The work was created between 1901 and 1902 during Klimt’s summers on Lake Attersee. The painting is an early example of a work executed in the square format Klimt would come to be known for.[4][5]Insel im Attersee was owned by Paul and Irene Hellmann,[6] a Jewish couple who were persecuted by the Nazis. Irene and her son, Bernhard, were both murdered in the Holocaust, Irene in Auschwitz in 1944 and Bernhard in Sobibor in 1943.[7][8][9][10]
In May of 2023 the painting sold for $53.2 million at Sotheby'sinNew York City. The work was sold from the collection of Otto Kallir who exhibited it in the landmark show Saved from Europe at his art venue Galerie St. Etienne in New York City in 1940. The work ostensibly introduced Klimt's work to a North American viewership.[11][12]
From 1898 forward, Klimt spent his summers in the Salzkammergut region of Austria where Lake Attersee is located and it was here that he was able to paint en plein air for the first time.
This painting is one of two that Klimt did of the same view between 1900 and 1902, with first work titled Attersee dating from 1900 now residing in the Leopold MuseuminVienna.[13]
Comparisons of this work to paintings by the French ImpressionistClaude Monet have been made in accordance of the two artists similarities in their handling of water.[14]
^"About Irene Hellmann-Redlich". Joods Monument. Retrieved 13 November 2023. In 1939, Irene Hellmann fled to the home of her eldest son, Bernhard, who had been living in Rotterdam for some time. During the years of occupation, Irene spent some time living in Bilthoven. She then went into hiding in Amsterdam, where she was betrayed and then captured by the Germans. Irene was murdered in Auschwitz. Her son Bernhard was killed in Sobibor.
