Gustav Klimt was giving the last brushstrokes to “Woman with a fan” when on January 11, 1918 he suffered a stroke. He died four weeks later, leaving unfinished a painting that is now being exhibited in Vienna for the first time in 100 years as the centerpiece of an exhibition on his unfinished work.

“The last pieces of an artist are always surrounded by a special aura, and ‘Woman with a fan’ and ‘The bride’ are no exception”, explains Stella Rollig, director of the Belvedere Gallery, where from today until February 2022 The exhibition “Woman with a fan: the last works of Klimt” can be seen.

The exhibition of those two paintings together now closes a circle that was opened more than a hundred years ago, when shortly after Klimt’s death, a photo was taken in his studio showing those two works side by side.

Although “The Bride” has been in the Belvedere collections since 1971, “Woman with a Fan” is now exhibited in Vienna for the first time since 1920, after a complicated journey of comings and goings from Austria, including an export and sale without permission that never it was completely cleared up.

Rudolf Leopold, one of Austria’s leading art collectors, acquired the painting sometime after the 1960s, and in 1981 he applied for a temporary export permit to display it in Tokyo.

The work was exhibited to the public for the last time in 1994, when it was auctioned in New York for 9.3 million euros, an operation that the Austrian authorities investigated since Leopold did not request authorization to remove the painting from the country.

The case was never clarified and, in fact, the work can now be seen in Vienna thanks to a kind of amnesty and the temporary transfer of its current owner, whose identity is unknown.

In addition to these two paintings, the small but intense exhibition showcases three other unfinished works by Klimt: “Amalia Zuckerkandl”, “Adan and Eva” and “Woman in White”.

Also on display are eight pages of his sketchbook and reproductions of two of his latest works, destroyed in 1945 in the castle fire where the Nazis had hidden them after looting them.

WHO IS SHE?

“Klimt really enjoyed the company of women,” the exhibition’s curator, Markus Fellinger, explains to Efe, who points out that the woman who appears in the painting was probably a model or dancer and that the work is an example of the “Viennese beauty”, one of Klimt’s favorite subjects.

According to Fellinger, the most important works of the master were inspired by themes such as the dichotomy between life and death and the origin of life, so sexuality and eroticism are important elements in his works.

LAST ARTISTIC STAGE

Upon his unexpected death, at age 56, Klimt not only left several pieces unfinished, but “was beginning a new artistic stage” that he could not develop, says the curator.

In this new facet, Klimt replicates artists such as Van Gogh, Matisse and even young expressionists, who prompted him to create works with more vibrant tones and thicker brushstrokes, which contribute to create an expressive visual language.

“It is surprising that such a painting, with such vivid colors and an erotic tone, was created by a melancholic man who lived in isolation,” summarized Fellinger during the presentation of the exhibition.

BEYOND THE IMAGE

“Gustav Klimt redefined the idea of ​​the painting as an image,” explains the curator, recalling that, even in this new stage, he maintained the beginning of his golden period of treating his works “as if they were jewels”.

The difference, the expert points out, is that while in his best-known paintings such as “Golden Adele”, “El Beso” or “Judith”, he resorts to gold and metallic tones to convey that effect, in his latest works he did so through language visual “that conveyed emotion and an attitude of acceptance of life”.

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