Video: The unusual fate of the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" - one of the most expensive paintings by Gustav Klimt
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The history of the picture, known to the whole world as "Golden Adele" or "Austrian Mona Lisa", can be called a detective story. The reason for its creation was the revenge of the husband for the love affair with his wife of the artist Gustav Klimt, the picture remained intact during the Second World War, and in the post-war period "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" became the subject of strife between Austria and the United States.
In 1904, the sugar manufacturer Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer learned about his wife's betrayal. All Vienna talked about the romance between Adele and the artist Gustav Klimt. He found an inexhaustible source of inspiration in love affairs; his many hobbies were widely known. And so that the rival quickly got fed up and left his mistress, Adele's husband came up with an original way: he ordered Klimt a large portrait of his wife, in the hope that by posing and being too often next to the artist, she would quickly get bored with him.
Ferdinand approached the issue of contract registration with all seriousness: he knew that Klimt was a sought-after artist, and his paintings were a profitable investment. In addition, in this way he would be able to perpetuate his name.
Adele Bloch-Bauer hosted a fashion salon where poets, artists and other representatives of Vienna's creative elite gathered. This is how her niece Maria Altman recalled her: “Suffering, constantly suffering from headaches, smoking like a steam locomotive, terribly tender and languid. A soulful face, smug and elegant."
The artist agreed to the offer to paint a portrait of Adele. The amount of the reward was very decent. Klimt worked for 4 years, during which time he created about 100 sketches and the famous "Golden Adele". If the artist and the model had some kind of relationship, then during this time they really stopped.
In 1918, at the age of 52, Klimt died. Adele survived him by 7 years. Before her death, she asked her husband to bequeath three paintings, including her portrait, to the Belvedere Museum. Until 1918, the portrait was at the disposal of the Bloch-Bauer family, and from 1918 to 1921. - in the Austrian State Gallery. In 1938 Austria became part of Nazi Germany. Because of the outbreak of Jewish pogroms, Ferdinand had to leave his home and all property and flee to Switzerland.
During the war, the collection was confiscated by Germany and transferred to the Austrian gallery. Due to the Jewish origin of the author and the models, these canvases were not included in the Fuhrer's collection, but they were not destroyed. Allegedly, Hitler met with Klimt in those days when he tried to enter the Academy of Painting in Vienna, and he positively assessed his work. However, no reliable confirmation of this has survived.
After the war, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" ended up in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, and would have stayed there until now, but once the will of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer was discovered, in which he bequeathed all his property to his nephews - the children of his brother. At that time, only Maria Altman survived, who fled during the war in the United States and received American citizenship. The court proceedings lasted 7 years, after which Maria's right to own five paintings by Gustav Klimt, including The Golden Adele, was recognized.
Then the whole of Austria was alarmed. Newspapers came out with the headlines: "Austria is losing its relic!", "We will not give America our national heritage!" But it still had to be done. Maria agreed to leave the paintings in Austria if she was paid their market value - $ 300 million! But this amount was too large, and the paintings went to the United States, where they were bought from the heiress Ronald Lauder for $ 135 million for his gallery in New York. Austrians are now content with only souvenirs with images of Adele Bloch-Bauer.
Few people know that the dress for the "Golden Adele" created muse of Gustav Klimt, talented fashion designer Emilia Flege.
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