Klimt's painting “Dame mit Fächer”
Announcing the sale, Sotheby's called the portrait "the last masterpiece" by Gustav Klimt. According to Sotheby's, "Dame mit Fächer" (Lady with a Fan) was one of two paintings found in the Austrian artist's studio after his death in 1918. Thomas Boyd Bowman, head of the auction house's impressionist and modern art evening sales, described the painting as "stunning." He said in a press release that the portrait's beauty and sensuality lies in its detail, with the blues and pinks that accentuate the sitter's skin, the curled eyelashes, and the pursed lips that define her face.
“Dame mit Fächer” is rendered in Klimt’s characteristically expressive, rich style. Like much of the artist’s work, it shows East Asian influences, not only in the fan, but also in the use of phoenix and lotus motifs. At the same time, the flat perspective of the background evokes the Japanese woodblock prints that feature prominently in the artist’s sizable collection of Asian art. “Gustav Klimt died at the age of 55, at the height of his artistic career, producing some of his most experimental and accomplished work,” said Helena Newman, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art department, in a statement. “Dame mit Fächer” is one of the few Klimt portraits still in private hands, measuring approximately 1m x 1m. Newman also commented that, unlike many of Klimt's famous portraits, this work may have been painted for his own pleasure.
According to some sources, the painting was previously owned by Erwin Böhle (a friend and patron of Klimt). It was later purchased by art collector Rudolf Leopold, who sold it to the current owner's family at Sotheby's in 1994 for around $12 million. The painting has not been sold at auction since, although it was displayed last year at The Belvedere, an Austrian museum.
Klimt paintings have exploded in value over the past two decades. The current auction record for a Klimt is held by “Birch Forest,” once owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul G, which fetched $104.5 million last year. Other works are believed to have sold privately for more. According to the Financial Times , court documents from an ongoing legal dispute between Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev and art dealer Yves Bouvier show that the tycoon once bought Klimt’s “Wasserschlangen II” (Water Snakes II) for $183.8 million. Meanwhile, Klimt's “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” was purchased by American businessman Ronald Lauder for a reported $135 million in 2006. Ten years later, Oprah Winfrey sold another painting of the same subject, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II,” to a Chinese buyer for $150 million.
“Dame mit Fächer” is expected to be the star of Sotheby’s summer sale of modern and contemporary art, which will take place on June 27. Timed to coincide with the long-awaited reopening of the National Portrait Gallery in London, the auction will feature other portraits by renowned artists such as Alberto Giacometti and Edvard Munch.
The talented painter Klimt was born in 1862 in Baumgarten, a suburb of Vienna (Austria). He was the second of seven children in a poor family with artistic tendencies. His mother, Anna, was a talented musician. His father, Ernst Klimt, was both a goldsmith and a painter with many years of experience, and he also taught his children to draw from a very young age. Born into a poor family, but thanks to his efforts and natural talent for art, Klimt became a talented painter.
DUONG LINH - HONG HANH
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