Gustav Klimt
Bildnis Gertrud Loew (Gertha Felsoványi) UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £24.8 MILLION
Gustav Klimt’s captivating portrait Bildnis Gertrud Loew comes up at Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern evening sale in London on June 24. This follows a settlement between the Felsöványi family and The Klimt Foundation. Dating from 1902 it is estimated at £12-18 million. It depicts Gertrud Loew, later known by her married name Gertha Felsöványi, a member of fin-de-siècle Viennese society, wreathed in diaphanous folds of gossamer fabric.
Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide said: “Bildnis Gertrud Loew, from a crucial period in the artist’s career, is one his finest portraits to appear at auction in over twenty years.”
Gertrud Felsöványi’s granddaughter on behalf of family heirs, said: “This portrait portrays the brave and determined nature of my grandmother. Her strength of character and beauty lives on in this visual embodiment. My father, Anthony Felsöványi, last saw this painting in June 1938 when he left the family home for the last time to depart for America. At that time my grandmother had been advised to leave her family home to live in a less grand home to try to avoid the attention of the Nazis, given her Jewish ancestry. Eventually, under duress, in 1939 she left Vienna altogether to join my father in America, having left all of her belongings behind – including this painting. Her home had been taken over as a Nazi headquarters and she had left her valuable belongings with friends and acquaintances. After the war, she never returned to Vienna. Only my father’s sister did, with the hope of retrieving some of their belongings, but to no avail. My father said that my grandmother never again mentioned the painting or the valuable belongings she had left behind”.
UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £24.8 MILLION. The sale followed a ten minute bidding battle. It was the second highest price paid for a Klimt portrait at auction.