BO Klimt FRE A-OK 19 Jan 2011.qxp
2/7/2011
11:21 AM
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PORTRAIT OF EUGENIA PRIMAVESI 1913 Oil on canvas, 140 x 84 cm Private collection
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ugenia Primavesi (1874-1963), who used the stage name “Mäda” – which she also passed on to her daughter, was the wife of banker and industrial magnate Otto Primavesi, a descendant of Lombardian immigrants. Their shared art patronage and general obsession with art later lead them to total ruin, especially during the ten years in which Otto led the Wiener Werkstätten. Eugenia, a former actress, was now, in her mid-thirties, in the prime of her life. So it is not a surprise that her husband, still wealthy in 1912, wanted to preserve her beauty in art. He commissioned Klimt to paint a portrait of his wife and, while he was at it, also his nine year old daughter. Klimt first finished the portrait of Mäda Primavesi, the daughter, in the same year. Klimt made the painting in a nearly life-sized – the portrait of Eugenia ends at her knees – rectangular format and painted the former actress in front of a golden yellow background. This portrait is among the first in which Klimt used the symbol-laden style of portraiture he became famous for later on, and which symbolized a renunciation of classical academic portraiture. He makes use of decorative symbolic elements to emphasise and analyse the psychological depth of the person which he portrays. The only piece of jewellery that Eugenia wears is her wedding ring. The upper part of her body is positioned in front of an arched recess – maybe a window – that reveals richly coloured flowers on a green background. The curve of the arch corresponds to the form of her head and her rounded shoulders. Her hair is styled according to the latest fashion and she is looking directly at the viewer; open, confident but inapproachable at the same time. Women who want to study acting, considered an objectionable and rather shady profession at that time, had to display an immense self-confidence in justifying their choice of career to their families and relatives. The colourful dress that is embellished with a huge bow in the chest area attests to Eugenia’s confidence. Eugenia outlived her husband, with whom she had four children and shared a lifetime of highs and lows, for nearly four decades before she died in 1963, well advanced in years.
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