stated in his will that his estate should go to his nephew and two nieces.

Adele Bauer was from a wealthy Jewish family living in Vienna and her father was then a director of the Wiener Bankverein and the general director of the Oriental Railway. The relationship between Adele and Klimt began in the late 1890s, and opinions are divided on whether they had an affair.

Adele Bloch-Bauer

Adele's parents arranged a marriage with Ferdinand Bloch, a banker and sugar manufacturer, and Adele's older sister had previously married Ferdinand's older brother. Adele was 18 and Ferdinand was 35 at the time of marriage. The couple, who had no children, changed their surnames to Bloch-Bauer. Adele, who was very socially active, met regularly at her home with writers, politicians and intellectuals.

The couple, who was art lovers, sponsored several artists, and the model of Klimt’s painting "Judith and the Head of Holofernes" in 1901 was Adele.

Judith and the Head of Holofernes (also
known as Judith I), Gustav Klimt (1901)

In mid-1903, Ferdinand commissioned Klimt to paint a portrait of his wife. Klimt drew more than a hundred preparatory sketches for this portrait between 1903 and 1904 and put more preparation and effort for this portrait than any of his other works.

Klimt exhibited this portrait at the Mannheim International Art Show in 1907 along with “The Portrait of Fritza Riedler (1906)", to which many critics had negative reactions.

Portrait of Fritza Riedler, Gustav Klimt
(1906)

One of Ferdinand's nieces, Maria Altmann, hired the lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg to make a claim against the gallery to bring back five works by Klimt. After a seven-year legal claim, including a hearing in the Supreme Court of the United States, an arbitration committee in Vienna has decided to return this painting and other works to Altmann as they have been stolen from her family.

Maria Altmann

She sold the painting the same year to the businessman and art collector Ronald Lauder for $135 million, who exhibited the work in the Neue Galerie in New York City, which he co-founded.

Neue Galerie New York

The story of the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” and other paintings taken from the Bloch-Bauers has been described in three documentary films, “Stealing Klimt (2007)”, “The Rape of Europa (2007)” and “Adele's Wish (2008).”

Stealing Klimt (2007)

The Rape of Europa (2007)

Adele's Wish (2008)

In 2015, Maria Altmann's story was adapted for "Woman in Gold," the film starring Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann and Ryan Reynolds as Randol Schoenberg.