Photo Credit: Getty Images
Gustav Klimt's legacy has just become a little greener. After all, the symbolist artist's work Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (or Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer in English) sold for $236.4 million, including fees, at Sotheby's auction in New York on November 18.
It was a brilliant moment at the event when bidding for Elisabeth Lederer's spectacular oil painting—commissioned by Klimt's most prominent patrons, August Lederer and Serena Lederer—soared from $150 million to $300 million after only 20 minutes between six bidders.
Klimt's artwork became the second-most expensive work of art ever auctioned, as well as the most valuable modern painting, trailing only Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450.3 million in 2017.
So, who took home the painting? Unfortunately, the auction house declined to reveal the buyer's identity.
The work became one of Klimt's final finished paintings, painted between 1914 and 1916, before his death from a stroke in 1918 at the age of 55.
While Klimt was most renowned for his "Golden Phase" works, such as The Kiss and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, this painting was primarily blue and orange.
Elisabeth, aged 20, stood in a tight top and pleated dress, with a floral shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Her bright cheeks stood out against the veil of blue that blanketed much of the painting. The artist then used pink and orange hues, as well as variegated patterns, to wrap his subject.
Klimt's love of Japanese art was reflected in the background, with men and women wearing kimonos and motifs such as geometric uzumaki swirls and seigaiha waves.
Beyond the painter's personal interests, the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer enabled him to pursue a multigenerational endeavor.
"It is the second of three portraits that the artist rendered of three generations of Lederer women," according to Sotheby's; it is "a record of private commissions like none other in his prestigious career."
Elisabeth's dress, like the colors and patterns used in the picture, tells its own tale. The description continued: "Her clothes project hierarchy and rank, contemporaneity and tradition, and individual taste and worldly sophistication."
