2006.64 Gustav Klimt, Study for the Dress of Adele Bloch-Bauer

"There exists no self-portrait by me. I am not interested in a specific personal appearance as a 'subject for a picture,' but rather am I interested in other individuals, above all women."—Gustav Klimt

The beautiful Adele Bloch-Bauer was well known among members of the Viennese upper class at the turn of the 20th century. She belonged to a well-to-do Jewish family but was not allowed to obtain a formal education because she was a woman. After entering into an arranged marriage to Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy businessman, she began an independent course of study in literature, languages, politics, and medicine.

It is no wonder then that when Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer commissioned a painting of his wife, he chose Gustav Klimt, the most sought-after portraitist in Vienna and leader of the artistic avant-garde. Klimt did not make frequent appearances at the intellectual or social gatherings hosted by his high society patrons but rather spent his time quietly at home or in the overgrown garden surrounding his studio, dressed in a long, blue robe, and absorbed in making sketches.

This drawing is a preparatory sketch that Klimt made for one of his portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer. In the portrait Adele stands at the center of the composition, a fur boa draped around her shoulders, turning her distant, rather aloof gaze upon the viewer. In his drawing, Klimt does not attempt to capture the personality of his subject. Working in pencil, he concentrates particularly on the delicate rendering of her clothing and only sketches in the details of her face. It is likely, though, that Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer knew each other very well and that they had a twelve-year affair. 

Dorothy Kosinski, DMA exhibition label copy, 2007.

Klimt, Gustav (Austrian, 1862-1918)

Place of origin: Vienna (Austria): TGN: 7003321

Pencil on paper

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