Adele Bloch-Bauer (née Bauer; August 9, 1881 – January 24, 1925) was a

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Viennese classicism * Viennese coffee house, an eating establishment and part of Viennese ...

socialite,

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

hostess, and patron of the arts from

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

, married to sugar industrialist

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (16 July 1864 – 13 November 1945) was an Austrian banker and sugar business magnate who owned one of the most extensive art collections in Europe, most of which was looted by the Nazis during the Anschluss. Husband of sa ...

. A

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish woman, she is most well known for being the subject of two of artist

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (14 July 1862 – 6 February 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement. His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe. Klimt is known for his paintings, murals, sket ...

's paintings: ''

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' (also called ''The Lady in Gold'' or ''The Woman in Gold'') is an oil painting on canvas, with gold leaf, by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husba ...

'' and '' Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II'', and the fate of the paintings during and after the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. She has been called "the Austrian

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, ...

Biography

Adele Bauer was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, on August 9, 1881, to Moritz and Jeannette (née Honig) Bauer. Her father was a railway and bank director. She met her future husband, Ferdinand Bloch, at the wedding of her sister Therese to Ferdinand's brother Gustav Bloch in 1898. Adele and Ferdinand became engaged the next year, followed by marriage in Vienna's

Stadttempel The Stadttempel (), also called the Seitenstettengasse Temple, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, located at Seitenstettengasse 4, in the Innere Stadt 1st district of Vienna, Austria. Completed in 1826, it is the main synagogue in Vienna. The con ...

on December 19, 1899. Ferdinand was a wealthy businessman who owned a sugar refinery in

Bruck an der Mur Bruck an der Mur () is a city of some 15,970 people located in the district Bruck-Mürzzuschlag, in the Austrian state of Styria. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Mur and Mürz. Its manufacturing includes metal products and paper. ...

, Austria. In 1903, he commissioned the artist Gustav Klimt to paint a portrait of his wife, which was completed in 1907 and became the ''

''. Kimberly Bradley of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

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''. 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. Among the many people she hosted were conductors

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

and

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

. She also socialized with royalty, and

high nobility Traditional rank amongst European imperiality, royalty, peers, and nobility is rooted in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although they vary over time and among geographic regions (for example, one region's prince might be equal to anothe ...

including Prince

Adolph Schwarzenberg Adolph Schwarzenberg (18 August 1890 – 27 February 1950) was a notable landowner, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the eldest son of Johann (Czech: Jan) and Therese Schwarzenberg, née Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg. An outspoken opponent of ...

Maria Altmann Maria Altmann (née Maria Victoria Bloch, later Bloch-Bauer; February 18, 1916 – February 7, 2011) was an Austrian-American Jewish refugee from Austria, who fled her home country after it was annexed to the Nazi’s Third Reich. She is noted f ...

, the niece of Bloch-Bauer, stated: In 1925, Bloch-Bauer died of meningitis.

Paintings

Klimt's website says that Bloch-Bauer was his mistress. He painted her at least twice. 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 ''Judith and the Head of Holofernes'' (also known as ''Judith I'', German: ''Judith und Holofernes'') is an oil painting by Gustav Klimt, painted in 1901. It depicts the biblical figure Judith holding the head of Holofernes after beheading hi ...

''.

Legal case

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

s 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,

, 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 Ronald Steven Lauder (born February 26, 1944) is an American businessman and pro-Israel political activist. He and his brother, Leonard Lauder, are the sole heirs to the Estée Lauder Companies, Estée Lauder cosmetics company, founded by their ...

to put in the Neue Gallery in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Legacy

Bloch-Bauer was the subject of the 2009 children's book ''Adorable Adele'' by Peter Stephan Jungk. In 2016, the city of Vienna named a street, Bloch-Bauer Promenade, after her and her husband.

In popular culture

The 2015 documentary film Adele's Wish recounts

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 ''Mia and Me'' is a German-Italian-Canadian live action/animated hybrid children's television series created by Gerhard Hahn. In the United States, it aired on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. Channel from May 3, 2014, to December 25, 2016. The show mixes ...

(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

appear throughout 2012's The Accidental Caregiver, a memoir written by her

millennial Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ...

caregiver, about Altmann's upbringing in Vienna.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch-Bauer, Adele 1881 births 1925 deaths Austrian Jews Jews and Judaism in Vienna Subjects of Nazi art appropriations Women's history