Adele Bloch-Bauer is a mysterious model in the paintings of Gustav Klimt. Who is she? "Golden Adele

This is history, featuring the genius Gustav Klimt, the femme fatale Adele Bloch-Bauer, a painting worth $135 million, Adolf Hitler, niece Maria Altman, the US government and the people of Austria.

ABOUT THE MODEL AND ARTIST

Let's get to know Adele Bloch-Bauer better.

Adele's father, Moritz Bauer, a major banker, Chairman of the Austrian Bankers Association, had been looking for worthy grooms for his daughters for a long time, and chose the brothers Ferdinand and Gustav Bloch, who were engaged in sugar production and had several enterprises whose shares were constantly growing.

Ferdinand Bloch.

Adele Bauer in 1899, being 18 years old, married a much older man Ferdinand Bloch . Before this, her sister Maria married Ferdinand Bloch's brother Gustav. Both families took the surname Bloch-Bauer.

Maria Altmann, niece and heiress of Adele Bloch-Bauer, described her aunt as follows: “Constantly suffering from headaches, smoking like a steam locomotive, terribly tender and languid. A soulful face, self-satisfied and elegant.”

The family of Ferdinand and Adele belonged to a select layer of the large Jewish bourgeoisie of the period.

Painters, writers and such famous Social Democrats as Karl Renner and Julius Tandler gathered in their salon.

Among the artists supported by the Bloch-Bauer family was Gustav Klimt.

Their friendship began in 1899. Adele Bloch-Bauer became a model for Gustav Klimt’s paintings four times and had no idea that in addition to worldwide fame, her name would also be involved in a scandal.

Judith I, 1901,

Already in 1901, Klimt painted “Judith I,” for which Adele Bloch-Bauer herself served as a model, although this fact was not advertised anywhere.

Judith II, 1909

Eight years later, Klimt wrote "Judith II" which is the embodiment of Klimt's femme fatale. His Judith is not a biblical heroine, but rather a resident of Vienna, his contemporary, as evidenced by her fashionable, possibly expensive necklace.

The painting “Judith II” is often called “Salome” in catalogs and magazines. Art critics were sure that Klimt had in mind Salome, a typical femme fatale, about whom at the end of the century books and paintings by Gustave Moreau, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Franz von Stuck and Max Klinger were published.

Klimt’s friend Alfred Bass wrote in his diary: “When I saw Gustav’s Salome, I realized that all the women I had known until now were not real. When I saw his “Kiss”, I realized that I had never truly loved. When I saw the sketch for “Judith,” I realized the worst thing was that I had not lived at all, and if I had lived, it was a fake life.”

Interesting version.

They say that the husband knew about the connection between his wife Adele and Gustav Klimt and when signing the contract for a new picture set several conditions, including

so that the artist would draw 100 sketches. Ferdinand hoped that Adele would tire of Klimt after posing for such a long time. Whether it was true or not, he turned out to be right.

In 1903, Klimt received an order from Ferdinand Bloch for an official portrait of his wife. Over the next four years, the artist created more than 100 sketches for the painting before, in 1907, he was able to present his “Golden Adele” for public viewing, in which the model was 26 years old.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1907 or GOLDEN ADELE

The artist came up with the idea for the painting right away, but it took a hundred sketches to accurately determine the position of the hands and head. This portrait, often called the "Austrian Mona Lisa", is considered one of the most significant paintings by Klimt and the Austrian Jugendstil in general.

An elegant female figure sits in a chair. There is no free space above and below it; it occupies the entire vertical of the picture. The head image appears to be cut off at the top. Black, up-swept hair and a disproportionately large red mouth contrast with the extremely pale, almost blue-white carnation.

The woman holds her hands clasped in a dynamic bend in front of her chest and looks directly at the viewer, thereby increasing the visual impact.

Then a pattern of randomly arranged stylized eyes inscribed in triangles was used. The cape, with its pattern of spirals, leaf shapes, and barely defined folds, seems a little lighter than the dress.

They say that Klimt painted his portraits from nude models, and only then covered the bodies with flat ornamental clothes. Perhaps so, but what the Puritan public called "corrupt"ness" literally oozes from this canvas.

But at the same time, the artist accurately depicted a young woman tired of her own respectability, of rich life, which has turned into a golden cage and wants to break free.

Only the face, shoulders and arms were depicted naturalistically. The interior, along with the flowing dress and furniture, are only indicated and, turning into ornament, become abstract, which corresponded to the color scheme and forms that Klimt used at the turn of the century.

The chair, also gold, stands out from the general background only thanks to the pattern of spirals - there are completely no shadows, halftones or contours on it. A small light green fragment of the floor adds a color accent to the overall scheme and helps give stability to the figure.

In 1912, the artist painted another portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer acquired, in addition to the first “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” and the second, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II”, as well as four more landscapes: “ Birch Grove", "Cammer Castle on Lake Attersee III" "Apple Tree I", "Houses in Unterach am Attersee".

The finished “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” in 1907 was immediately exhibited in the artist's studio in Vienna and in the same year appeared in the magazine “German Art and Decoration”, and then at the international art exhibition in Mannheim.

In 1910, the portrait was in the Klimt Hall as part of the IX international exhibition in Venice . Until 1918, the portrait was not exhibited and was in the possession of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer. WITH 1918 to 1921 gg. - in Austrian state gallery.

Adele Bloch-Bauer died on January 24, 1925, leaving a will in which she asked her husband, after his death, to transfer two of her portraits and four landscapes by Gustav Klimt to the Austrian State Gallery. But he did not do this, transferring only one landscape to the Austrian gallery.

During the war Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer fled first to Czechoslovakia, and then to Switzerland . The paintings, along with most of his fortune, remained in Austria. His fortune and collection of paintings were expropriated by the Nazis. In 1941 An Austrian gallery bought Klimt’s paintings “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” and “Apple Tree I”

Adolf Hitler had a positive attitude towards the work of Gustav Klimt. They met Klimt when Hitler was trying to enter the Academy of Painting in Vienna. At that time, Klimt was already an honorary professor at this academy. At that time, Hitler made his living by drawing small pictures of views of Vienna and selling them to tourists in restaurants and taverns.

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer died November 13, 1945 in Zurich . Before his death, he canceled in his will the donation of paintings to Austrian museums.

Since Ferdinand and Adele had no children, Ferdinand appointed his brother's children, Maria Altmann, Louise Gutmann and Robert Bentley, as heirs. Shortly before his death, he hired Viennese lawyer Rinesh to protect the interests of the heirs.

In 1946, Austria declared everything legal acts, created by the Nazis, invalid. However, when returning art treasures confiscated by the Nazis to their owners, Austria used the tactic of voluntary-forced transfer of them to museums by the owners. artistic masterpieces in exchange for permission to remove the bulk of their collections from the country.

The same thing happened with five paintings by Klimt: they remained in the Austrian Gallery in exchange for the fact that the Bloch-Bauer heirs were given the opportunity to remove the main part of the collection.

It would seem that history could be put to rest, but in 1998, Austria passed the Art Restitution Law, which obligated the return of works of art looted by the Nazis, and allowed any citizen to request information from museums about how works of art got into their collections .

Maria Altman

In the same year, an Austrian journalist, working in the archives, discovered documents in which the transfer of Klimt's paintings to the Austrian Belvedere Gallery was falsified. If you remember, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer gave the gallery only one landscape in 1936.

A series of articles on this topic followed, and the only living heir of the Bloch-Bauers, US citizen Maria Altman, learned about this and went to court. In February 2006, the famous “ Golden Adele“And four more paintings by Klimt after the trial “Maria Altman against the Republic of Austria”, by decision of an international court, became the personal property of 79-year-old Maria Altman, who had lived in Los Angeles since 1942.

At the same time, the Austrian government declared its desire to preserve Klimt’s works in the country. Austria took measures unprecedented in the history of the state to save the national property: negotiations were held with banks about a loan to purchase paintings, the country's government turned to the population with a request for help, intending to issue “Klimt bonds.”

The public announced a fundraising subscription, and donations began to come not only from Austrians. However, the price of 150 million dollars, requested by Maria Altman, within a month soared to 245, and then to 300 million. After such “greedy behavior” of the heiress, Austria refused the right of first refusal to purchase paintings, and five Klimt paintings were transported to Los Angeles.

Maria Altmann had a rare chance to go down in Austrian history by showing nobility and leaving Klimt's paintings in his homeland. Of course, not for free, because the initial estimate of 150 million dollars was considered in Austria as fair compensation. However, the subsequent doubling of the price and Altman’s intransigence, of course, did not increase sympathy for this elderly woman in the artist’s homeland.

In addition, the will of Adele Bloch-Bauer herself was actually violated, who wished to transfer the paintings to the Austrian gallery. Paradoxically, the Nazi regime seemed to fulfill Adele’s will by transferring Klimt’s paintings to the gallery. It should be noted that portraits of Adele, despite the rampant anti-Semitism in Austria at that time, were exhibited in the museum during the Nazi era.

At the beginning of February 2006, more than four thousand Austrians and guests of Vienna came to the Belvedere Gallery to last time see five paintings by Klimt that have passed into private hands. "Golden Adele" was business card Vienna's Belvedere Gallery, she long years was placed on the covers of catalogs and albums about the museum.

On February 14, 2006, the paintings flew overseas, and on June 19, newspapers reported that “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” was purchased by Ronald Lauder for $135 million and placed in his New Gallery in New York. Now “Golden Adele” can be admired by residents and guests of New York, while everyone else can see famous painting Klimt on souvenirs.

In addition to two portraits of Adele, three landscapes were also given.

Birch Grove.

Houses in Unterach near Attersee, 1916

On February 7, 2011, Maria Altmann passed away, but her heirs, even with their great desire, could not donate Klimt’s paintings to the Austrian Belvedere Gallery, since all of them had already been sold to private individuals.

Sources.

This is a story in which there is love and hatred, betrayal and revenge, pursuit and sacrifice. There is no moral here - what moral can there be in a story that involves the genius Gustav Klimt, the femme fatale Adele Bloch-Bauer, a painting worth $135 million, Adolf Hitler, George W. Bush, the US Government and the people of Austria?

You probably already guessed that we're talking about about Gustav Klimt’s painting “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer”, or “Golden Adele”.

And it all started like this:

1904 Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer walked along the paved sidewalk, whistling a cheerful tune, waving his cane, sometimes stopping and politely bowing to the gentlemen he met.

He has already decided everything for himself. At first, of course, he wanted to kill her, but Jewish families It is not customary to kill wives for adultery. He also could not get a divorce - divorce is not customary in Jewish families. Especially in families like his and his wife Adele's - the elite families of the Austrian Jewish diaspora. In such families, marriages are concluded forever. Money must go to money, capital to capital.

This marriage was approved by the parents on both sides. Adele's father, Moritz Bauer, a major banker, Chairman of the Austrian Bankers Association, had been looking for worthy grooms for his daughters for a long time, and chose the brothers Ferdinand and Gustav Bloch, who were engaged in sugar production and had several enterprises, the shares of which were constantly growing.

All of Vienna feasted at the wedding, and after the merger of capital both families became Bloch-Bauers. And now the largest sugar refiner in Europe, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, walked along the pavement and felt branched horns growing on his head, under a luxurious satin cylinder. Only the lazy didn't discuss it whirlwind romance his wife Adele and the artist Gustav Klimt. He didn’t sleep for many nights in a row, he lay and stared into the darkness until he came up with his revenge...Adelka...That’s what he called her - not Adel, but Adelka.

Adele Bloch-Bauer

He may not have been as educated and well-read as Adele, but he also knew something, and could have known, for example, that the ancient Indians, in order to separate lovers, chained them to each other and kept them together until they began to hate each other friend as much as you recently loved.

This idea came to him in a dream. He dreamed that his sugar empire fell apart into small pieces of sugar, and the little men stole everything into their little holes, and he was left with only a portrait of his wife Adele.

He will order him (Klimt) a portrait of Adele! And let Klimt make 100 sketches until he begins to vomit from her. He won’t be able to for long - he needs to change models, mistresses, concubines, and the women around him. Otherwise he suffocates. No wonder he is credited with having fourteen illegitimate children. Let him paint this portrait for several years! And let Adelka see how Klimt’s feelings fade away. Let him understand who she exchanged him for, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer!

And they won't be able to separate. A contract is a serious matter. And it contains a fine that exceeds the contract amount by tens of times. Ferdinand can easily ruin Klimt.

Collectible coin with a fragment of “Adele” with a denomination of 50 euros. Market value - 505 euros.

Ferdinand decided to order a portrait of Adele from Klimt and call the painting “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,” thus perpetuating his family name.

Favored by the authorities, Klimt was a very fashionable and sought-after artist, his paintings were good investment capital, and Ferdinand understood this very well. In a few recent years Klimt and his brother traveled all over the country, designing the mineral water pavilion in Carlsbad, the capital's Burgtheater, and the villa of Empress Sissi. At twenty-six, Klimt received the Golden Order of Merit, and at twenty-eight, the Imperial Prize.

Gustav Klimt

Therefore, Ferdinand very carefully prepared the contract with Klimt, his best lawyers dealt with this issue, and now it was important that Klimt sign the papers.

She grew up in a very wealthy family, surrounded by an army of servants. In those days, for some reason, girls were not allowed to study at university, but Adele’s parents gave her good home education. Adele was a very romantic lady, she read the classics in four languages and amazingly combined the painful, airy fragility with the proud arrogance of a millionaire. During her marriage, Adele entertained herself by maintaining a fashionable salon, where poets, artists and all the people of color gathered secular society Vienna. There he and Gustav met.

Adele Bloch-Bauer

Very interesting, but he always started with the frame. His brother made a beautiful frame, and Klimt inscribed his masterpiece there. The dinner passed quietly, except for the fact that Gustav and Adele stubbornly refused to look at each other. Ferdinand, on the contrary, was cheerful and joked constantly.

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer

After dinner, all three gathered in the living room, and something like this dialogue took place between them:

Ferdinand (officially): - Mr. Klimt! You probably already guessed that I invited you to place an order and therefore took the stretcher with you? I would like to order for you unusual portrait my wife Adele.

Klimt: - Why should it be unusual?

Ferdinand: - Because it should last at least several centuries!

Klimt (interested): - Interesting, interesting... several centuries. Don't know. I'm interested in portraying the most important points human life: Conception, Pregnancy, Birth, Youth, Noon of Life, Old Age..

Ferdinand: - But the Bible was written by people, the Sistine Madonna was painted by a man, and these works live on for centuries! So you make a portrait of my wife, like the Madonna of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and let this portrait live for centuries!

Klimt: - You are setting me a very difficult task!

Ferdinand: - We are in no hurry. I will pay you a good advance so that you don’t think about money.

Klimt: - Such a painting may require additional costs.

Ferdinand: - For example?

Klimt: - For example, I would like to trim the dress with gold plates...

Ferdinand: - If you are going to trim my wife's dress with gold, and draw attention to the lower part of the picture, then I will buy a necklace in the hope of drawing attention to the upper part of the picture.

Adele (ironically): - Now you have already divided all of me. All I can do is “fold my arms across my chest” to draw attention to the middle part of the picture.

Ferdinand: - I would like the portrait of my wife not to contain naked places, like your portrait of Judith.

Klimt: - Of course. I will make a sketch, and only after your approval will I begin the main work.

Seeing the amount of the contract, Gustav Klimt signed it without even reading it. He, of course, suspected that he was a brilliant artist, but the price that Ferdinand offered him simply stunned him.

Klimt wrote about a hundred sketches for this portrait. And I worked on it for four years.

Ferdinand was pleased. The painting was finished (and many paintings remained unfinished) and fully corresponded to his plan. He and Adele hung it in the living room of their Vienna house.

"Golden Adele", fragment

It is obvious that the relationship between Klimt and Adele gradually faded away. Some time after starting work on the painting, Adele fell ill and Klimt had to take long breaks from work.

Adele was sick, and at the same time she smoked a lot, most often spending the whole day without getting out of bed. God never gave him and Ferdinand children. She tried to give birth three times and each time the children died. All my unspent mother's love Adele transferred this to her sister’s children, especially highlighting her niece Maria Bloch-Bauer. Maria often came to sit with her sick aunt, they discussed the latest fashion trends and styles of dresses for Maria's first ball. And also paintings by the artist Klimt, of which there are already more than ten pieces in the house of Adele and Ferdinand.

Ferdinand spent his time devoting himself to work in his sugar empire. He never told Adele that he knew about her relationship with Gustav.

Gustav Klimt

Time passed and the First World War was approaching. The “golden period” in Klimt’s life ended, giving way to depressing paintings depicting death and the end of the world. Klimt had a very difficult time with the events taking place in the world. The war had a detrimental effect on him. And at the age of 52, in 1918, Klimt suddenly died of a stroke in his workshop, in the arms of his eternal companion Emilia Flege.

Emilia Flege and Gustav Klimt

Adele survived him by seven years and died in 1925, dying quietly after meningitis. Before her death, Adele asked Ferdinand to bequeath three paintings, including “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,” to the Vienna Museum Gazebo.

Ferdinand lived alone, his life became harder and harder as Austria became part of Germany in 1938 and the Nazis began hunting Austrian Jews. In the same year, Ferdinand managed to escape to Switzerland, leaving all his property in the care of his brother’s family.

The painting remained in the living room as World War II approached.

Maria Altman

Gustav Bloch-Bauer, brother Ferdinand, was the husband of Adele's sister. There were five children in their family, the same Maria who visited Adele during her illness was the youngest. Oddly enough, they lived very modestly, dressed simply and allowed their children only the cheapest Italian ice cream. Outside the family sugar business, Maria's father was a good musician and a friend of Rothschild, who brought a Stradivarius cello to their house, and then almost everyone who was partial to high art Vein.

Aunt Adele allowed Maria to wear her diamond necklace, in which she posed for Klimt. Maria remembered this ball for the rest of her life. She and Alois knew that the painting had its own secret. If you look at Adele from a certain angle and make a wish, then by the corners of her lips you can tell whether Adele is smiling or frowning. If he smiles, his wish will come true.

Gustav Klimt, "Dancer" (1916-1918)

But Maria married someone else. Frederick Altman was opera singer, the son of a major industrialist. Money to money, capital to capital. Apparently his parents were wealthier. They married in 1938, on the eve of the German invasion of Austria. But, despite the arranged marriage, Maria loved her husband very much and lived with him all her life. The famous diamond necklace, in which Adele Bloch-Bauer posed for Gustav Klimt, was given to her by her uncle Ferdinand as a wedding gift.

When the Nazis began hunting Austrian Jews, Ferdinand fled to Switzerland, and Maria's husband Frederick was captured and sent to the Gestapo. A short time later he found himself in the concentration camp at Dachau, where thousands of Jews turned into black smoke after handing over all their property to the German authorities.

The Gestapo broke into Maria's house in Vienna and took away all the jewelry and Stradivarius cello, and Adele's diamond necklace was simply put in a bag (there were eyewitnesses that Heinrich Himmler's wife later appeared in public wearing this necklace several times). Maria did not regret anything and immediately signed all the necessary papers, in which she renounced everything movable and real estate. She was ready to do anything just to save her husband from death.

Dachau concentration camp

Maria expected that “Golden Adele” would be taken away any day now. She was hardly surprised when, accompanied by a detachment of Gestapo men, she came for the painting. school friend Alois Kunst. Kunst collaborated with the fascists, collecting for them a collection of paintings, some of which ended up in the caches and basements of the Third Reich. When she asked how he could become a traitor, he said that this way he could do much more for Austria.

A rich Jew finds out that his wife is cheating on him with an artist. He orders a portrait of his wife from his rival for a huge sum. Four years to sketch. Result: great picture. Although the love, of course, passed.

1. What could be the moral of a story involving Adolf Hitler, $135 million, George W. Bush, the genius Gustav Klimt, the femme fatale Adele Bloch-Bauer, the US government and the people of Austria?

There is no morality, but there is pursuit and sacrifice, betrayal and revenge, love and hatred. You probably already guessed that we are talking about Gustav Klimt’s painting “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer”, or “Golden Adele”; this painting is also called the “Austrian Mona Lisa”.

And it all started like this.

2. 1904. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer walked along the paved sidewalk, whistling a cheerful tune, waving his cane, sometimes stopping and politely bowing to the gentlemen he met.

He has already decided everything for himself. At first, of course, he wanted to kill her, but in Jewish families it is not customary to kill wives for adultery. He also could not get a divorce; divorce is not customary in Jewish families. Especially in families like his and his wife Adele's - the elite families of the Austrian Jewish diaspora. In such families, marriages are concluded forever. Money must go to money, capital to capital. This marriage was approved by the parents on both sides. Adele's father, Moritz Bauer, a major banker, chairman of the Austrian Bankers Association, had been looking for worthy grooms for his daughters for a long time and chose the brothers Ferdinand and Gustav Bloch, who were engaged in sugar production and had several enterprises, the shares of which were continuously growing.

3. All of Vienna feasted at the wedding, and after the merger of capitals, both families became Bloch-Bauers. And now the largest sugar refiner in Europe, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, walked along the pavement and felt branched horns growing on his head, under a luxurious satin cylinder. Only the lazy did not discuss the stormy romance between his wife Adele and the artist Gustav Klimt. He did not sleep for many nights in a row, he lay and stared into the darkness until he came up with his revenge on Adelka... That’s what he called her - not Adel, but Adelka.

4. Adele Bloch-Bauer

He may not have been as educated and well-read as Adele, but he also knew something, and could know, for example, that the ancient Indians, in order to separate lovers, chained them to each other and kept them together until they began to hate each other friend as much as you recently loved.

This idea came to him in a dream. He will order him (Klimt) a portrait of Adele! And let Klimt make 100 sketches until he begins to vomit from her. He won’t be able to for long, he needs to change models, mistresses, concubines, women around him, otherwise he will suffocate. No wonder he is credited with having fourteen illegitimate children. Let him paint this portrait for several years! And let Adelka see how Klimt’s feelings fade away. Let him understand who she exchanged him for, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer! And they won't be able to separate. A contract is a serious matter. And the contract contains a fine that exceeds the contract amount by tens of times. Ferdinand can easily ruin Klimt.

5. Emilia Flöge and Gustav Klimt

He dreamed that his sugar empire fell apart into small pieces of sugar and little men stole everything into their little holes, and he was left with only a portrait of his wife. Ferdinand decided to order a portrait of Adele from Klimt and call the painting “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,” thus perpetuating his family name.

6. Favored by the authorities, Klimt was a very fashionable and sought-after artist, his paintings were a good investment, and Ferdinand understood this very well. Over the past few years, Klimt and his brother have traveled all over the country, designing the mineral water pavilion in Carlsbad, the capital's Burgtheater, and the villa of Empress Sissi. At twenty-six, Klimt received the Golden Order of Merit, and at twenty-eight, the Imperial Prize.

Therefore, Ferdinand very carefully prepared the contract with Klimt, his best lawyers dealt with this issue, and now it was important that Klimt sign the papers.

When Ferdinand came home, Adele was reclining on the couch in the living room and smoking, as usual, a cigarillo in her mouthpiece. She loved apple tobacco. Her thin, flexible figure resembled a panther at rest, she was so graceful. The fine features and dark hair were good. Adele is used to blissful “doing nothing.” She grew up in a very wealthy family, surrounded by an army of servants. In those days, for some reason, girls were not allowed to study at the university, but Adele’s parents gave her a good education at home. Adele was a very romantic lady, she read the classics in four languages and amazingly combined the painful, airy fragility with the proud arrogance of a millionaire. During her marriage, Adele entertained herself with the maintenance of a fashionable salon, where poets, artists and the entire color of Vienna's secular society gathered. There he and Gustav met.

7. Adele Bloch-Bauer

Walking into the living room, Ferdinand invited Adele to change clothes, since he had invited Klimt to dinner. At the mention of Klimt, Adele flushed, and this did not escape her husband’s eyes. Gustav Klimt arrived without delay, taking with him a picture frame just in case. Very interesting, but he always started with the frame. His brother made a beautiful frame, and Klimt inscribed his masterpiece there. The dinner passed quietly, except for the fact that Gustav and Adele stubbornly refused to look at each other. Ferdinand, on the contrary, was cheerful and joked constantly.

8. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer

After dinner, all three gathered in the living room. And something like this dialogue took place between them.

Ferdinand (officially): - Mr. Klimt! You probably already guessed that I invited you to place an order, and therefore took the stretcher with you? I would like to order you an unusual portrait of my wife Adele.
Klimt: - Why should it be unusual?
Ferdinand: - Because it should last at least several centuries!
Klimt (interested): - Interesting, interesting... several centuries. Don't know. I’m interested in depicting the most important points in a person’s life: conception, pregnancy, birth, youth, midday, old age...
Ferdinand: - But the Bible was written by people, “ Sistine Madonna"was painted by a man, and these works live on for centuries! So you make a portrait of my wife, like the Madonna of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and let this portrait live for centuries!
Klimt: - You are setting me a very difficult task!
Ferdinand: - We are in no hurry. I'll pay you a good advance so you don't think about money.
Klimt: - Such a picture may require additional costs.
Ferdinand: - For example?
Klimt: - For example, I would like to trim the dress with gold plates...
Ferdinand:- If you are going to trim my wife's dress with gold and draw attention to the bottom of the painting, then I will buy a necklace in hopes of drawing attention to the top of the painting.
Adele (ironic): - Now you have already divided all of me. All I can do is “fold my arms across my chest” to draw attention to the middle part of the picture.
Ferdinand: - I would like the portrait of my wife not to contain naked places, like your portrait of Judith.
Klimt: - Of course. I will make a sketch and only after your approval will I begin the main work.

9. Collectible coin with a fragment of “Adele” with a face value of 50 euros. Market value 505 euros

10. Klimt wrote about a hundred sketches for this portrait. And he finished work on it in four years.

Ferdinand was pleased. The painting was finished (and many paintings remained unfinished) and fully corresponded to his plan. He and Adele hung it in the living room of their Viennese house.

It is obvious that the relationship between Klimt and Adele gradually faded away. Some time after starting work on the painting, Adele fell ill, and Klimt had to take long breaks from work.

Adele was sick and at the same time smoked a lot, most often spending the whole day without getting out of bed. God never gave him and Ferdinand children. She tried to give birth three times, and each time the children died. Adele transferred all her unspent maternal love to her sister’s children, especially highlighting her niece Maria Bloch-Bauer. Maria often came to sit with her sick aunt, they discussed the latest fashion trends and styles of dresses for Maria's first ball. And also paintings by the artist Klimt, of which there are already more than ten pieces in the house of Adele and Ferdinand.

11. Ferdinand devoted his time to working in his sugar empire. He never told Adele that he knew about her relationship with Gustav.

Time passed, the First One was approaching World War. The “golden period” in Klimt’s life ended, giving way to depressing paintings depicting death and the end of the world. Klimt had a very difficult time with the events taking place in the world. The war had a detrimental effect on him. And at the age of 52, in 1918, Klimt suddenly died of a stroke in his workshop, in the arms of his eternal companion Emilia Flöge.

12. Ferdinand lived alone, his life became harder and harder as Austria became part of Germany in 1938 and the Nazis began hunting Austrian Jews. In the same year, Ferdinand managed to escape to Switzerland, leaving all his property in the care of his brother’s family.

The painting remained in the living room as World War II approached.

Gustav Bloch-Bauer, Ferdinand's brother, was the husband of Adele's sister. There were five children in their family; the same Maria who visited Adele during her illness was the youngest. Oddly enough, they lived very modestly, dressed simply and allowed their children only the cheapest Italian ice cream. Outside the family sugar business, Maria’s father was a good musician and a friend of Rothschild, who brought a Stradivarius cello to their house, and then almost everyone in Vienna who was not indifferent to high art would gather there.

When Maria was a teenager, she had a tender friendship with Alois Kunst from the gymnasium, which was not far from the one where she studied. She often invited him to her aunt Adele's house, and they looked at the painting together. Maria even invited Alois to her first ball. And this meant that Alois was introduced to Maria’s parents and approved by them - they considered him a cultured and well-mannered young man. And Aunt Adele allowed Maria to wear her diamond necklace, in which she posed for Klimt. And Maria remembered this ball for the rest of her life. She and Alois knew that the painting had its own secret. If you look at Adele from a certain angle and make a wish, you can tell by the corners of her lips whether Adele is smiling or frowning. If he smiles, then the wish will come true.

14. Gustav Klimt, “Dancer”, 1916-1918

But Maria married someone else. Frederick Altman was an opera singer, the son of a major industrialist. Money to money, capital to capital. Apparently his parents were wealthier. They married in 1938, on the eve of the German invasion of Austria. But, despite the arranged marriage, Maria loved her husband very much and lived with him all her life. The famous diamond necklace, in which Adele Bloch-Bauer posed for Gustav Klimt, was given to her by her uncle Ferdinand as a wedding gift.

When the Nazis began hunting Austrian Jews, Uncle Ferdinand fled to Switzerland, and Maria's husband, Frederick, was captured and sent to the Gestapo. A little later, he found himself in the concentration camp at Dachau, where thousands of Jews turned into black smoke after handing over all their property to the German authorities. The Gestapo broke into Maria's house in Vienna and took away all the jewelry and Stradivarius cello, and Adele's diamond necklace was simply put in a bag (there were eyewitnesses that Heinrich Himmler's wife later appeared in public wearing this necklace several times). Maria did not spare anything and immediately signed all the necessary papers, in which she renounced all movable and immovable property - she was ready to do anything just to save her husband from death.

15. Dachau concentration camp

Maria expected that “Golden Adele” would be taken away any day now. She was almost not surprised when her school friend Alois Kunst came for the painting, accompanied by a detachment of Gestapo men. Kunst collaborated with the Nazis, collecting for them a collection of paintings, some of which ended up in the caches and basements of the Third Reich. When she asked how he could become a traitor, he said that this way he could do much more for Austria.

Adolf Hitler had a positive attitude towards the work of Gustav Klimt. It is not advertised anywhere, but it turns out that he and Klimt met when Hitler was trying to enter the Academy of Painting in Vienna. And Klimt was already an honorary professor at this academy. At that time, Hitler made his living by drawing small pictures with views of Vienna and selling them to tourists in restaurants and taverns. So, he came to Klimt to show his work and maybe take a few painting lessons. And Klimt, out of the kindness of his heart, announced to Hitler that he was a genius and did not need to take lessons. Hitler left Klimt very pleased, and told his friends that Klimt himself recognized him. Hitler never entered the Academy of Painting; instead, Oskar Kokoschka, a Jew by nationality, was accepted there. Maybe that's why Hitler once said that his hatred of Jews was purely personal.

16. Paintings of Adolf Hitler

But this hatred did not affect Klimt’s paintings; they were ordered to be protected, despite Jewish origin author.

17. When “Golden Adele” left her home, the Fuhrer did not accept it into his collection. Adele was an outspoken Jew, and, as you yourself understand, such a picture could not hang either in the Reichstag or in other buildings of Nazi Germany. That is why it is worth paying attention to the appearance of Adele Bloch-Bauer. The model's appearance saved the painting from destruction. The picture disappeared. Nobody knows where Adele's portrait was during the war years.

Carefully preserved... by Alois Kunst, in perfect condition, she surfaced after the end of the war and settled in central museum Belvedere in Vienna. And Alois Kunst became the director of this museum and continued to carefully preserve the relic - the “Austrian Mona Lisa”, his beloved Adele.

18. Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer died in November 1945 in all alone. And none of his relatives could see him off on his last journey.

19. Maria and her husband were lucky because the investigator in the Gestapo was an acquaintance of Altman, with whom Frederick was engaged in mountaineering and whom he once saved by pulling him out of the abyss. They fled on fake documents. The Gestapo pursued them. Maria recalled how on a plane that was flying from Vienna to London and had already taxied to runway, suddenly the engines turned off and armed Gestapo men with machine guns entered the cabin. The Altmans sat clutching their chairs, thinking that it was behind them. But no, they brought out someone else. Maria Altman carefully kept the torn stockings in which she and her husband climbed over the barbed wire. She considered them a symbol of her freedom. The Altman couple moved first to England and then to the USA. After some time, Maria received American citizenship.

Everything was calm until the persistent journalist Hubertus Czernin dug up the will of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, left by him before his death in Switzerland, which canceled all his previous wills. In it, Ferdinand bequeathed all his property to his nephews - the children of his brother, Gustav Bloch-Bauer. Capital, in his opinion, had to work for the family. At that time, only Maria remained alive, and she was already over 80 years old. But Hubertus understood that it was his finest hour. Despite his count origin, he was poor, but loved to live large. He understood that the American millionaire would pay a good sum for such information. And so it happened. Maria considered herself eternally indebted to him.

20. Restitution lawyer Randol Schoenberg, at left, with heiress Marie Altmann (r.); between them, Adele Bloch Bauer, as Klimt might have sketched her for his famous painting, Die Dame in Gold | Illustration: Katharina Klein

All of Austria was alarmed like a hornet's nest. The headlines of the Austrian newspapers screamed: “Austria is losing its relic!”, “We will not give America our national treasure!” The police received threats that the painting would be destroyed, but it would not go to America. In the end, the museum’s management decided to put “Golden Adele” out of harm’s way and put it in storage.

Surprisingly, George W. Bush, using some of his levers, did not give progress to the matter about the paintings. He absolutely did not want to spoil relations with the Austrians. Maria Altman fought for her property for seven long years. The courts were busy making excuses and coming up with reasons not to consider this case. But Maria’s lawyers conducted an investigation and found out that Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer had Czech citizenship, and managed to get the court hearing transferred to the United States, since on paper the US citizen asked to legitimize the will of a Czech citizen. “What does Austria have to do with it?” - they asked.

And Austria had nothing to do with it. And by decision of the US Supreme Court, Austria was obliged to return five paintings by Gustav Klimt, including “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,” to the legal heir, Maria Altman.

21. Four paintings that were returned to Maria Altman along with the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.” Clockwise: Birch Grove, 1903; “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II”, 1912; “Houses in Unterach near Attersee”, 1916; "Apple Tree I", 1912

Maria was happy and did not insist that the paintings leave Austria. She asked to be paid their market value. The price for all five paintings was set at $155 million. This amount was unaffordable for the Austrian Ministry of Culture.

22. All of Austria came to the defense of the “Golden Adele”. She took measures unprecedented in the history of the state to save the national heritage. Negotiations were held with banks about a loan to purchase paintings. In addition, the country's government appealed to the population for help, intending to issue “Klimt bonds.” The public announced a fundraising subscription. Donations began to arrive, and not only from the Austrians. The Austrian government has almost collected the required amount.

The excitement around the paintings inflated their market value, and Maria decided to raise the price to $300 million. Maria Altmann had a rare chance to go down in Austrian history by showing nobility and leaving Klimt's paintings in his homeland. Of course, not for free, and the initial estimate of $155 million was considered fair compensation in Austria.

Thousands of Viennese residents came to celebrate the “Golden Adele”, people came from all over Austria. Crowds of people lined the streets along which relics were removed in armored vehicles. Some were crying. It’s no joke, the “Portrait of Adele” has been a symbol of Austria for almost 100 years.

After some time, Maria Altman sold “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” to Ronald Lauder, owner of the Estee Lauder perfume concern, for $135 million. Ronald Lauder built new house for the "Golden Adele", which was called "the museum of Austrian and German art" And now the painting is completely safe there.

Journalist Hubertus Czernin was never able to use the money he received from Maria Altman, because he died four months after the removal of Klimt’s paintings. The official police version is a heart attack.

Maria Altman died in 2011 at the age of 94.

Maria Altman herself! On the background real picture"Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer"

Just imagine, this elderly woman saw the real live Adele Bloch-Bauer, her husband Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. True, she was only two years old when Klimt died. But, looking at her, you feel the complete reality of the events that happened - incredible story great picture.

"Golden Adele" is very popular in the world.

Poems are written to her:

From what distant lands unknown to me
Have you come into my life, golden Adele?
The curve of your neck, your lips rosanelle -
Everything is so wonderful about you, golden Adele...

The sweet intoxication of your saddened eyes
Hurts the soul with a forgotten dream, ma Belle,
And the break of gentle hands, and pastel blush -
It’s all just you, only you - golden Adele...

You are sitting as a queen on the throne... Really?
Yours short life like a swing carousel,
Flash by, wisely meeting the fatal goal?
Wait a minute! Be with me, golden Adele...

It is being replicated as best they can.

24. All participants in the events have passed on to another world, but “Golden Adele” is alive and will live for centuries, as Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer wanted.

According to press reports, in 2006 the painting was purchased for a record sum of $135 million for a painting by American entrepreneur Ronald Lauder for the New Gallery he founded in New York. The box-office film Woman in Gold was made about this film in 2015.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912

Description

The face and hands, realistically painted in cold colors, are the visual dominant in the perception of the picture, standing out against the background of other elements executed ornamentally. The composition of the canvas is divided into two vertical parts: on the right is Adele Bloch-Bauer, the left part is almost empty and contains only a hint of the interior. The lower third of the canvas is filled with the hem of her dress. Gustav Klimt abandoned the depiction of perspective depth in the painting, preferring flatness. The ornamental gold background displaces the sketchily designated space into the background. The walls, chair and dress of the model turn out to be just two-dimensional figures located side by side.

A graceful female figure, revealed upon closer examination, sits in a chair. There is no free space above and below it; it occupies the entire vertical of the picture. The head image appears to be cut off at the top. Black, up-swept hair and a disproportionately large red mouth contrast with the extremely pale, almost blue-white carnation. The woman holds her hands clasped in a dynamic bend in front of her chest and looks directly at the viewer, thereby increasing the visual impact.

A shawl is thrown over the figure-hugging dress. It flows, expanding from the hands to the lower edge of the picture. Gold tones predominate here too. The neckline of the dress is decorated with a thin border of rectangles and a wide stripe with a double row of triangles. Then a pattern of randomly arranged stylized eyes inscribed in triangles was used (see the symbolism of the “All-Seeing Eye”). The cape, with its pattern of spirals, leaf shapes, and barely defined folds, seems a little lighter than the dress. The chair, also gold, stands out against the general background only thanks to the pattern of spirals - there are completely no shadows, halftones or contours on it. A small light green fragment of the floor adds a color accent to the overall scheme and helps give stability to the figure.

Model - Adele Bloch-Bauer

The artists supported by the Bloch-Bauer family also included Gustav Klimt, who had been friends with Adele Bloch-Bauer since 1899. Already in the city Klimt wrote "Judith I", a half-act depicting the biblical Judith. The model was Adele Bloch-Bauer herself, although this fact was not advertised anywhere. In 1909 it was created "Judith II"- and this canvas very likely depicts Adele.

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer acquired, in addition to the first “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” and the second, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II”, as well as four more landscapes: "Birch Grove", "Cammer Castle on Lake Attersee III" "Apple Tree I", "Houses in Unterach am Attersee". “Portrait of Amalia Zuckerkandl” was also purchased.

History of the creation of the canvas

It is noteworthy that the main idea of the picture already existed at this time. early stage. Only the exact position of the model remained controversial, primarily the position of the arms and head.

Technique and style

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer belongs to golden period in the works of Klimt. In 1903, during a trip to Italy, the artist was inspired by the richly gold-decorated church mosaics in Ravenna and Venice, ancient language which he transferred to modern forms visual arts. He experimented with various techniques painting in order to give the surface of their works a new look. In addition to oil painting, he used relief techniques and gilding.

Only the face, shoulders and arms are depicted naturalistically. The interior, together with the flowing dress and furniture, are only indicated, turning into an ornament, it becomes abstract and does not provide any spatial orientation, which corresponds to the color scheme and forms used by Klimt in 1898-1900. According to Alexander Genis, this “decadent icon” depicts

a maiden refined to the point of morbidity with a transparent face and broken arms. Klimt saw in her a new Venus, and what emerged was the old Europe, dying of satiety. It’s not for nothing that her thin body is wrapped in a train of former hobbies, decorated with symbols of half-forgotten faiths and kingdoms - Crete, Egypt, Byzantium, Habsburgs...

Klimt admired Byzantine, Minoan, Mycenaean and Egyptian art, as well as medieval religious painting in Italy. In addition, the shapes of the canvas reflect the influence of what was fashionable in Europe at that time. Japanese art Ukiyo-e prints and Edo period paintings. Last but not least, one can feel character traits French impressionism, which was known in Austria largely thanks to the Vienna Secession - a group of artists to which Klimt himself belonged until 1905.

Other famous works Klimt: "Water Serpents I", "Frieze Stoclet"- an order from a certain Belgian industrialist from Brussels, "Three ages of a woman", "Kiss", which, together with “Golden Adele,” constitute the pinnacle of Klimt’s golden period. Women were the main motif in Klimt's works during these years.

History of the canvas

The finished “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” was immediately exhibited in the artist’s studio in Vienna in 1907 and in the same year appeared in the magazine “German Art and Decoration”, and then at the international art exhibition in Mannheim. In 1910, the portrait was in the Klimt Hall as part of the IX International Exposition in Venice. Until 1918, the portrait was not exhibited and was in the possession of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer. From 1918 to 1921 it was in the Austrian State Gallery.

Adele Bloch-Bauer died on January 24, 1925, leaving a will in which she asked her husband to donate two portraits of her and four landscapes by Gustav Klimt to the Austrian State Gallery after his death. When the will was read out, her husband agreed to carry out the will of the deceased. He donated one of the landscapes - “Cammer Castle on Lake Attersee III” to the Austrian Belvedere Gallery in 1936. "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" in 1937 participated in an exhibition of Austrian art in

It’s unlikely that anyone will be able to count even an approximate number of stories related to the mysterious events surrounding Klimt’s painting “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,” and not only because characters who were directly related to this masterpiece have already passed on to another world, and the picture, like a living thing, continues to excite people’s imagination with its unusual fate...

Only the Jewish mind can come up with a punishment for the offender, choosing for this purpose the very enemy who caused him harm. The mind in which the plan for revenge matured belonged to the entrepreneur Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, and the “offender” was Gustav Klimt, who could not resist the charms of the rich man’s charming wife, Adele. This novel had long been discussed in the capital, but there could be no talk of divorce, much less banal physical punishment for lovers. The relationship between the artist and Adele must end natural ways, but Bloch-Bauer decided that he had to speed things up, and at the same time benefit from this unpleasant story, because his name would be in the title of the picture.

Klimt constantly needed new relationships with women, without this “drug” he could not only create, but also simply exist, therefore, having ordered a portrait of his wife, the industrialist counted on the inevitable satiety of lovers with each other, which would occur while working on the canvas. The amount of the contract for the work stunned the artist, and for four years he worked on the work, having previously completed about a hundred sketches.

While working on the portrait, Klimt used the entire creative arsenal characteristic of the “golden period” of his painting: the face and hands, painted in a realistic manner, are combined with abstract decorations; Adele's robe and background are decorated with exotic symbols, and the atmosphere is of a subtle spicy "aroma".

All the “points” of the plan outlined by the customer were fulfilled, although perhaps without his “brilliant” idea: the wife’s health was getting worse, she smoked a lot, sometimes without getting out of bed all day, and work was often interrupted. Everyone was pleased with the result of Klimt’s efforts.

In 1938, when the artist and his fatal model, who contributed to the perpetuation of their names, as well as the surname Bloch-Bauer, were no longer alive, the elderly Ferdinand, fleeing from the Nazis, left the “Golden Adele” to his brother’s family, and he settled in Switzerland. Maria Altman (before her marriage - Bloch-Bauer), Adele's niece, for some time became the owner of huge family jewelry, including famous portrait, but then gave up all the treasures to save her husband. Hitler, although he ordered that Klimt’s work not be touched, was unable to accept the painting into his collection due to the abundance of “ Jewish roots"related to its origin. The portrait appeared after the end of the war, and its condition was ideal, which is the merit of Alois Kunst, who once had tender feelings for Maria Bloch-Bauer, and collaborated with the Gestapo during the war years. The painting took its place in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, and Kunst continued to store the work, but in an official capacity, becoming director of the museum.

Maria Altman, who settled with her husband in England and then in the USA, would never have known about the fate of her aunt’s portrait, but journalist Hubertus Chernin managed to find out that there is a will of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, according to which “Golden Adele”, and together with her and other valuables must belong to the family, in this case to Mary.

For Austria, which considered the painting a national relic, the time came for alarming events that forced people, as well as all government institutions, to rally around the desire to leave the painting in the country by any means. The price of five works, including this masterpiece, increased from 155 million dollars to 300 million. This amount turned out to be unaffordable for Austria.

The farewell of the “Golden Adele” could be compared to a national event, which without coercion gathered thousands of people who wished to say goodbye to a national treasure.

In the USA, a building was specially built for the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer”, which is called the “Museum of Austrian and German Art”; It was built by Ronald Lauder, the owner of the famous perfume giant Estee Lauder, who purchased the portrait from Maria Altman for $135 million. Adele's niece lived to be 94 years old and died peacefully in 2011.

For the journalist Chernin, the impoverished scion of a count's family, who believed that thanks to the services of Maria Altmann, he could live in grand style, fate had a more prosaic ending in store: only four months had passed since Austria parted with Klimt's masterpieces and, according to official version police, the journalist died of a heart attack.

Most likely, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer knew something when he demanded from Klimt a work that would live for centuries.

“Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” 1907 Oil on canvas. 138 x 138 cm. Private collection