Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer
| Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer | |
|---|---|
| German: Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer | |
 | |
| Artist | Gustav Klimt |
| Year | 1914–1916 |
| Medium | Oil-on-canvas |
| Subject | Elisabeth Lederer |
| Dimensions | 180.4 cm × 130.5 cm (71.0 in × 51.4 in)[1] |
Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (German: Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer) or Portrait of Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt[2] is a 1914–1916 oil painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. The life-size portrait depicts a young Elisabeth Lederer, daughter of Viennese art collectors August and Serena Lederer, who commissioned the work. The painting was later owned by American collector and billionaire Leonard Lauder. On 18 November 2025, following Lauder's death earlier that year, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer was sold at Sotheby's in New York for US$236.4 million, making it the most expensive work of modern art sold at auction and the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.
Subject
[edit]Elisabeth Lederer was the daughter of Jewish industrialist August Lederer and Serena Lederer, some of Klimt's most prominent patrons.[3] Elisabeth became the second member of the Lederer family to sit for Klimt, after his 1899 portrait of her mother, Serena. Klimt would later depict her grandmother, Charlotte Pulitzer, in 1915.[4] At the time of this painting, they were the second wealthiest family in Vienna, behind only the Rothschilds. She married Baron Wolfgang von Bachofen-Echt in 1921, converting to Protestantism, but became Jewish again after their divorce in 1938. Following the Anschluss of 1938, much of her family fled and the Lederer art collection was looted by the Nazis. To avoid persecution, Elisabeth obtained a document stating that Klimt was her father and was helped by a senior Nazi official who was a former brother-in-law. This allowed her to remain in Vienna until her death from a severe illness on 19 October 1944.[3][5]
Description
[edit]In Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, Klimt depicts 20 year old Elisabeth in a flowing, white dress, as he had done for her mother in Portrait of Serena Lederer. For Elisabeth however, it is not a loose gown but a close fitting top and a skirt with styling recalling the plus fours, which were the latest fashion of the time. Over this she wears a white chiffron shawl with floral patterns.[2] The sitter’s eyes drift as they look toward the viewer, and her expression is described as tranquil yet engaged, contributing to the ethereal quality of the portrait.[6] The carpet beneath Lederer combines bold pink-orange tones with black and white borders reminiscent of Josef Hoffmann's designs for the Wiener Werkstätte, while its irregular green and white circles recall Chinese jade.[1]
The portrait belongs to a group of Klimt’s late works in which the influence of East Asian art is especially pronounced. Other compositions from this period include Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, Portrait of Mäda Primavesi, Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer, Lady with a Fan, and the unfinished Portrait of Ria Munk III.[6] The background is somewhat unclear, potentially as Klimt could not finish the work fully.[2] According to Emily Braun, the background includes figures derived from Chinese material culture and Peking opera, including low-ranking military types, scholar figures, and female attendants, rendered in a narrative role.[6] Tobias G. Natter writes that the Chinese figures "resemble figures from a dream … this mood is echoed by the ornamental field rising behind Elisabeth's figure".[2] These background figures, as with Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II and Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer, are inspired by the decoration of oriental ceramics.[4]
History
[edit]
Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer was commissioned by Elisabeth's parents in 1914, when she was a young woman but still living at home.[2] Klimt and Serena Lederer often argued over the painting, with Klimt never quite satisfied with it. Allegedly, Serena Lederer, convinced the portrait was complete, took the painting from Klimt's studio herself. Ultimately, the Lederers received the painting in 1916 despite Klimt's desire to keep revising it.[2][5][1] The painting only left the Lederer collection once in 1917, to display at the Austrian Art Exhibition in Stockholm.[5]
Following the Nazi Anschluss, the painting was seized by authorities in Vienna in 1938.[5][1] It survived the war unscathed despite almost being destroyed by fire.[7][8] Much of the Lederer art collection was destroyed in 1945 when retreating German forces set fire to Immendorf Castle, where the works had been placed for storage, to prevent them from falling into Soviet hands. Fifteen paintings by Klimt were destroyed in the fire. Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer and the other Lederer family portraits survived because under Nazi regulations, portraits of Jewish sitters were considered not worth confiscating, so they were not sent to the castle but remained at the Dorotheum auction house.[9] After the war, the painting was restituted in 1948 to Erich Lederer, Elisabeth's brother. It remained in his possession until 1983 when he sold it to art dealer Serge Sabarsky, two years before his death.[1][8]
The portrait was acquired in 1985 by Leonard Lauder.[10] For decades, the work hung above Lauder's dining room table in his New York residence, only leaving for brief exhibitions in art galleries.[10][8] It remained in the Lauder Collection, a 55-work collection valued at more than US$400 million, until its sale at auction in November 2025 following Lauder's death earlier that year.[10][11]
On 18 November 2025, the portrait became the most expensive work of modern art in history when it sold for US$236.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York, beating Pablo Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (“Version O”) (1955) which sold for US$179.4 million in 2015.[11][12] It also became the second most expensive artwork to ever sell at auction, behind Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which sold for US$450.3 million in 2017.[8] The auction opened at US$130 million and lasted for 20 minutes before being won by a bid of US$205 million, which was made by Sotheby's specialist Julian Dawes on behalf of a telephone bidder.[11][12]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer)". Sotheby's. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
- ^ a b c d e f Natter, Tobias G., ed. (2018). Gustav Klimt, The Complete Paintings. Taschen. p. 289. ISBN 978-3-8365-6290-4.
- ^ a b "The Lederer Family". Gustav Klimt-Datenbank. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
- ^ a b Rogoyska, Jane; Bade, Patrick (2012-01-17). Gustav Klimt. Parkstone International. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-78042-729-4.
- ^ a b c d Dale, Stephen (10 July 2018). "Tragedy beyond the canvas: Gustav Klimt's Elisabeth Lederer". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
- ^ a b c Cavallaro, Dani (2018-01-14). Gustav Klimt: A Critical Reappraisal. McFarland. pp. 148–149. ISBN 978-1-4766-3138-7.
- ^ Porterfield, Carlie (2025-11-19). "Klimt portrait sells for record $236.3m at Sotheby's in New York". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
- ^ a b c d Cain, Sian (2025-11-19). "Gustav Klimt portrait sells for $236.4m, making it the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
- ^ Loebl, Suzanne; Wilentz, Abigail (2025-10-16). Plunder and Survival: Stories of Theft, Loss, Recovery, and Migration of Nazi Uprooted Art. USA: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-1-5381-9423-2.
- ^ a b c Reiss, Adam (2025-11-19). "Klimt's 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' goes for $236.4 million, becoming priciest modern artwork ever auctioned". NBC News. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
- ^ a b c Cassady, Daniel (2025-11-18). "Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer Sells for $236.4 M., Highest Price for Any Work of Modern Art Sold at Auction". ARTnews. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
- ^ a b Muller-Heyndyk, Rachel (2025-11-19). "Gustav Klimt painting becomes second most expensive artwork sold at auction". BBC News. Retrieved 2025-11-19.