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Lot Essay
Painted circa 1898-1899, the present work is a rare example of Klimt's early portrait style. Primarily recognized as a portraitist, even from the early days of his career, Klimt is best known for his society portraits of wealthy Viennese women or alternately for his more intimate depictions of Emilie Flöge.
Damenbildnis en face demonstrates the artist's initial Symbolist affiliations. Though the face is highly realistic compared to the artist's later more stylized and heavily ornamented compositions, the bust is set in dramatic foreshortened relief against an opaque and mysterious monochromatic aubergine background. The subject is severed from any setting, deprived of any context that would further denote her identity. Tobias G. Natter has written about the present work, "Seen from an extremely low angle, the face is modeled 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" (in exh. cat., op. cit., 2001, p. 80).
In 1922, this work was acquired by 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 escaped percecution by the National Socialist regime by fleeing to Paris in March 1938. 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, in which the present work was included and sold. It was at this Dorotheum sale that Gustav Ucicky, Klimt's son, acquired the work. In 1949, Ucicky in turn agreed to bequeath the painting to the Österreichische Galerie in Vienna upon his death. It was accessioned in 1961 and remained there until 2004, when it was restituted to the heirs of Bernhard Altmann.
Damenbildnis en face demonstrates the artist's initial Symbolist affiliations. Though the face is highly realistic compared to the artist's later more stylized and heavily ornamented compositions, the bust is set in dramatic foreshortened relief against an opaque and mysterious monochromatic aubergine background. The subject is severed from any setting, deprived of any context that would further denote her identity. Tobias G. Natter has written about the present work, "Seen from an extremely low angle, the face is modeled 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" (in exh. cat., op. cit., 2001, p. 80).
In 1922, this work was acquired by 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 escaped percecution by the National Socialist regime by fleeing to Paris in March 1938. 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, in which the present work was included and sold. It was at this Dorotheum sale that Gustav Ucicky, Klimt's son, acquired the work. In 1949, Ucicky in turn agreed to bequeath the painting to the Österreichische Galerie in Vienna upon his death. It was accessioned in 1961 and remained there until 2004, when it was restituted to the heirs of Bernhard Altmann.