Gustav Klimt: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907)

(Neue Galerie New York, New York, USA)

A painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918). Made during the golden phase of Klimt, this painting depicts Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925), the wife of the Jewish banker and sugar producer Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. The couple were art lovers and were friends of Klimt. Adele had previously stood as a model for Klimt for his painting "Judith and the Head of Holofernes" and in 1903 Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer commissioned Klimt to paint a portrait of his wife - the painting was to be a gift to her parents. Klimt made a lot of preparatory sketches and visited the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna to study the Byzantine mosaics. Klimt shows Adele in a golden dress which is made of rectilinear forms and eyes and is sitting on a golden throne - the depicted gold is real gold. Painting from 1903-1907.