Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I by Gustav Klimt Jenny Liz Rome grounded in natural material —

grounded in natural material — gives it an almost abstract quality at distance

with no hard lines to anchor the arrangement

preserving the layered colour and fine detail of the Meiji originals

Goed Blauw's characteristic playfulness comes through in the loose

but the cooler undertone of the background gives the silver fish an almost jewel-like quality against the dark field

Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I by Gustav Klimt Jenny Liz Rome grounded in natural material —This iconic portrait consumed Klimt for nearly four years, the surface built up from genuine gold and silver leaf hammered into a tapestry of Byzantine and Mycenaean motifs. Adele Bloch Bauer sits at the heart of this gilded field, composed and almost otherworldly, her face and hands the only naturalistic elements in an otherwise abstract sea of pattern. The painting's extraordinary ambition to dissolve portraiture into pure decoration was never more