Gustav Klimt - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, painted in 1907 in oil, gold and silver on canvas by Austrian Symbolist Gustav Klimt. Adele's face and hands emerge from an elaborate field of gold in which her dress, chair and background seem to merge into a single ornamental surface. Byzantine-inspired, Japanese and geometric motifs surround the sitter, while the naturalistic treatment of her features heightens the contrast between person and decoration. The portrait is a defining work of Klimt's Golden Period and one of the most ambitious society portraits he produced. Seized from the Bloch-Bauer family after Austria's annexation by Germany, it was restituted to the family's heirs in 2006 after a landmark legal dispute.