Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I: Gustav Klimt’s Golden Masterpiece
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer: When your portrait is worth more than your tax refund, you know you're doing something right!
Shimmering with gold leaf and swirling with symbols, Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) is one of the most dazzling portraits ever painted. Known around the world as the "Woman in Gold", it's a masterpiece of Vienna's golden age, and the subject of one of the most remarkable art restitution stories of modern times.
Who Was Adele?
Adele Bloch-Bauer was a cultured member of Viennese society who hosted a salon for artists, writers and thinkers. Her husband, the wealthy sugar industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, commissioned the portrait. Adele is the only person Klimt painted in a full-length portrait twice: a second, very different portrait followed in 1912.
Klimt's Golden Phase
Klimt painted Adele during his celebrated "Golden Phase", inspired partly by the glittering Byzantine mosaics he saw in Ravenna, Italy. Real gold and silver leaf cover much of the canvas, so the painting literally glows. The same phase produced his most famous work, The Kiss. Read The Golden Spell of The Kiss.
Realism Meets Ornament
Look at how Adele's face, shoulders and hands are painted with delicate realism, while her dress and the background dissolve into flat, glittering pattern. Spirals, rectangles and eye-like shapes cover her gown. Some see the eyes as protective symbols, others as references to ancient Egyptian art. The contrast between lifelike skin and abstract gold makes her seem to float within a shimmering dream.
The painting took Klimt several years to complete, and the result is an image of luxury, elegance and mystery.
The Woman in Gold
Adele died in 1925. When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Ferdinand, who was Jewish, was forced to flee, and his art collection, including this portrait, was seized. For decades it hung in Vienna's Belvedere gallery, renamed "Lady in Gold" to hide Adele's Jewish identity.
In the late 1990s and 2000s, Adele's niece, Maria Altmann, fought a long legal battle against the Austrian government to recover her family's paintings, all the way to the US Supreme Court. In 2006 she won, and the paintings were returned. The story was later made into the 2015 film Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren.
That same year, the portrait was bought for the Neue Galerie in New York, where it remains on display today.
Stitching the Woman in Gold
Klimt's rich patterns and golden tones make a spectacular cross stitch. It's a project that rewards patience and looks stunning framed. Add metallic threads or beads for extra sparkle, and use the parking method to manage the many colours. Explore more of Vienna's golden era in our Gustav Klimt collection.
Recreate Klimt's golden masterpiece, stitch by stitch.
Or explore the full Gustav Klimt collection.
2 comments
Agreed with that Nigel. Klimt’s works are timeless!
Monumental piece of art history, art itself and Klimt’s art.. deliciously memorable and draws you in as so many of this period of Klimt’s magnificent works. Can’t say how much exactly he fires my interest and passion for all he has done.