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Video: "Portrait of a Woman" by Klimt: The Story of the Most Wanted Painting Found Behind the Ivy
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The famous painting "Portrait of a Woman" by the Austrian Art Nouveau master Gustav Klimt was discovered 23 years after her theft. The work was created by the artist in the last years of his life and is reported to be worth about $ 66 million. The canvas was stolen in 1997 and was included in the list of the most wanted art objects in Italy.
About the artist
Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918) is a brilliant Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement (Vienna Secession). Known for intricate, explicitly sensual paintings and frescoes, Klimt's works span the themes of rebirth, love and death. Klimt's eclectic range of influence included Egyptian, Classical Greek, Byzantine, and Medieval styles. Klimt's significant artistic legacy still resonates with contemporary art.
Interesting facts about Klimt- Klimt first received recognition as a decorative artist of historical scenes and figures (he implemented many orders for decorating public buildings).
- Klimt was one of the most significant founders of the Vienna Secession in 1897, receiving the post of the first president of the organization. His creative power and status as the most famous modernist artist of his time contributed to both the early success of the Secession and its rapid decline (when Klimt left the movement in 1905).
“Although Klimt's art is now widely popular, it was neglected for most of the 20th century. His public works provoked a storm of negativity, he was accused of the obscenity of his paintings. - Despite his fame and mentoring of young artists (Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschku), Klimt had no direct followers. His work was considered very personal and exceptional, and is considered so to this day.
Portrait of a Woman
Portrait of a Woman dates from 1916–17 and depicts a young female figure with dark hair and ruddy cheeks against a green background, painted in a lively expressionist style. The extraordinary style comes from the peculiarities of the artist's own biography. His life was filled with a constant heartbeat: the death of his son, his beloved and the quick death of his father and brother, which subsequently led his mother and sister to rapid depression. Indeed, in the life of Klimt there was no place for tranquility, which manifested itself in his work.
Gustav Klimt painted many women, on the one hand, women from the upper strata of society, and on the other, young girls from the lower class. The painting was part of a series of female portraits that Klimt painted in the last few years of his life, some of which were never completed. Originally acquired in 1925 by Galleria Ricci Oddi in the northern Italian town of Piacenza, the painting went missing in February 1997 in preparation for an exhibition that was supposed to star the portrait. The frame was found thrown onto the roof.
The painting was stolen 23 years ago and it seemed that attempts to find a painting worth 66 million dollars were in vain … This painting by Klimt is too famous to try to sell it on the black market - the robbery was most likely done "by order."But fate smiled at the fans of Klimt: the painting was found during the work of a gardener, who decided to clear the overgrown ivy from the wall of a modern art gallery in Piacenza, in northern Italy. In December 2019, a bag containing a missing painting was discovered from a recess in the outer wall of the gallery. Good job, though!
Secret history
What was unusual about Portrait of a Woman? 10 months before his theft, art student Claudia Maga made a surprising conclusion: it turned out that the portrait was painted on top of another painting by Klimt "Portrait of a Young Girl" (with a hat and a scarf), which disappeared in 1917. So, then, in the 90s, Magda enlarged the images and superimposed them one on top of the other: the poses and general outlines completely coincided! The student shared her discovery with the gallery director Fernando Arisi. He arranged X-ray analyzes. And the result confirmed the student's guess. The original painting was dedicated to a young girl from Vienna with whom Klimt was in love. But after the sudden death of the heroine, the artist decided to paint over the portrait in order to forget the pain of death.
Composition and palette of the portrait
The artwork is infused with shades of blue and green. The background is covered with a green moss tint, with slight gradations of light and dark colors. A warmer blue is used in the halo around the heroine's face to emphasize the look of the muse when she looks at the viewer. "Portrait of a Woman" depicts a woman in a slightly tilted position. This pose allowed the artist to emphasize the gracefulness and outlines of the figure. The classic highlight of Klimt is the pink cheek on the faces of the heroines (this detail adds liveliness and brightness to the faded palette). The woman's rounded eyebrows seem to hug her eyes. The woman's lips are painted in blood-red lipstick, revealing her small mouth and the gleam of her teeth. An interesting accent on the woman's face is a black mole located under her eye (it adds coquetry to the heroine). The woman is wearing a patterned white dress with a high neckline. The flowers on the dress look great with a touch of the heroine's lipstick and match the color of her bottomless eyes.
Thus, Gustav Klimt managed to create an unsurpassed portrait of a woman, hiding a secret portrait of his beloved. The greatest modernist of his time, the incredible symbolist Gustav Klimt left us with a wonderful legacy of 230 paintings that continue to have a significant impact on the younger generation of artists and schools.
They made a lot of noise recently landscapes of Gustav Klimt, which are known only to true connoisseurs of his work.
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