Lady with a Fan (Klimt)

The square painting depicts a woman with chestnut curls against a yellow backdrop with Oriental motifs.[6][2][7][8] As she gazes into the distance to the left, her patterned silk robe is slipping off her shoulder and she holds a fan concealing her bosom.[6][2]

The Chinese motifs in the background include a large flying phoenix, a symbol of immortality, rebirth, and good fortune, and bright pink lotus blossoms, which are associated with love and immutable beauty.[7][6][4][3] A long-legged crane and a golden pheasant are also present.[3] The flatness of the background patterns evokes Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints,[7][4] while the colours imitate the chrome yellow, cobalt blue, and red ochre of enameled Chinese porcelain.[3][6]

The identity of the sitter is unknown, with speculation that the model could be Johanna Staude,[2] Klimt's life companion Emilie Flöge,[9] or one of his favourite dancers.[3] According to the Belvedere Museum Vienna, the painting was exhibited under the title of Dancer (Tänzerin) shortly after it was created, suggesting that the model may have been a ballet or music hall dancer.[3]

Klimt's portrait Wally (1916)

Lady with a Fan has similarities with Klimt's portrait Wally, painted in 1916, in which the model's left shoulder is uncovered.[10] In Girlfriends or Two Women Friends (1916–1917), Klimt also painted a background with Oriental motifs, including a large phoenix.[10] Both paintings were destroyed in 1945 during the fire at Immendorf Castle.[10]

In contrast to Klimt's earlier works, Lady with a Fan is characterised by freer and more rapidly executed brushstrokes.[6][3] While some art historians have suggested that the work was "unfinished", pointing out small patches of bare canvas such as where the model's upper arm meets her robe,[3] art critic Kelly Grovier argues that "flux and fragmentation" are what gives the painting its power, concluding that "Its unfinishedness is what completes it."[6]

Dame mit Fächer (right) photographed by Moritz Nähr in Klimt's studio (1918)

Lady with a Fan was still on an easel in Klimt's studio, along with his unfinished work, The Bride, when he had a stroke and eventually died in early 1918.[3]

Following his death in February 1918, the painting was held by the gallery of Gustav Nebehay of Vienna.[11] By 1920, it had been bought by industrialist Erwin Böhler, who was a patron and friend of Klimt, along with his brother Heinrich who subsequently acquired it.[2][11] In 1940, it was inherited by Heinrich's wife Mabel Böhler of Lugano, Switzerland.[11]

Rudolf Leopold of Vienna owned the painting from around 1963 to 1981, followed by art collector and dealer Sege Sabarsky of New York.[11] American art collector and entrepreneur Wendell Cherry acquired the piece from Sabarsky in 1988.[11] On 11 May 1994, the work was sold by Sotheby's for $11.6 million (with fees) as part of an auction of Cherry's collection.[2] Its sale, again by Sotheby's, on 27 June 2023 set an auction record for a work by Gustav Klimt, and was the highest price paid for an artwork in a public sale in Europe.[8]

The portrait has been exhibited publicly on only four occasions: in 1920 at the Vienna Kunstschau; in 1981 as part of a Gustav Klimt exhibition in museums and galleries in Tokyo, Osaka, Iwaki, and Yamanashi, Japan; in 1992 at the International Cultural Centre in Krakow, Poland; and from 2021 to 2022 at the Belvedere in Vienna.[11][12]

• Japonisme