Portrait of a Woman

The young woman wearing a black evening gown was a close friend of the fashion designer Emilie Flöge, Gustav Klimt’s lifelong companion. For her portrait Klimt selected a vertical format that emphasizes the figure’s slim silhouette. Her porcelain complexion and her necklace are rendered with the same delicate precision as the tapestry on the wall. The artist worked in this highly realistic style in the years around 1890 in a way that reveals the influence of photography. He would also use photography to help compose his later paintings. It is Klimt’s first society portrait of a woman. After Hans Makart’s death, Klimt became the most sought-after portraitist of the Viennese upper classes.

Credit: Belvedere, Vienna, on permanent loan from a private collection