In 1917, Gustav Klimt was commissioned by a member of the Lieser family, prominent Viennese industrialists of the time, to paint a portrait of one of their young daughters. While it was widely considered that the commissioner was Adolf Lieser and the subject his daughter, Margarethe Constance Lieser, recent research has suggested that Adolf's sister in law and avant-garde art patron, Henriette Lieser, commissioned the work of one of her two daughters. Between April and May of 1917, the young Lieser girl visited Klimt's studio a reported nine times to pose for Klimt, who made 25 studies in preparation of the painting.
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The oil on canvas work is characteristic of Klimt's sensitively rendered and boldly colored style. Against a background of rich crimson and orange brushstrokes stands out the fair Fräulein Lieser, who looks forward with a confident, yet calm gaze. She is draped in an elaborate floral-embroidered cloak, recalling the geometric shapes of the gold gown of Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.
At the time of Klimt's death on February 6, 1918, the portrait was still in his studio unfinished. It was then delivered to the Lieser family, and in 1925, was included in a retrospective of Klimt at the Neue Galerie in Vienna. That was the last time the work was seen publicly for nearly 100 years and was only known in modern time from a black-and-white photograph taken of that exhibit. The painting came to the current owner, an unnamed Austrian private citizen, through inheritance.
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The work will now be auctioned for the first time on April 24, 2024 at im Kinsky, Austria's second largest auction house, in Vienna. According to the auction house, the painting is being sold on behalf of the current owners and the legal successors of Adolf and Henriette Lieser, based on an agreement in accordance with the Washington Principles of 1998, which deals with the restitution of Nazi-looted art. However, there is no evidence this particular work was confiscated by the Nazis.
Prior to the sale, it will travel for exhibition in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, and Hong Kong. The pre-auction estimate is €30-50 million (about $32-54 million).
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However, this estimate could easily be surpassed. Last June, Klimt's last portrait, Lady with Fan, sold in London for £85.3 million ($108.5 million), setting a new auction record for the artist.
Related: Klimt's Last Portrait Breaks an Auction Record
"The rediscovery of this portrait, one of the most beautiful of Klimt's last creative period, is a sensation," said im Kinsky in a press release. "As a key figure of Viennese Art Nouveau, Gustav Klimt epitomizes fin de siècle Austrian Modernism more than any other artist."
This work is also significant as it is the most valuable painting to ever be sold in Austria.
