Gustav Klimt painted Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I in 1907. The painting uses oil, gold and silver on canvas and measures 138 by 138 centimeters. It belongs to the Neue Galerie in New York City, which acquired it in 2006 in a sale reported at $135 million. The picture shows Adele Bloch-Bauer seated, her face and hands naturalistic against a gold field. Klimt signed the canvas 'GUSTAV KLIMT 1907' in a small box at the lower right.

What the picture shows

The woman sits three-quarter length, placed right of centre and facing the viewer. Her face is pale with dark eyes and red lips; her dark hair is piled up high. A wide jewelled choker sits at her neck, and she wears thin straps with her shoulders bare. Her hands are clasped together at chest height, fingers intertwined, with a broad gold bracelet on her wrist. Her dress dissolves into gold ornament: triangles and stylised eye shapes run down the centre, while spirals and oval-and-bar signs cover the sides. Behind her a chair or throne made of gold spirals, discs and circular swirls in gold and silver fills the space. To the left is a wide area of flat, flaking gold, with a small checkered panel of red and gold squares beside her head. At the lower left a band of green floor and a strip of black-and-white chequer pattern anchor the composition. Only the face, shoulders and hands are painted naturalistically.

When and why Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I was painted

Gustav Klimt was 45 in 1907 and already a central figure in Vienna's art world. His work had moved from academic history painting toward flattened, decorative surfaces, with links to Symbolism and Art Nouveau. The portrait belongs to his golden period, when he built compositions from gold leaf and patterned ornament. Klimt painted the face and hands with careful modeling while turning the dress and background into a single ornamental surface. Klimt had helped found the Vienna Secession in 1897, and around 1907 he was still producing works that defined Viennese modernism. Adele Bloch-Bauer belonged to the Viennese circle that supported his work. The picture treats the sitter's dress as another patterned surface rather than as cloth.

Seeing it at home

In a hand-painted copy of Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, check the size against the original, 138 by 138 centimeters; a smaller copy should keep the square format. Look for the three zones of gold: the flat left field, the patterned dress and the chair behind her. The copy should match the pale face, dark eyes and red lips, and the green floor at lower left. Gold and silver should be laid flat, not brushed with heavy texture.