13/internal/media/dispatcher/128260/fullJohanna Staude1917/1918[Gustav Klimt, Johanna Staude]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Johanna Staude gazes back at us with shining blue eyes. Gustav Klimt shows the young woman against an orange-red background with a fashionable hairstyle and wearing a dress with a striking pattern. It is named after a Wiener Werkstätte fabric called „Blätter“ (Leaves) and was designed by Martha Albers, a graduate from the Vienna School of Applied Arts. Wrapped around the sitter’s throat is a feather boa that draws our attention to her face. This serene and simple composition was one of Klimt’s last female portraits. The painter was a friend of Johanna Staude and she probably modeled for him on repeated occasions. Address directories document that she was also a language teacher and artist.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/4302/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/52844/fullAmalie Zuckerkandl1913/14 (possibly also still in 1917) (unfinished)[Gustav Klimt, Amalie und Otto Zuckerkandl, Amalie Zuckerkandl, Hermine Müller-Hofmann, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas The sitter is Amalie Zuckerkandl, wife of the surgeon Otto Zuckerkandl and sister-in-law of the well-known writer Berta Zuckerkandl. This unfinished portrait clearly demonstrates Gustav Klimt’s method of working. As in all of his late portraits, his starting point was the face while the body and clothes are initially only indicated using sketchy strokes. Klimt was given the commission in 1913/14, but progress was interrupted when the Zuckerkandls moved house. In 1917 he resumed work on the portrait, yet it was never finished due to Klimt’s unexpected death early the following year. Amalie Zuckerkandl was left impoverished after the couple divorced. In 1942 she was deported by the Nazis and murdered at Bełžec extermination camp in Poland. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/7488/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/160632/fullBride1917/1918[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas When Gustav Klimt died unexpectedly in February 1918, this colorful work was found unfinished on the easel in his studio. At the center of the painting is a young woman in blue, tilting her head dreamily toward the man on the left in the picture. He is surrounded by sensual, intertwined bodies, but he looks only at the woman by his side. There are still many puzzles surrounding this painting. Is Klimt exploring male desire? Or is the painting a symbol of a woman’s journey from child to adult and even to motherhood? Klimt depicted the relationship between man and woman one last time in this large allegorical work. The Bride was only added as the title after the artist’s death. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/9020/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/160537/fullAdam and Eve1916 - 1918[Gustav Klimt, Sonja Knips, Galerie Gustav Nebehay]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas (unfinished) Klimt rarely engaged with biblical subjects during his career. One of his last works, unfinished at his death, shows the first humans, Adam and Eve. He was not interested in the more traditional depiction of the Fall, however, instead focusing on the figure of Eve as the quintessential female. Adam has closed his eyes, intoxicated with love, as he tilts his head and nestles tenderly against Eve. But Eve is looking straight at us. The anemones on the ground are emblems of fertility; the leopard skin, meanwhile, was a symbol in ancient Greece of unbridled desire. In Klimt’s interpretation, then, it is Eve—and not the snake—who is the temptress.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3196/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/109704/fullMother with Two Children (Family)1909/1910[Gustav Klimt, Gustav Klimt, Helene Mayer, Richard Parzer]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Exhausted, the young mother has drifted off to sleep, cradling her two small children in her arms. The family is wrapped in a pile of dark blankets that keep them warm and seem to merge with the undefined space around them. Only their sleeping faces seem to shine through the darkness. Are the three sitting in a dark room, or outside, or even on the street? Gustav Klimt’s contemporaries recognized the subjects as a family living on the fringes of society. The choice of subject is unusual in Klimt’s oeuvre, as he never addressed poverty in any other painting. Nevertheless, the timeless theme of the painting seems to be one of tender maternal love.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/27315/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/140353/fullThe Kiss (Lovers)1908 (finished 1909)[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtFigures: gold leaf, silver leaf, platinum leaf, resin oil colors on primed canvas (zinc paint). – Background: Composition gold (brass), glazed, flakes of metal leaf “The Kiss”, probably Klimt’s most famous work, was painted at the height of his Golden Period without a direct commission. It shows a couple, melting into one, at the edge of a meadow of flowers. Only the different patterning of the robes distinguishes their bodies that are enveloped in a shimmering golden halo. Klimt actually used real gold leaf, silver, and platinum in his picture. He presumably started work on it in 1907 and exhibited the painting at the Kunstschau in June the following year under the title “Lovers”. From this show, the Ministry of Art purchased it for the Modern Gallery—now the Belvedere—for a price that was high even then. In autumn 1909, a catalogue of this museum cited the work for the first time as “The Kiss”, the title by which it is world famous today.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/6678/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/118781/fullFritza Riedler1906[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Dignified, reserved, and majestic, Fritza Riedler (1860–1927), the wife of a wealthy mechanical engineer, sits in a chair as if enthroned. The delicate features of her pale face stand in striking contrast to her dark hair. There is not a flicker of expression on her face, not the slightest stirring to provide a glimpse of the sitter’s inner self. Gustav Klimt combines the naturalistic depiction of his model with a background dissolved into ornamentation. Even the chair is transformed into an ornament composed of wavy lines and ancient Egyptian eye motifs. This interplay between depth and an emphasis on the picture plane characterizes Klimt’s work from his so-called Golden Period. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/2177/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/5291/fullThe Sisters Karoline and Pauline Fey1905[Richard Gerstl]Richard GerstlOil on canvasRichard Gerstl is a tragic figure. Although he never experienced material hardships in his brief existence, his life was overshadowed by melancholy and beset by disaster at every turn. He was the first of the young Expressionists to abandon the curvilinear contours, ornaments, and blossoms of Jugendstil. The Fey sisters rise like phantoms before the dark, empty space surrounding them. They pay no attention to each other; their faces are frozen like masks, their skin unnaturally pale, their lips bloodless. Schiele and Kokoschka composed their pictures in equally radical ways. But Gerstl was the only one of the three to receive no recognition during his life, cut short by his suicide in 1908.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3224/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/83180/fullJudith1901[Gustav Klimt, Berthe Hodler, Anton Loew, Sophie Loew-Unger]Gustav KlimtOil and gold leaf on canvas The biblical story of the brave Judith has often been depicted in art. Judith, a chaste widow, gets the enemy commander Holofernes drunk with divine help, and then beheads him to free her people. Gustav Klimt interprets the Old Testament heroine as an erotic femme fatale. She gazes seductively at the viewer through half-closed eyes, her lips slightly parted. Only on closer inspection do we see the decapitated head of Holofernes. Judith holds it almost tenderly, as if to push it out of the picture. In Klimt’s painting there is no room for the male aggressor. He has transformed the biblical story of resistance in a political conflict into a battle of the sexes, and Judith’s triumph into a dangerously tantalizing icon of femininity.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3492/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/118782/fullSonja Knips1897/1898[Gustav Klimt, Sonja Knips]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Calm and confident, Sonja Knips gazes back at us. A baroness by birth, she was one of Gustav Klimt’s most prominent patrons. The artist subtly composed her portrait with great sensitivity, alternating between hazy evocation and precision: Sonja Knips’s face is rendered naturalistically, while her sumptuous tulle gown dissolves in a cascade of soft brushstrokes. Leaning slightly forward, she sits on the edge of an armchair ready to rise at any moment. A red sketchbook in her right hand adds an accent of bright color. This is the first portrait that Klimt painted in a square format. It also marks the start of his rise to become one of the most sought-after portraitists of Viennese society.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3197/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/107384/fullPortrait of a Womanc. 1893/1894[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas The young woman wearing a black evening gown was a close friend of the fashion designer Emilie Flöge, Gustav Klimt’s lifelong companion. For her portrait Klimt selected a vertical format that emphasizes the figure’s slim silhouette. Her porcelain complexion and her necklace are rendered with the same delicate precision as the tapestry on the wall. The artist worked in this highly realistic style in the years around 1890 in a way that reveals the influence of photography. He would also use photography to help compose his later paintings. It is Klimt’s first society portrait of a woman. After Hans Makart’s death, Klimt became the most sought-after portraitist of the Viennese upper classes.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/21938/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/4777/fullMathilde Stern, née Porges1889[Anton Romako]Anton RomakoOil on canvasDargestellt ist die Frau des Internisten und Neurologen Prof. Samuel Stern, der etwa zur gleichen Zeit ebenfalls von Romako porträtiert wurde (vgl. Inv.-Nr. 3162). Mathilde Stern sitzt mit verschränkten Armen in ungezwungener Haltung auf einem braunen Fauteuil. Den Hintergrund bildet ein dichtes Gestrüpp aus Prunk- oder Trichterwinden (Ipomoea) mit weißen und blauen Blüten. Da die Prunkwinde wie der Efeu eine Kletterpflanze ist, die nicht ohne eine Stütze wachsen kann, ist es möglich, dessen Symbolik der Treue auch für diese Pflanze gelten zu lassen. Ebenso können die herzförmigen Blätter als Symbol der Liebe interpretiert werden. Dementsprechend verwendete sie Romako auch im zeitnah entstandenen Porträt einer Dame im roten Kleid (Inv.-Nr. 5966). — [Markus Fellinger, 8/2014]Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/2115/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/3787/fullLady in a Furc. 1880[Édouard Manet]Édouard ManetPastel on canvasShe gazes self-confidently out of the picture. Her hair has been carefully styled, her fur draped casually over her shoulders. The young woman seems about to go out, were it not for the flimsy blouse barely concealing her breast. Titian and Peter Paul Rubens both painted famous portraits of women clad only in a fur wrap. But Manet’s interpretation is completely different from his famous predecessors. Rather than an elevated or detached image, this appears to be an authentic snapshot of Parisian life at the time. The impression of spontaneity is further heightened by the artist’s chosen medium of pastel. He applied the pastel crayon both roughly and with great delicacy, an impression that is simultaneously sketchy and subtle.Drawing arthttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/2661/rdf