The latest portrait painted by Gustav Klimt will bring the highest estimate ever for a painting in Europe or the UK when it appears at Sotheby’s in London in June, at over £65million. The sale for at least this amount is, in fact, upfront because it is guaranteed by a third party.
Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a fan), painted in 1917, was still on an easel in Klimt’s studio when he died in February 1918. The square format oil on canvas depicts an unknown sitter (although it has been suggested that she is Johanna Staude, one of Klimt’s favorite models). Klimt was a much in demand portrait painter at the time, commissioned by the wealthy and fashionable of Vienna, but this is not a commissioned piece – it was painted entirely for his own pleasure and as such has a particular relaxation and spontaneity.
“The way her kimono slips off her shoulder, the fan almost looks like it was put there to hide her chest, she’s clearly not someone’s daughter who was sent to have her portrait painted!” It is Klimt who experiments and pushes the boundaries,” says Helena Newman, President of Sotheby’s Europe and Global Head of Impressionist and Modern Art.
Klimt’s interest in Chinese and Japanese culture is also palpable – he had a large wardrobe of Chinese kimonos and robes, as well as a collection of Japanese woodblock prints. The patterns in the background and on the dress in lady with a fanlike lotus flowers, phoenixes and dragons, draw heavily on Chinese design.
Sotheby’s last sold this painting nearly 30 years ago, in 1994, for $11.6 million (including fees), a moment Newman remembers well: breaking a record. In 1994, the work was sold as part of the collection of Wendell Cherry, the American entrepreneur and art collector. But before that it belonged to the Viennese industrialist Erwin Böhler, who bought it shortly after Klimt’s death (Böhler, his brother Heinrich and his cousin Hans were friends and patrons of Klimt and Egon Schiele.) . The painting is now hitting the market for the first time in 30 years, from the family who bought it in 1994 – Sotheby’s will not disclose the reasons for its sale.
Lady put Fächer on an easel in Klimt’s studio, 1918
© ONB/Vienna Image Archive 94884-E, Photo: Moriz Nähr. via Getty
The painting was recently the subject of an exhibition entitled Lady with a Fan; Gustav Klimt and East Asiaat the Upper Belvedere Museum in Vienna from March 2021 to February 2022.
Most commissioned portraits of Klimt’s Golden Period are in museums and Newman says the closest comparable portrait to hit the market (relatively) recently is the “Golden Period”. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) which sold at Christie’s in New York for a record $87.9 million (with fees) in November 2006 (estimated at $18–25 million). The buyer is believed to be Oprah Winfrey, who reportedly sold the work privately for around $150 million in 2016. It is currently on display at the National Gallery. after impressionism exhibition in London. Another comparable work that changed hands privately is Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer Iwhich (again, apparently) was sold to Ronald Lauder for the Neue Galerie in New York for $135 million in 2006. Then there was Frauenbildnis, portrait of Ria Munk III, an unfinished work from the same period as lady with a fan (both 1917-18), which sold at Christie’s in London in 2010 for £18.8 million (with fees).
More recently, in 2017, Sotheby’s London sold Klimt’s Bauerngarten (Blumengarten) a garden scene from 1907, for £48m (with costs).
Newman says these benchmarks were considered when estimating lady with a fanas well as the prize obtained last month in May for Klimt’s waterscape, Insel im AtterseeWho sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $53.2 million to a Japanese private collector. Newman “expects” to see a strong Asian interest in this work, particularly because of its strong Chinese and Japanese aesthetic influence.
“Klimt belongs to that rare class of artists, including Modigliani, Picasso and Giacometti, whose work has fetched over $100 million at auction,” says Newman.
Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a fan) will be offered for sale at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction on June 27 in London.
