
The Lady in Gold
The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer'
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Narrated by:
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Coleen Marlo
"The Lady in Gold", a portrait considered an unforgettable masterpiece, one of the 20th century's most recognizable paintings, made headlines all over the world when Ronald Lauder bought it for $135 million a century after Klimt, the most famous Austrian painter of his time, completed the society portrait.
Anne-Marie O'Connor, writer for the Washington Post, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, tells the galvanizing story of the Lady in Gold, Adele Bloch-Bauer, a dazzling Viennese Jewish society figure; daughter of the head of one of the largest banks in the Hapsburg Empire, head of the Oriental Railway, whose Orient Express went from Berlin to Constantinople; wife of Ferdinand Bauer, sugar-beet baron.
The Bloch-Bauers were art patrons, and Adele herself was considered a rebel of fin de siècle Vienna (she wanted to be educated, a notion considered “degenerate” in a society that believed women being out in the world went against their feminine "nature"). The author describes how Adele inspired the portrait and how Klimt made more than a hundred sketches of her - simple pencil drawings on thin manila paper.
And O'Connor writes of Klimt himself, son of a failed gold engraver, shunned by arts bureaucrats, called an artistic heretic in his time, a genius in ours. She writes of the Nazis confiscating the portrait of Adele from the Bloch-Bauers' grand palais; of the Austrian government putting the painting on display, stripping Adele's Jewish surname from it so that no clues to her identity (nor any hint of her Jewish origins) would be revealed. Nazi officials called the painting, "The Lady in Gold" and proudly exhibited it in Vienna's Baroque Belvedere Palace, consecrated in the 1930s as a Nazi institution.
The author writes of the painting, inspired by the Byzantine mosaics Klimt had studied in Italy, with their exotic symbols and swirls, the subject an idol in a golden shrine. We see how, 60 years after it was stolen by the Nazis, the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer became the subject of a decade-long litigation between the Austrian government and the Bloch-Bauer heirs, how and why the U.S. Supreme Court became involved in the case, and how the Court's decision had profound ramifications in the art world.
In this book listeners will find riveting social history; an illuminating and haunting look at turn-of-the-century Vienna; a brilliant portrait of the evolution of a painter; a masterfully told tale of suspense. And at the heart of it, The Lady in Gold - the shimmering painting, and its equally irresistible subject, the fate of each forever intertwined.
©2012 Anne-Marie O'Connor (P)2012 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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Compelling and revealing
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complicated
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Fascinating tragic story of Adele Bloch Bauer
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The history of art and war
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Story had so many facts it was overwhelming and cumbersome.
Storyline was extremely interesting. I attend many museums around the world. Wish I could go see the paintings in life.
The Lady in Gold
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This is fantastic!
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Ansloosch?
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treatment of the Jews was different than any I had read before. Many many personal stories.
Q
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Historical synopsis of WWII Vienna
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If you could sum up The Lady in Gold in three words, what would they be?
fascinating, intriguing contentWhat other book might you compare The Lady in Gold to and why?
The hare with the amber eye -- both books deal with art and war and offer a lot for the imagination.What didn’t you like about Coleen Marlo’s performance?
She rushed through the narration. With a good narrator, the listener would be able to savor the words. This is a book that sparks the imagination, but the hastily read language does not allow the mind the freedom to explore. It sounded like the narrator is paid by the book, and she read as fast as possible to get through it.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, I like to savor my books.Any additional comments?
I would buy this again with a different narrator.Terrible narrator for a great book
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