Where is the portrait of adele bloch-bauer i
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
Austrian banker
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer | |
|---|---|
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer c.&#; | |
| Born | Ferdinand Bloch 16 July Prague, Austrian Empire |
| Died | 13 November () (aged&#;81) Vienna, Austria |
| Nationality | Austria-Hungary |
| Occupation(s) | Banker, sugar industrialist |
| Relatives | Maria Altmann (niece) |
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (16 July – 13 November ) was an Austrian banker and sugar business magnate who owned one of the most extensive art collections in Europe, most of which was looted by the Nazis during the Anschluss.
Husband of salon hostess Adele Bloch-Bauer and uncle of Jewish refugee Maria Altmann, he commissioned Gustav Klimt to paint Adele Bloch-Bauer I and Adele Bloch-Bauer II, the former being the centerpiece of the movie Woman in Gold with Helen Mirren.[1]
Biography
Ferdinand Bloch was the youngest of six children of sugar industrialist David Bloch and Marie Bloch Straschnow.
He worked his way into the family business in Prague in before becoming director of the company in [2]
After wedding the notable socialite and patron of the arts Adele Bloch-Bauer in , the couple moved to the 4th district of Vienna, where they expanded their art collection of paintings, sculpture, and classic Viennese porcelain that rivaled any museum in Europe.
Ferdinand bloch bauer biography examples He attended the Handelsakademie in Prague and joined the family business in He became director of the company in and developed it into one of the largest European company in its segment. He held consultant, managerial and supervisory functions in other companies. After the end of the Habsburg monarchy in he was successfully involved in Austrian and Czechoslovakian companies, banks and lobby groups. The marriage was childless.Ferdinand began commissioning the most sought after painter in Austria at that time, Gustav Klimt, to paint pictures of Adele, who became the only woman to have two full length portraits done by the artist.[2]
Adele died in of Meningitis at the age of One of Ferdinand's last art acquisitions was a portrait his friend Oskar Kokoschka painted of him in After the Anschluss in March , most of Ferdinand's art collection was looted and he was exiled from Austria for his Jewish genealogy.
He eventually landed in Switzerland, where he died nearly penniless in [2]
Restitution of Ferdinand's Klimt paintings
After Adele's passing in there was a request found in her will that upon her death Ferdinand was to donate Adele Bloch-Bauer I, dubbed The Gold Portrait, to the Belvedere Palace in Vienna.
At the time she was "entirely unaware" of the pending horror that would come when the Nazis annexed Austria in When Ferdinand was forced to flee Austria just a few days before Kristallnacht, he had to leave the painting of Adele and other works from Gustav Klimt behind. Just as the will had instructed, the portrait was gifted to the Austrian Gallery, in [3]
Over a half century later, in , Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin was permitted access to records at the Austrian Gallery in Vienna.
He began publishing articles about the "suspicious" ownership of Adele's portrait and four other Klimts.
Ferdinand bloch bauer biography examples for kids The titular character in Woman in Gold is Adele Bloch-Bauer, whose husband, Czech sugar mogul Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, commissioned Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt to paint two portraits of his wife when she was 25 years old. The first and most famous of the two later became known as Woman in Gold. The film focuses on Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann, played by Helen Mirren , and her quest to reclaim the famous Klimt painting from the Austrian government, but there is a lot more to her story. Her wealthy Jewish family, including her uncle Ferdinand and aunt Adele, were close to the artists of the Vienna Secession movement, which Klimt helped establish in The avant-garde of the Austrian capital included the composer Arnold Schoenberg.One of his finds was the will of Ferdinand, who died twenty years after Adele, indicating his heirs, including his niece Maria Altmann, were to receive all the paintings. Since he had paid for the works, his will had now essentially rendered Adele's will obsolete. Czernin's articles and his startling discovery paved the way for Maria and her lawyer E.
Randol Schoenberg to launch a nearly decade long legal battle to gain rightful ownership of the Bloch-Bauer estate. In , Altmann and two other heirs were awarded all five Klimt works in a landmark Supreme Court of the United States decision that restituted $ million.[4]