Adele Bloch-Bauer II
Adele Bloch-Bauer II, completed in 1912, is the second of two portraits Gustav Klimt painted of the same woman, the wife of the Viennese industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who commissioned both and who supported Klimt's career more broadly[1]. Adele remains the only model Klimt painted twice, and the five years between the two portraits mark a real change in his style rather than a simple repetition[2]. The first, finished in 1907, belongs to Klimt's golden phase, its surface built from gold and silver leaf and gesso relief in patterns drawn from Byzantine, Egyptian and Mycenaean sources, transforming Adele into something closer to an icon than a likeness[2]. The 1912 portrait abandons that gold and silver entirely. Adele stands full length on a richly patterned carpet, in front of a wall hung with tapestries, wearing a fur-trimmed gown almost certainly designed by the Wiener Werkstatte, her figure kept flat and decorative like the pattern around her but visually distinct from it rather than merging into it as in the earlier work[2]. Her expression in this later portrait reads as more direct and self-possessed, gazing outward without quite meeting the viewer's eye, a mature and undecorated presence compared to the glittering, dreamlike figure of 1907[3]. Adele Bloch-Bauer died in 1925. Both portraits, along with three other Klimt paintings owned by the family, were seized by the Nazis after Austria's annexation and became the subject of a decades-long restitution battle resolved only in the early 2000s.
Where it is held
After a legal ruling returned the Bloch-Bauer family's Klimt paintings to Adele's heirs, Adele Bloch-Bauer II was sold at a Christie's auction in New York in November 2006 for $78.5 million, one of four Klimts sold that evening for a combined $192.7 million, alongside the separate $135 million private sale of Adele Bloch-Bauer I to Ronald Lauder's Neue Galerie[3].
One woman, two very different pictures
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy industrialist who had made his fortune in sugar, commissioned both portraits of his wife, and Adele became the only sitter Klimt painted more than once[1]. The gap between them was not incidental. The 1907 portrait took three years to complete, built up with gold and silver leaf and low-relief gesso into an image closer to a Byzantine icon than a conventional likeness, with decorative motifs borrowed from Egyptian and Mycenaean sources woven through the composition[2]. When Klimt returned to Adele five years later, he made a deliberate, visible break with that approach rather than simply painting her again in the same manner.
The 1912 portrait: pattern without gold
Adele Bloch-Bauer II strips away the gold and silver entirely. Adele stands full length on a densely patterned carpet, set against a wall hung with tapestries, one of them Oriental, wearing a fur-trimmed gown almost certainly an original Wiener Werkstatte design[2]. The decorative pattern surrounding her is different in kind from the 1907 portrait's motifs, and every part of the later picture can be read as representing something real, carpet, cloth, fur, rather than pure ornament for its own sake. Klimt's paint handling changed too, moving from the matt surface of his earlier portraits to a thicker, creamier application, and the full-length figure, while still flattened into the decorative scheme around her, stays visually distinct from the pattern rather than dissolving into it as Adele had in 1907[2].
A more guarded Adele
Contemporaries and later writers read a real change of temperament between the two paintings. The 1907 Adele has an erotic, almost dreamlike charge to her; the woman of 1912 gazes directly out of the canvas without her eyes quite meeting the viewer's, a look one writer describes as haughty and self-assured, as though intent on preserving her dignity by keeping the viewer at a slight distance[2]. The change reads as psychological as much as stylistic: a portrait of a woman five years older, painted by an artist who had chosen naturalism and legible reality over the glittering artifice of his earlier golden manner.
Common questions
How is Adele Bloch-Bauer II different from the first portrait?
The 1907 first portrait uses gold and silver leaf and gesso relief in a dense, icon-like style. The 1912 second portrait drops gold and silver entirely, showing Adele full length on a patterned carpet in a real, legible setting, painted in thicker, creamier oil.
Why did Klimt paint Adele Bloch-Bauer twice?
Her husband Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy industrialist and Klimt patron, commissioned both portraits. Adele was the only model Klimt painted more than once.
Was this painting looted by the Nazis?
Yes. It was seized along with four other Klimt paintings owned by the Bloch-Bauer family after Austria's annexation. A long legal battle led by Adele's niece Maria Altmann eventually returned the paintings to the family's heirs.
How much did Adele Bloch-Bauer II sell for?
It sold for $78.5 million at a Christie's auction in New York in November 2006, part of a sale of four Klimt paintings that totalled $192.7 million that night.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following references, verified against the museum and public-domain image record for this work.
- [1] book Gustav Klimt, Delphi Complete Works of Gustav Klimt (Illustrated) Used for: this artwork.
- [2] book Frank Whitford, Klimt Used for: this artwork.
- [3] book Anne-Marie O'Connor, The Lady in Gold Used for: this artwork.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-09-03. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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