“Woman in Gold”

Gustave Klimt - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I - 1907 - Oil and gold on canvas - 138 x 138 cm - (approx. 54.3 x 54.3 in) - Neue Galerie, New York (click photo for larger image)Gustave Klimt - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II - 1912 - Oil on canvas - 190 cm × 120 cm (75 in × 47 in) Private collectionGustave Klimt (1862-1918) took three years to complete “Woman in Gold”, which features elaborate and complex ornamentation. Klimt was a member of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists that broke away from the traditional way of painting. The picture was painted in Vienna and commissioned by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. A wealthy industrialist who had made his fortune in the sugar industry, he sponsored the arts and favored and supported Gustav Klimt. Adele Bloch-Bauer became the only model who was painted twice by Klimt. He completed a second picture of her, Adele Bloch-Bauer II, in 1912. Adele's portraits had hung in the family home prior to their seizure by the Nazis during WWII. The Austrian museum where they resided after the war was reluctant to return them to their rightful owners, hence a protracted court battle in the United States and in Austria  ensued. Five Gustav Klimt paintings were finally returned to Maria Altmann, the niece of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, in January 2006. In November 2006, Christie's auction house sold "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II" at auction for almost $88 million, the fourth-highest priced piece of art at auction at the time. ‘The Woman in Gold’ remains at the Neue Gallery in New York.