Beautiful and stylish, Serena Pulitzer Lederer was a star of turn-of-the-century Viennese society. For this portrait, commissioned by her husband, the industrialist August Lederer, Klimt employed soft, sinuous brushstrokes to present Serena as an apparition in white. An upright flower, long-stemmed ¡ like a black tulip, enthused one critic when the painting was shown in 1901 at the tenth exhibition of the Vienna Secession¡ªa group founded by Klimt and other artists four years earlier, with the aim of putting the city at the forefront of the international art world. The Lederers subsequently formed the finest collection of Klimt¡¯s work in private hands. Title Serena Pulitzer Lederer (1867¨C1943) Creator Gustav Klimt Date Created 1899 Physical Dimensions 75 1/8 x 33 5/8 in. (190.8 x 85.4 cm) Signature Signed (lower right) GVS.TAV / KLIMT¡¤ Medium Oil on canvas Credit Line Purchase, Wolfe Fund, and Rogers and Munsey Funds, Gift of Henry Walters, and Bequests of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe and Collis P. Huntington, by exchange, 1980 Accession Number 1980.412
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