Adele Bloch-Bauer

Adele Bauer was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, on August 9, 1881, to Moritz and Jeannette (née Honig) Bauer.{{cite web |author1=Elana Shapira |title=Adele Bloch-Bauer |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bloch-bauer-adele |website=Jewish Women's Archive |publisher=The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women |access-date=January 14, 2022 |date=June 23, 2021 |archive-date=March 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302113431/https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bloch-bauer-adele |url-status=live }} Her father was a railway and bank director.{{cite news |last1=Bradley |first1=Kimberly |title=The mysterious muse of Gustav Klimt |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160920-who-was-the-woman-in-gold |access-date=January 20, 2022 |publisher=BBC |date=September 20, 2016 |archive-date=December 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220152304/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160920-who-was-the-woman-in-gold |url-status=live }}

She met her future husband, Ferdinand Bloch, at the wedding of her sister Therese to Ferdinand's brother Gustav Bloch in 1898.{{cite web |title=Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold Historical Timeline |url=https://www.neuegalerie.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/WiG%20Timeline%20for%20website%20%281%29.pdf |website=Neue Galerie |access-date=January 14, 2022}} Adele and Ferdinand became engaged the next year, followed by marriage in Vienna's Stadttempel on December 19, 1899. Ferdinand was a wealthy businessman who owned a sugar refinery in Bruck an der Mur, Austria.{{cite news |last1=Glaberson |first1=William |title=For Betrayal by Swiss Bank and Nazis, $21 Million |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/nyregion/for-betrayal-by-swiss-bank-and-nazis-21-million.html |access-date=January 14, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=April 14, 2005 |archive-date=September 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925010238/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/nyregion/for-betrayal-by-swiss-bank-and-nazis-21-million.html |url-status=live }}

In 1903, he commissioned the artist Gustav Klimt to paint a portrait of his wife, which was completed in 1907 and became the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Kimberly Bradley of the BBC wrote the portrait transformed Bloch-Bauer into an "icon". In 1912, Bloch-Bauer again sat for Klimt for a portrait, which became the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II.{{cite news |last1=Cascone |first1=Sarah |title=Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer Paintings to Be Reunited at Neue Galerie |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/neue-galerie-gustav-klimt-adele-bloch-bauer-paintings-535565 |access-date=January 20, 2022 |publisher=Artnet |date=June 30, 2016}}

In sitting for Klimt twice, she is the only verified person to be painted by the artist twice in full length. Bloch-Bauer became a Viennese socialite, regularly hosting artists and authors in her salon.{{cite news |title=The Other "Woman in Gold" |url=https://momentmag.com/the-other-woman-in-gold/ |access-date=January 20, 2022 |publisher=Moment |date=2015 |archive-date=May 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508171815/https://momentmag.com/the-other-woman-in-gold/ |url-status=live }} Among the many people she hosted were conductors Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.{{cite news |last1=Rusu |first1=Ruxi |title=Republic of Austria vs. Altmann: Klimt Goes to Court! |url=https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/republic-of-austria-v-altmann-klimt-goes-to-court/ |access-date=January 20, 2022 |publisher=Daily Art Magazine |date=November 11, 2021 |archive-date=November 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111200139/https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/republic-of-austria-v-altmann-klimt-goes-to-court/ |url-status=live }} She also socialized with royalty, and high nobility including Prince Adolph Schwarzenberg.{{cite book |last1=Anne Marie |first1=O'Connor |title=The Lady in Gold |date=2015 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=9781101873120 |page=44}}

Maria Altmann, the niece of Bloch-Bauer, stated: {{blockquote|[Bloch-Bauer was a] rather cold, intellectual woman who was very politically aware and became a socialist. She wasn't happy. It was an arranged marriage but she was childless, after two miscarriages and the death of a baby. I remember her as extremely elegant, tall, dark and thin. She always wore a slinky white dress and used a long, gold cigarette holder.}}

In 1925, Bloch-Bauer died of meningitis.{{cite news |last1=Cohen |first1=Patricia |title=The Story Behind 'Woman in Gold': Nazi Art Thieves and One Paintings Return |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/arts/design/the-story-behind-woman-in-gold-nazi-art-thieves-and-one-paintings-return.html |access-date=January 20, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=March 30, 2015 |archive-date=August 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827000400/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/arts/design/the-story-behind-woman-in-gold-nazi-art-thieves-and-one-paintings-return.html |url-status=live }}

File:Adele Bloch-Bauer I Gustav Klimt01.jpg, painted in 1907. The movie Woman in Gold is named after this painting.]]

Klimt's website says that Bloch-Bauer was his mistress. He painted her at least twice.{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=February 2023}} The first portrait was a gift to Adele's parents. Some artists also think Adele Bloch-Bauer might be the woman in The Kiss and Judith I.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160920-who-was-the-woman-in-gold|publisher=BBC|access-date=May 20, 2021|date=September 20, 2016|title=The mysterious muse of Gustav Klimt|author=Kimberly Bradley}}

File:Gustav Klimt 047.jpg, painted in 1912.]]

During World War II, the Nazis stole Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I from Bloch-Bauer's family. It ended up in the Belvedere Gallery.

In Republic of Austria v. Altmann in 2004, Adele Bloch-Bauer's niece, Maria Altmann, tried to get the painting back from the Belvedere Gallery. The Supreme Court of the United States said the painting was Altmann's. Because Altmann could not pay for insurance and storage, she sold the painting to Ronald Lauder to put in the Neue Gallery in New York City.

Bloch-Bauer was the subject of the 2009 children's book Adorable Adele by Peter Stephan Jungk.{{cite book |last1=Jungk |first1=Peter Stephan |title=Adorable Adele |date=2009 |publisher=Neue Galerie New York |isbn=9781931794183}}

In 2016, the city of Vienna named a street, Bloch-Bauer Promenade, after her and her husband.

The 2015 documentary film Adele's Wish{{cite web |title=Adele's Wish |url=http://www.adeleswish.com |language=en-CA}} recounts Maria Altmann legal battle to recover five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen by the Nazis in 1938.

The 2015 film Woman in Gold is also about Maria Altmann's case. Adele Bloch-Bauer is shown in flashbacks.

In the German-Italian children's series Mia and Me (2012), the teenager Mia is transported into a world of elves. The king and queen of the elves wear dresses that very closely resemble Adele's in the Woman in Gold painting.

First-hand anecdotes of Adele by her niece Maria Altmann appear throughout 2012's The Accidental Caregiver, a memoir written by her millennial caregiver, about Altmann's upbringing in Vienna.{{cite news |title=The Guardian |date=27 March 2015 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/27/i-was-32-when-i-met-the-love-of-my-life-she-was-92 |language=en-CA |last1=Collins |first1=Gregor }}{{cite web |title=The Accidental Caregiver Austrian Cultural Forum |url=http://www.austria.org/events1/2015/6/25/new-york-staged-reading-the-accidental-caregiver |language=en-CA |access-date=2024-08-30 |archive-date=2017-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314153125/http://www.austria.org/events1/2015/6/25/new-york-staged-reading-the-accidental-caregiver |url-status=dead }}

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Category:1881 births

Category:1925 deaths

Category:Austrian Jews

Category:Jews and Judaism in Vienna

Category:Subjects of Nazi art appropriations

Category:Women's history