Who is hermine gallia

Moritz began by running one of the most modern gas and electricity plants in the empire and later held shares in numerous other companies. The couple were among those members of affluent middle-class society in Vienna who had Jewish roots and were very receptive to modern art and culture.

The Gallias not only commissioned Klimt to paint a portrait of Hermine and, in addition, owned a landscape painting by him but, in , they had their whole house furnished by Klimt's fellow artist, the brilliant architect and designer Josef Hoffmann. Klimt's portrait of Hermine Gallia is full height, although the lower part of her dress is cut off by the bottom of the painting.

Indeed, in many of his portraits, Klimt shows his subjects in such close-up that the lower part of their body—their feet and shoes—cannot be seen in the painting. The Three Ages of Woman. The Sunflower. Death and Life. Beethoven Frieze. Birch Forest. Wearing a shimmering dress made of translucent white chiffon, Hermine Gallia appears almost to float before us.

The sinuous lines of her dress recall Art Nouveau and Japanese prints. Klimt was the leading artist in Austria at the time. He was a founder member and the first president of the Vienna Secession, an association established in to promote modernism in art, design and architecture. Hermine Gallia and her husband were also important patrons of the avant garde. This is the only painting by Klimt in a British public collection.

In she married her uncle, Moriz Gallia, who was 12 years older and originally from Moravia. Hermine and her husband were among the many thousands of Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire who had moved to Vienna, where they helped create a newly wealthy middle class in the city.

Unable to match the social pedigree of the established Catholic nobility, this new middle class instead asserted itself through cultural patronage, often favouring the avant garde. He was a founder-member and the first president of the Vienna Secession, an association established in to promote modernism in art, design and architecture.

By commissioning a portrait from Klimt, the Gallias were making a clear statement about their own social status — one that was based on taste, rather than birth. Around 40 preparatory sketches for the portrait have been identified.

Klimt produced these quickly, as Hermine moved around his studio. In some she is seated in profile, in others she is shown full-face.

But this does not detract from the skill with which Klimt teased out the essentials of the personality and character of his sitters even though they have to compete for attention with his sumptuous backgrounds or with the elaborate dresses which Klimt delighted in further elaborating. And so it is with his Portrait of Hermine Gallia.