Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I: object, meaning and image rights

Artwork rights verdict

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I: checked, with limits

Last reviewed10 August 2026

The artwork has a supported public-domain record in the EU and US; the recorded Commons reproduction is assessed separately from the Neue Galerie website image.

01

The artwork

The historical composition and Klimt’s authorship are the copyright-term question.

02

This image file

The scan, photograph, download terms and any later edits require their own record.

Jurisdiction checks

European Union — economic copyrightpublic-domain term

Directive 2006/116/EC applies life plus 70 years, calculated from 1 January after the relevant event. Klimt died in 1918, so the standard term ended before 1 January 1989. National moral-rights rules remain separate.

United States — this work recordsupported public-domain record

Albertina’s catalogue raisonné records a 1907 illustrated appearance in Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, while the exact Commons record marks the work public domain in the US as published before 1931. The publication fact and file record are stated separately.

Digital reproduction fileseparate checks remain

The artwork term does not grant permission to every scan. Use only the exact source-file record below; site terms, contract limits, trademarks and privacy can still matter.

Source file record

One exact file, not a blanket permission

Open source record ↗

Upstream

Wikimedia Commons faithful reproduction; object held by Neue Galerie New York

Upstream SHA-1

51be76df92ed3bbbc3b28b60c2de863cd45fd207

GeMarkt derivative

/blog/art-history/klimt-adele-bloch-bauer-i.webp

Derivative SHA-256

7c7c46a01160081fb72d9f0df6ec67e2ddc7ea378609c7c228eff0e7d6ae2aa5

Dimensions

1800 × 1799 pixels

Rights statement

Public Domain Mark; faithful two-dimensional reproduction

Transformation

Resized to 1,800 pixels wide and converted to WebP; no crop.

Use guidance: This record covers the linked Commons file, not the images served by Neue Galerie. Retrieve reuse files from the recorded source page and re-check its current notice.

Practical use

• Discuss the portrait and its ownership history without confusing ownership of the canvas with copyright.
• Reuse the exact recorded Commons file under its Public Domain Mark assessment, subject to checks where you use it.
• Do not copy Neue Galerie page images merely because the underlying painting is out of term.

Evidence opened in this review

1. Neue Galerie object and provenance record (object)
2. Albertina catalogue raisonné: 1907 illustrated publication (publication)
3. Exact Wikimedia Commons file record (file)
4. US Supreme Court opinion on physical-property claim (object)

General information, not legal advice. Re-check the source record and the law where you will use the file.

Object record

Klimt completed Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I in 1907 after years of studies begun around 1903. It is oil, gold and silver on canvas and is now held by Neue Galerie New York. The museum’s object and provenance account identifies Adele, the materials and the acquisition from the Bloch-Bauer heirs in 2006.

The portrait is commonly called Woman in Gold, but that later nickname can hide the sitter. Adele Bloch-Bauer was a named person, patron and collector, and Klimt painted her twice in full-length portraits. Keeping her name in the title is part of keeping the object history visible.

A close look

Adele’s face and hands occupy surprisingly little of the square. Klimt concentrates likeness in those exposed areas, then lets the dress, chair and background merge into a nearly continuous gold field. The effect is not that Adele vanishes. Her pale face becomes more specific because everything around it refuses ordinary depth.

The eyes set into triangular forms on the dress look outward while Adele’s own gaze meets the viewer more quietly. Spirals gather around the chair; rectangular blocks make a low base; the initials “AB” are embedded in the cloak. Ornament does not merely decorate a body already complete. It builds the portrait’s space and social weight.

The clasped hands create a second centre beneath the face. Neue Galerie notes that the pose concealed a finger about which Adele was self-conscious. Even without that biographical fact, the compressed gesture changes the rhythm: the hands are tense and angular against the broad, liquid field of gold.

Portrait, ownership and copyright

The painting was taken from the Bloch-Bauer collection under Nazi rule and later became the subject of a restitution claim. The US Supreme Court’s 2004 decision in Republic of Austria v. Altmann concerned whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act applied to the claim. It did not decide copyright in the painted composition, and it did not grant permission to copy a museum’s web image.

Those are three distinct records: the physical canvas and its ownership; Klimt’s economic copyright in the artwork; and the rights or terms attached to a particular scan. The dossier keeps them separate because an important ownership history should not be used as a shortcut in either direction.

Publication and file evidence

The US evidence here is stronger than a creation date. Albertina’s catalogue raisonné entry records that the completed portrait appeared with an illustration in Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration in 1907 and was exhibited in Mannheim that year. The exact Commons file page separately marks its reproduction public domain in the US as a pre-1931 publication.

The local image above is derived from that named Commons file, not copied from Neue Galerie’s page. Its upstream SHA-1, local SHA-256, dimensions and transformation are visible in the Source File record. A replacement image would require a new record.

Where to go next

The Klimt rights guide explains the EU, US and file layers. Browse the Klimt print collection for the commercial path, or use the free Adele wallpaper for the separate personal-use download.