Serena Pulitzer Lederer (1867–1943)  1899

Beautiful and stylish, Serena Pulitzer Lederer was a star of turn-of-the-century Viennese society. For this portrait, commissioned by her husband, the industrialist August Lederer, Klimt employed soft, sinuous brushstrokes to present Serena as an apparition in white. "An upright flower, long-stemmed … like a black tulip," enthused one critic when the painting was shown in ...