Madame Adele Blochbauer [Author] Gustav Klimt [Date] 1907 [Size] 138*138cm [Category] Oil on canvas
Mrs. Adele Blochbauer
（Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer）
Madame Adele Blochbauer, known as the "Mona Lisa of Austria", is a portrait painted by Klimt in 1907 for Adele, the beloved wife of the Viennese sugar magnate Blochbauer. The painting took three years to complete and was created in special ways such as asphalt and gold leaf.
【Introduction】
In the painting, Adele sits solemnly in a golden dress, with elegant manners, confused eyes, full red lips, and her hands crossed on her chest to hide a disabled finger. She is immersed in a purely decorative flat pattern of golden splendor, as if she is deeply imprisoned, unattainable, untouchable. In addition to the face, hands and some patterns, the painter uses gorgeous, zigzag and gold rendering mosaics to set off the delicacy of the human face, and the gold tone is almost enveloped in a full range, noble and gorgeous, golden and brilliant. Therefore, this painting is also called "Golden Adele".
Adele was indeed a beauty in history, and many men fell for her, and Klimt may have fallen in love with Adele at that time. She was the only one who did klimt models twice.
Mrs. Adele Blochbauer
In 1912 she reappeared in Klimt's Madame Adele Blochbauer II. Five years later, though, Klimt's Adele was neither beautiful nor sexy. Some people suspect that Klimt deliberately painted ugly, and the reason is probably related to the failure of the relationship.
Mrs. Adele Blochbauer II
Klimt is said to have had at least seven children but never married, but has lived with his mother and two sisters, and his private life was once the talk of Viennese after dinner.
Gustav Klimt
"Madame Adele Blochbauer" has a bumpy experience like some famous paintings. During World War II, the painting, along with four other Klimt works, was snatched from Blochbauer's house by the Nazi Germans and transferred to the Austrian government. The paintings were worth about $100 million at the time. Mrs. Blochbauer died of meningitis in 1925 and had no children with her husband. His husband made a will before his death in 1945, leaving all his property to his brother's three children. Later, only Ms. Altman, a Jewish immigrant from the United States, is still alive. She fought with the Austrian government for eight years, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Austria should return the paintings, after which the Austrian government returned all five paintings to Blochbauer's niece, Altmann.
Maria Altman
However, everyone thought that Altman won the lawsuit just to get back what belonged to him and continue to pass it on, but after a few months, Altman came to Christie's auction house in the United States and sold all his art for a total of $325 million.
Of these, the most shocking and incredible is this $135 million painting of Mrs. Adele Blochbauer. What exactly is the concept of $135 million? Many people may not have noticed that this figure was converted into a total of 900 million yuan, which directly became the most expensive portrait in the world at that time.
The painting is now in the New York Art Museum, and many visitors to New York will come to see it. The old lady, who died in 2011 at the age of 95, is still talked about by many Austrians about her lawsuit to sell her paintings to the United States.
Looking back at the legendary history of this painting, it has amazed everyone because of its beauty from the time of its birth, it was displaced in the war but it was not damaged, and it was thrown into the arms of the government for many years, and its owner "opposed" the government for it, turned around and sent it from Austria to the Art Museum in the United States.
In any case, however, we should understand that art is free.
【Painter Profile】
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) Master of Secession painting in Vienna, Austrian painter. Born on 14 July 1862 in Bummgart, a suburb of Vienna, he studied at the Vienna Technical School in his early years. In 1890 he joined the Vienna Society of Artists. Absorbing elements of ancient Egyptian, Greek and medieval art, the work combines surfaces that emphasize contour lines with the planes of classicist mosaics to create a unique and appealing style of painting. Represented as Baroness Echter. In 1897 he withdrew from the Vienna Artists' Association and organized the Vienna Secession. Klimt's paintings are known for their brilliant colors and ornate decorative effects, and his paintings have inspired future generations.