Gustav Klimt

Galerie Miethke, Vienna (consigned by the artist in November 1904)
Julius Reich (acquired from the above on 21st December 1909)
Sale: Wawra, Vienna, 7th & 8th November 1922, lot 160
Bernhard Altmann, Vienna (purchased at the above sale)
Seized from the above by the Gestapo in June 1938
Sale: Dorotheum, Vienna, 17th June 1938, lot 379
Gustav Ucicky, Vienna (the artist's son; purchased at the above sale)
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna (bequest from the above in 1961)
Restituted to the heirs of Bernhard Altmann in 2004

Vienna, Österreichische Galerie im Belvedere, Erste Ausstellung: Gustav Klimt, 1962, no. 4
Tokyo, Sezon Museum of Art, Wien um 1900. Klimt, Schiele und ihre Zeit, 1989, no. 96, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, Gustav Klimt, 1991-92, no. 16
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Gustav Klimt, 1992, no. G20, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Madrid, Fundación Juan March, Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele, Un Sueño Vienés, 1995, no. 2, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Galerie, vol. V, Vienna, 1961, no. 49, pl. 6, illustrated
Fritz Novotny and Johannes Dobai, Gustav Klimt, Salzburg, 1975, p. 308, no. 97, illustrated; pl. 23, illustrated
Johannes Dobai and Sergio Coradeschi, L'Opera completa di Klimt, Milan, 1978, p. 96, no. 80, illustrated; pl. XII, illustrated in colour
Gerbert Frodl, Klimt, London, 1992, p. 153, no. 1, illustrated
Gerbert Frodl, Gustav Klimt in der Österreichischen Galerie Belvedere Wien, Salzburg, 2000, p. 51, illustrated in colour
Laura Payne, Essential Klimt, London, 2000, p. 85, illustrated in colour
Klimt's Women (exhibition catalogue), Österreichische Galerie im Belvedere, Vienna, 2001, p. 80, illustrated
Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war, Vienna, 2003, p. 53, listed

Painted circa 1898-99, the present work is a rare example of Klimt’s early portraits. From the early days of his artistic career, Klimt established himself as a portraitist, painting both commissioned portraits, mainly of female members of the Viennese high society, and the more intimate ones of his companion Emilie Flöge. Klimt also executed a number of allegorical compositions, treating the human figure with a similar stylised and decorative quality that dominates his portraits. Damenbildnis en face shows the artist’s affiliation with the Symbolist painters of the late nineteenth century. The woman’s bust is set against a monochrome background, without any reference to an interior, or any other attributes that might offer clues to her identity. She is rendered with a minimum of ornamentation, her dress painted in spontaneous, wide brushstrokes of an almost impressionist quality.

The striking effect of the present work is achieved through the unusual angle from which the woman is depicted, as well as from its dramatic lighting. Although the portrait is fully frontal, it is presented from an unorthodoxly low viewpoint, which sets the sitter on a different level from the viewer. A similar perspective is to be found in the monumental half-length portrait Judith I of 1901 (fig. 4), now at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna, as well as in the female figure in the foreground of the now destroyed Die Medizin (fig. 3). Discussing the present work, Tobias G. Natter wrote: "Seen from an extremely low angle, the face is modelled by a shaft of light coming from below. Although her identity is unknown, this is clearly a new type of woman: the […] formality is gone and a mondaine beauty steps out of the darkness. Behind the palisade-like brushstrokes, she enigmatically announces the new nature of the femme fatale" (T. G. Natter, in Klimt’s Women, op. cit., 2001, p. 80).

Depicted with a palette of rich, earthy tones, the painting is illuminated by an invisible light source, the warm glow of the woman’s face radiating against the dark background. The play of light and shadow renders her face with a stunning, almost sculptural three-dimensionality. This softness in execution and attention to modelling are present in only a small number of Klimt’s early portraits, most notably in the celebrated Bildnis Sonja Knips painted in 1898, now at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna (fig. 2). The expressive style and bold execution, visible in the present work, are characteristic of Klimt’s portraits dating from the last years of the nineteenth century, and distinguish them irrevocably from the academic portraiture that still dominated much of German and Austrian art of this period.

It has been suggested that some of the sitter’s facial characteristics, notably her dark hair, heavy eyebrows and the downward-shaped eyes, are similar to those of Serena Lederer, whose portrait Klimt executed the following year (see: L. Payne, op. cit., p. 84; fig. 1). Serena Lederer, née Pulitzer, was reportedly a radiant beauty and the best-dressed lady of the Viennese society. Born in Budapest in 1867 to a Hungarian-Jewish family, she married the industrialist August Lederer. Together they collected one of the most impressive collections of Klimt’s art.

From 1922, this work belonged to Bernhard Altmann (1888-1960) who, in the decades preceding the Second World War, ran a hugely successful cashmere business with branches in Moscow and Paris, and shops in London, Berlin and Milan. He invested much of the fortune he made in a magnificent art collection including works by Old and Modern Masters. He acquired Klimt’s Damenbildnis en face in 1922. In March 1938, he escaped the National Socialist regime by fleeing to Paris on the very eve of the Anschluss. The headquarters of his company in Vienna were Aryanised and, in June 1938, by order of the Gestapo, the Dorotheum in Vienna held a five-day auction of the entire contents of the Altmann villa in the villa itself, including the present work. Bernhard Altmann spent the remainder of 1938 in Paris and London, successfully negotiating the release of close family members held hostage by the Gestapo in Austria. Gustav Ucicky, the son of Gustav Klimt, bought the present painting at the Dorotheum auction in 1938. In 1949, Ucicky agreed to bequeath the work upon his death to the Österreichische Galerie in Vienna, where it was accessioned in 1961 and remained until earlier this year, when it was restituted to Bernhard Altmann’s family.

 

Fig. 1, Gustav Klimt, Judith I, 1901, oil on canvas, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

Fig. 2, Gustav Klimt, Die Medizin, 1900-07, ceiling panel for the great hall of the University of Vienna, destroyed in 1945

Fig. 3, Gustav Klimt, Bildnis Sonja Knips, 1898, oil on canvas, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

Fig. 4, Gustav Klimt, Bildnis Serena Lederer, 1899, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York