Book review: The Lady in Gold
The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
By Anne-Marie O'Connor
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 368 pages
Barnes and Noble, $18.89 hardcover, $15.99 nook
I just finished this fascinating book and would recommend it to anyone interested in art and history. This book is much more than a profile of the famous Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt. It does give a solid background of Klimt’s artistic journey in turn of the century Vienna, but the gist of the book is the story of the woman and portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, one of his most famous painting (besides The Kiss). The author sets the scene of Vienna at its cultural height and the many Jewish aristocrat women Klimt painted portraits of. The author traces the history of the painting after it is seized by Nazi’s in World War II. The title is changed to remove all traces of the woman being Jewish, like many of the stolen art during the period. A niece of Adele sues the Austrian government in 1999 for the return of the portrait along with other Klimt pieces in the family’s collection. Eventually she wins the case. This historical account is both enthralling and tragic. As an artist, I was somewhat ignorant about all the art that was stolen and never returned during the Holocaust. After reading it, I reviewed several of my art history books about Klimt and nothing of course is mentioned on the topic. It is one of the best art and historical books I have read in a long time.
