Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer, Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907, Canvas Print, Oil Painting Replica and High Resolution Image Download

The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (also known as The Woman in Gold) is a painting completed by Gustav Klimt between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by Adele's caretaker's husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a Jewish banker and sugar manufacturer. The painting was stolen by the Nazis in 1941 and exhibited at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. The portrait is the final and most complete representative work of Klimt's golden phase. It was the first of two depictions of Adele made by Klimt - the second was completed in 1912; they were two of the few paintings the artist made owned by the family.

The portrait stands out with a mix of naturalism in the painting of the face and hands, and ornamental decoration used for the dress, chair, and background. Like Judith and the Head of Holofernes, the way the decoration cuts off the shoulders and forearms also creates a distortion impression. Given that Adele, who is the subject of both paintings, was one of Klimt's mistresses, it is impossible not to search for a psychological reason for the separation of the head and body. Adele Bloch-Bauer enjoys the rare privilege of being the only person Klimt painted twice.

Adele died in 1925; despite the fact that Klimt's works belonged to Ferdinand, she wanted them to be left to Galerie Belvedere in her will. Following the Anschluss of Austria by Nazi Germany, Ferdinand fled Vienna and went to Switzerland, leaving behind most of his fortune, including a large art collection. The painting was stolen in 1941 by the Nazis, along with the remainder of Ferdinand's assets, after he was accused of tax evasion. The artwork was offset against the tax claim from the alleged sale of property and the sugar business. The lawyer acting on behalf of the German state claimed to be fulfilling the wishes expressed in Adele's will and gave the portrait to Galerie Belvedere. Ferdinand died in 1945; his will stated that his inheritance should go to his two nephews.

In 1998, Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin found that Galerie Belvedere contained several works stolen from Jewish owners during the war, and the gallery refused to return the art to its original owners or admit it was a theft. One of Ferdinand's nieces, Maria Altmann, hired lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg to sue the gallery for the return of five of Klimt's paintings. In 2006, after a seven-year lawsuit, including a hearing before the United States Supreme Court, an arbitration panel in Vienna agreed that the painting and others had been stolen from the family and should be returned to Altmann. That same year, she sold the painting for $135 million.