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Ria Munch on his deathbed
Gustav Klimt • Painting, 1912, 50×50 cm
Description of the artwork «Ria Munch on his deathbed»
Three paintings by Gustav Klimt depict a young woman named Maria Munch. She was not a relative of another famous artist, but came from a very influential family - Viennese businessman Alexander Munch and Aranka Pulitzer Munch, sister of Serena Lederer - one of the main patrons of Klimt.
The paradox is that not one of these paintings was painted during the lifetime of Mary. A twenty-four-year-old girl shot herself in the chest after breaking up with her lover, writer Hans Heinz Evers. The first time Klimt painted Riya on his deathbed, but her family wanted to keep her daughter in the memory of another, so the artist received an order for her portrait, created as if during her lifetime.
In 1913 he proceeded to work but didn't finish it. In a letter to Emilia Flöge, Klimt complained that he could not achieve portrait similarity. Believed that the picture"Dancer" was the artist’s second attempt to paint a portrait of Maria Munch.
The paradox is that not one of these paintings was painted during the lifetime of Mary. A twenty-four-year-old girl shot herself in the chest after breaking up with her lover, writer Hans Heinz Evers. The first time Klimt painted Riya on his deathbed, but her family wanted to keep her daughter in the memory of another, so the artist received an order for her portrait, created as if during her lifetime.
In 1913 he proceeded to work but didn't finish it. In a letter to Emilia Flöge, Klimt complained that he could not achieve portrait similarity. Believed that the picture"Dancer" was the artist’s second attempt to paint a portrait of Maria Munch.
