Before 1938

Maria Altmann was born into an affluent Jewish family in Vienna, Austria in 1916. Every Sunday she and her four older siblings would have brunch over at the beautiful palais owned by her uncle Ferdinand and aunt Adele. The palais, a large building on one of the finest streets in Vienna, was gorgeously decorated with fine artworks, tapestries, porcelain and furniture. When Adele died suddenly of meningitis in 1925, Ferdinand created a memorial room for her with her two full-length portraits by Klimt and four landscapes. A seventh Klimt painting was in Ferdinand’s bedroom.

When Adele died, she left behind a short will that asked that her husband donate the two portraits and four landscapes to the Austrian Gallery after his death. Although the paintings belonged to Ferdinand, and not his wife, Ferdinand allegedly stated that he intended to fulfill his wife’s wishes although he was not legally required to do so.  In 1936, at the request of the Austrian Gallery, Ferdinand donated one of the landscapes to the museum.