Gustav Klimt - Birch Forest 1903
Gustav Klimt - Birch Forest 1903
110x110cm oil/canvas
Sold for: USD 40.33 million
Auction house: Christie's, New York
Sale date: 8 November 2006
Seller: Heirs of Adele and Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
Buyer: Anonymous buyer
From Christie's, New York:
Klimt's landscapes almost all dated from the Sommerfrische period of his year, when he would be physically and geographically immersed in the wonders of nature, rather than cooped up in his city studio. This was the time of his escape from the bustle of Vienna, from his usual routine, when all those who could head for the countryside would head for the countryside. For most of Klimt's summers, this time was spent in one place or another on the Attersee, a lake in the Austrian mountains. As in so many other years, when Birch Forest was painted in the summer of 1903, the artist was a guest of the Flöge family in Litzlberg. These were close friends, as well as family: Klimt's late brother Ernst had been married to Helene, and the artist himself was guardian to their daughter, also called Helene.