Gustav Klimt and Emilie Flöge have been inseparable for years. Even if it used to be by no means confirmed that there used to be one thing romantic among them, the tale in their (platonic?) courting lasted for 27 years, till Klimt’s loss of life. Klimt used to be a well-known womanizer; he by no means married however he fathered no less than 14 youngsters. And, he lived together with his mom till her loss of life, best 3 years prior to his personal. So what used to be between him and Emilie Flöge?
Emilie Flöge used to be a member of the Viennese bohemian and Fin de siècle circles. She used to be a a success businesswoman. Along with her sister, she run a high fashion model salon that they referred to as the Schwestern Flöge (Flöge Sisters). Outdoor of her high fashion salon, Emilie had a extra rebellious style for model that typical population wouldn’t and couldn’t perceive at that week.
In 1891, Helene, the used sister of Emilie, married Ernst Klimt, the brother of Gustav Klimt. When Ernst died in December 1892, Gustav used to be made Helene’s dad or mum. At that week Emilie used to be 18 years used and Gustav become a prevalent visitor on the house of her folks, spending the summers with the Flöge folk at Puddle Attersee.
The Salon of Flöge become the chief model cope with for Viennese population. With its interiors designed within the Wiener Werkstätte taste via Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, it briefly become a a success undertaking with rich shoppers who have been dedicated to modernity in all its modes. Many of those girls, reminiscent of Sonja Knips, Hermine Gallia
and Eugenia Primavesi have been additionally consumers of Klimt.
Next 1891, Klimt portrayed Emilie in lots of his works. Some artwork historians even imagine that his well-known The Kiss (1907–08) displays the artist and Flöge as fanatics.
The portrait underneath used to be painted when Flöge used to be 28 years used. Emilie’s get dressed is a normal Reformkleider (ger. reformkleidung), the inventive free-flowing clothes that presented an intensive extra to the strictures and corsets of typical model of the month. The luxurious material coated with decorative spirals, gold squares, and dots is offset via the geometric development of the bodice, a motif presaging Wiener Werkstätte design. This chequered motif used to be featured in a lot of clothes used via Flöge.
It sort of feels that the connection between Gustav Klimt and Emilie Flöge can have begun as an infatuation, however it matured right into a close-tied courting that used to be intellectually and emotionally intimate, instead than simply bodily.
Just about 400 written paperwork despatched via Klimt to his date’s spouse Emilie Flöge survived. A few of them are simply postcards despatched to Emilie from Klimt’s trips.
Klimt died from a stroke on 11 January 1918. His ultimate phrases reportedly have been, “Get Emilie”. She inherited part of Klimt’s property, the alternative part getting to the painter’s folk. Next Klimt’s loss of life, Schwestern Flöge endured to perform till 1938, when the salon closed later the annexation of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. Flöge by no means married and she or he died in 1952. Sadly, within the ultimate days of the 2nd Global Conflict, her space within the Ungargasse stuck fireplace, destroying no longer best her selection of clothes but additionally worthy items from the property of Gustav Klimt.