PRESS RELEASE
The National Gallery in Prague
The National Gallery in Prague present
Gustav Klimt’s Lady with a Muff
A major painting on loan from a private collection, on display from June 27, 2014
Collection of 20th- and 21st-century International Art, Veletržní Palace
Curator: Olga Uhrová
On June 27, 2014, the National Gallery in Prague, Collection of Modern and
Contemporary Art, will add to its permanent exhibition of 20th- and 21st-century
International Art a painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862–1918), a key figure
in the Vienna Secession. Klimt developed a distinctive style that captured the wholly
original atmosphere of fin de siècle Vienna.
The female subject was central to the work of Klimt. He painted portraits of
contemporary women with a mysterious, dreamy expression, but also with energy and
a lust for life. The painting Lady with a Muff dating from 1916–1917 is one such
portrait. The coquettish way in which she obscures part of her face with the fur evokes
Klimt’s earlier 1909 work Woman with Hat and Feather Boa (Österreichische Galerie
Belvedere, Vienna). However, the brightly coloured background of Lady with a Muff is
different, emphasizing the colour and newly referencing inspiration found in Asian art.
These Asian-influenced figures, reflecting Klimt’s interest as a collector of Japanese
and Chinese art, may be found in other of his paintings such as The Polecat Fur (Der
Iltispelz; private collection), which depicts another woman wrapped in a fur coat partly
obscuring her face.
Last displayed in Vienna in 1926, Lady with a Muff (1916–1917) has long been
thought lost. Nevertheless, the list of Klimt’s paintings by F. Novotný and J. Dobai
(Vienna 1967) and later sources refer to it as “in a private collection”. The private
collector purchased Lady with a Muff in the late 1920s or early 1930s, and the
National Gallery in Prague may once again present the painting to the public courtesy
of its current owner.
This loan is an important companion to two other well-known Klimt paintings in the
National Gallery in Prague’s permanent collection – Water Castle (1908) and The
Virgin (1914).
Visitors may attend a lecture and guided tour with curator Olga Uhrová “A new loan
of a painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt” on June 29, 2014 at 4.30 p.m. in
the permanent exhibition of international art on the first floor of the Veletržní Palace.
Contact for Journalists:
Eva Kolerusová, tel.: 222 321 459, mob.: 724 501 535
e-mail: kolerusova@ngprague.cz