Portrait of Barbara Flöge (mother of Emilie Flöge)

Portrait of Barbara Flöge (c. 1900) is one of the most personally significant works in Klimt's output — Barbara was the mother of Emilie Flöge, the fashion designer and businesswoman who was Klimt's closest lifelong companion. The two met through Klimt's brother Ernst, who married Emilie's sister Helene before his early death in 1892; Klimt and Emilie Flöge maintained an intimate relationship for the rest of his life, spending summers together at the Attersee and collaborating on her fashion business, the Schwestern Flöge salon in Vienna's Casa Piccola. Painting Barbara Flöge was an act of intimate connection with a woman who was effectively his family. The portrait likely dates from around the time of the Secession's founding and the early development of Klimt's mature style. It is a relatively private work compared to the formal society commissions of the same period, and the relaxed formality — if present — would reflect the family relationship between painter and subject. The work exists on the margins of Klimt scholarship, less studied than the major society portraits, but its biographical significance to understanding Klimt's emotional world is considerable.

Oil on canvas with the transitional technique of Klimt's 1900 period — more exploratory than the fully crystallised Golden Phase style, combining academic modelling in the face with an increasing tendency toward decorative simplification in the background and dress. The warm domestic character of a family portrait likely influenced the tonal register.