Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer by Gustav Klimt

Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer (1916) by Gustav Klimt is a vintage Victorian Era Symbolism fine art portrait painting. Friederike-Maria requested that Klimt paint her in a Viennese Workshop dress which she wore exclusively. Klimt decided that she should wear her fur coat inside out so that the decorative lining (also by the Viennese Workshop) was visible. Klimt made use of an oriental screen as the backdrop featuring scenes of figures fighting on horseback, they are taken from a Korean vase owned by Klimt and are a reference to World War I. About the artist: Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement.