My ''Lady in Gold''
Interestingly, the original ‘Woman in Gold’ aka ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' (54"x 54") is not at the Belvedere
Palace in Vienna where most of Klimt’s paintings are.
It is at the Neue Galerie in New York. There is very interesting real life story behind this that has been made into a movie.
The mother of a dear friend
passed away last year. I was asked to do a portrait of her. The only reference photo I had to work with
was a photo sent on my mobile phone of a 2x2 inch B&W photo taken perhaps
50 years ago.
Title : In the style of Klimt, Lady in gold
Size : 12"x16"
With this portrait I pay homage to the master Gustav Klimt.
This project helped me to learn a
lot about portraiture as it presented a few challenges; in addition to capturing the likeness ofcourse. I was working
off a photo with only head and shoulders and the values dimmed with age. Importantly
it had to be made into a portrait that would look better than just an enlarged
photo. Added to this was my personal preference
for paper collage over other mediums.
Paper collage in itself would not
allow for a very good likeness so it had to be a mixed media. I have used acrylics for the body and
everything else is paper collage on canvas board. Yes I also added in some Klimt motifs in gold paint into the collaged paper as I had decided
to make it in the style of my favourite artist’s golden period.
Interestingly, the original ‘Woman in Gold’ aka ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' (54"x 54") is not at the Belvedere
Palace in Vienna where most of Klimt’s paintings are. It is at the Neue Galerie in New York. There is very interesting real life story behind this that has been made into a movie.
You can watch the trailer of the
movie here or the real story in documentary format here and as a presentation by Randol Schoenberg here.
