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Art Has The Power To Transcend Time, Culture, And Emotion. Dive In And Look How The Portraits We Have Got For You Have A Unique Way Of Capturing The Essence Of Their Subjects.

- ISHITA KAMRA

How much are you willing to pay for a captivating piece of art? There’s no denying the power of a breathtaking painting can evoke a variety of emotions and even act as the centrepiece of a room. But, at what cost? For some collectors, the sky’s the limit in terms of what they are willing to pay in the name of good art. Year after year, auction houses and private galleries see record-breaking sales for artworks. Here, we are taking a look at some of the expensive portraits ever to be sold in art history.

1. PORTRAIT OF ADELE BLOCHBAUER II BY GUSTAV KLIMT

Adele Bloch-Bauer II — is a 1912 painting by Gustav Klimt, i.e., the only model to be painted twice by Klimt. The subject of this painting was a refined art-loving Viennese salon lady. Adele Bloch-Bauer was the wife of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who was a wealthy industrialist, who sponsored the arts and supported Gustav Klimt. She also appeared in the much more famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. In this portrait, she is placed in the centre as a towering figure, in her opulent dress and set against a jewel-toned background, which is richly decorated, typical of any Klimt work.

The setting against a jewel-toned backdrop of nearly abstract patterned blocks suggest a richly decorated domestic interior. Klimt’s original oil paintings were painstakingly reproduced as collotypes on a handmade, deckled-edge cream that wove paper using a complex gravure process overseen by master technicians as well as the artist himself. And, this Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II is an extraordinary example of the collotype process, capturing the resolution of the original 1912 oil painting.