Portrait of Fritza Riedler

Portrait of Fritza Riedler, oil painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt that was created in 1906 and is regarded as among his most successful works. Noted mechanical engineer Alois Riedler commissioned Klimt to paint this majestic portrait of his wife, and, after the death of both Alois and Fritza Riedler, Fritza’s sister sold the portrait to the Belvedere Museum in Vienna.

In this portrait, Fritza Riedler emerges from a stylized chair in a froth of white lace and heavy satin ribbons. Only her aristocratic bearing, size, and position in the pyramidal composition keep her from being swamped by the decorative elements. Every part of the canvas is adorned with geometrical and organic forms in gold and silver. Riedler’s head is framed by an ornate mosaic stained glass window.

The intense realism of Riedler’s face and the details of her dress stand in contrast to the abstract decoration of the room surrounding her. The flattening out of the chair also acts as a frame that allows the sitter to exist as the only three-dimensional object in the painting. Klimt’s iconoclastic approach to portraiture and his melding of decorative and fine art influenced generations of artists and remains unique and compelling.