The painting last appeared at auction at Sotheby's in London in November 1984 and sold for £140.000. It is an iteration of Ernst Klimt's monumental decorative panel painted for and which adorns the grand staircase of the Burgtheater in Vienna. This easel version was begun in 1892 and in December of that year, Ernst Klimt died suddenly at the age of twenty-nine. This large-scale and highly detailed painting was completed by his brother (the Klimt family had also lost their father in July). Gustav produced fewer works during this period of emotional upheaval and this example is therefore a rare painting executed at the height of his successful Ringstrasse period. In the work, some of the faces in the original ceiling composition have been replaced with new portraits of family members, including Klimt's mother, sisters and surviving brother Georg, to celebrate and immortalise them during a period of mourning.
Gustav Klimt's sentimental commitment to his family
The painting reveals Gustav's commitment to his brother's legacy and his kindness in supporting his widowed sister-in-law Helene (née Flöge) and a five-month-old niece. Signed Ernst Klimt by Gustav, it was exhibited under Ernst's name in 1895 and sold to a private Viennese collector for 8.400 florins. As in the ceiling painting “Hanswurst”, a popular German-language improvisational comedy character occupies a public seat who with a comical expression on his face makes an overly dramatic gesture towards himself. It depicts a market square with spectators in historical eighteenth-century costume. The authenticity of the scene is enhanced by the accurate rendering of the architecture and the quality of the portraiture, which characterizes both the Klimt and Flöge family members.
