An early painting by the renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, presumed lost since the 1930s, has finally made its debut for the first time since its recent rediscovery. The captivating portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, a prominent figure representing the Ga people in present-day Ghana, was created in 1897. The painting captures the prince’s profile against loose, expressive brushstrokes of florals. Standing at just over two feet tall, this diminutive masterpiece is currently on display at the art fair TEFAF Maastricht in the Netherlands, presented by the esteemed Viennese gallery Wienerroither & Kohlbacher (W&K). The painting is being offered for an impressive price of €15 million (approximately $16.3 million).
When two collectors approached W&K in 2023 with the framed painting, the gallery discovered that it had been “heavily soiled” with a barely visible estate stamp by Klimt. To authenticate the artwork, the gallery sought the expertise of renowned art historian Alfred Weidinger, who had dedicated two decades of searching for this elusive piece.
According to the press release, the portrait was auctioned off from Klimt’s estate in 1923 and subsequently loaned to an exhibition in 1928 by Ernestine Klein, who had converted the artist’s studio into a villa with her husband, Felix. The Jewish couple fled Vienna in 1938, just before the outbreak of World War II, but the painting’s whereabouts remained unknown until 2023. After extensive restoration efforts and a restitution settlement with Klein’s heirs, the artwork is now being unveiled to the public.
Weidinger’s research revealed that Klimt painted the work during the Vienna Völkerschau of 1897. These exhibitions, which were popularized in 19th- and 20th-century Europe, were colonialist-era ethnographic displays featuring people from various regions. Weidinger’s investigation uncovered that several individuals from Osu, the prince’s hometown, traveled to Vienna to participate in the exhibition. Consequently, it is believed that Klimt’s portrait was likely a commissioned piece, although it ultimately remained with the artist. Artnet reported on this finding.
The 1897 portrait by Gustav Klimt marked a stylistic shift towards decorative elements, as noted by Weidinger in the press release. This shift is evident in his later style, which is most famously known for the gilded couple depicted in “The Kiss,” a painting that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to Vienna’s Belvedere Museum. However, Klimt’s “last masterpiece,” a portrait of an unidentified woman with a fan, achieved a remarkable feat in 2023 when it was sold for £85.3 million ($108.4 million) in London. This sale surpassed Klimt’s personal auction record and became the most expensive artwork ever sold at a European auction.
In addition to this, another long-lost and recovered Klimt painting, “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser,” which was believed to be one of his final works, was sold for €30 million ($32 million) last year.
(CNN)
