Portrait of adele bloch-bauer i price
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 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.
Ferdinand bloch bauer biography examples MAK-Archiv, Hauptaktenzahlen , , , , , 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 But when she was 82, she learned from the tenacious Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin that the title to the paintings was hers, and she vowed to get them back. On the wall hung a painting of the Fountain of Youth by Albrecht Altdorfer, a German contemporary of Hieronymus Bosch; a tranquil wooden Madonna stood on a pedestal.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. 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.
Ferdinand bloch bauer biography examples for kids While Frederick was working for aerospace firm Lockheed Martin in California, Bernhard had started a new textile factory in Liverpool, England. The three-person arbitration court concluded on 15 January that the paintings should be returned to the heirs. Lauder became prominent in the world of Viennese art and antiques: as a private individual he donated fifty thousand dollars for the re-gilding of the dome of the Secession Building, which had been neglected by the city for decades. Altmann was left with only memories of the paintings, as they were stolen when the Nazis took over Austria inSince 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]