PORTRAIT OF ADELE BLOCH-BAUER by Gustav Klimt, 1907, 54 in × 54 in (138 cm × 138 cm), Oil, silver and gold leaf on canvas.THIS PAINTING IS AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE as a handmade oil painting reproduction here: www.1st-art-gallery.com/Gusta...
It’s not every painting that inspires a major motion picture, but that’s exactly what happened with Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.
The sitter, Adele Bloch-Bauer was the original poor little rich girl who married young to escape the authority of her strict parents, to a man who was equally rich, industrialist Ferdinand Bloch.
The Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt was a rags to riches artist who became successful by following his own unique artistic and daring vision. Klimt lived a bohemian life, wore robes, and we hear no underwear. And though he never married married, he fathered 14 children.
The painting, completed by 1907, one of the last great works from Klimt’s Golden Phase, in which he employed the liberal use of gold and silver leaf, to great decorative effect. The composition is divided equally, right and left, with the subject seated on the right in an abstract winged-back chair wearing a flowing and ornate gold dress. She is bejeweled with bracelets and a fabulous diamond choker. The other half of the composition is an empty room, the wall painted mottled gold save for two silver squares, a lopsided design in the hands of any artist other than Klimt.
The actual portrait, that is the sitter’s head and hands painted are painted in oils, and takes up only 12% of the painting. And while the design and the use of gold leaf the reminds us of a religious icon, overall the painting says more about trappings of wealth. You can’t consider it a very personal portrait, though if you look carefully at Adele’s face you can read alternate expressions of rapture, sadness, longing, humor, etc.
Klimt made extensive preparations for this work, making over 100 drawings, more than any other work.
It’s known that Adele and Klimt were life-long friends, and though rumored to be lovers, there is no hard evidence of this.
But it was the paintings provenance, that is the history of ownership of the work, that inspired the movie. During World War II the Nazis confiscated the painting and housed it at the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna, where it remained for several decades. That is in until, Maria Altman, niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer sued to have the work returned to the rightful heirs. After a contentious and involved eight-year legal battle, the case went before the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled in Altman’s favor and painting returned in 2006.
And there you have it, a movie 100 years in the making.
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