Klimt, Gustav, Austrian painter (1862-1918). Autograph inscription and signature on backing cardboard of a photograph showing Klimt's painting "The Old Court Theatre (View From the Stage Toward the House)".

€ 12,500.00

Heliogravure by the Viennese art publisher J. Löwy after Gustav Klimt's watercolour, now in the Wien Museum (IN 31.813), inscribed to the statesman Count Eduard Taaffe, Viscount Taaffe, in German in the lower right margin: "Sr. Excellenz dem Herrn Ministerpräsidenten Grafen Taaffe in größter Ehrfurcht. Gustav Klimt 30/I 1890" ("To His Excellency the Minister-President Count Taaffe in deepest veneration. Gustav Klimt 30 Jan. 1890"). Taafe is depicted on the first balcony, fourth from the left. In 1888 Klimt had been commissioned to record for posterity the old Court Theatre on Vienna's Michaelerplatz (St. Michael's Square), to be demolished in autumn that same year. Klimt integrated some 200 miniature portraits of contemporary celebrities into his painting.

Edges a little bumped and scuffed, cardboard stained and browned. Image nearly flawless; inscription and signature a little faded.