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What the painting shows
Women Friends by Klimt presents two stylized female figures against a patchy pink background with no representational depth. On the right, a woman stands in three-quarter view wearing a voluminous red garment and a patterned headscarf. Leaning against her shoulder is a nude woman adorned with decorative fabric tied at her neck. Both women look directly out at the viewer.
Klimt fills the surrounding space with oriental motifs drawn from Chinese art. A lotus appears in the upper left, while a colorful phoenix sits in the lower left corner and a crane perches on the right. Dark outlines give these decorative birds and flowers an illustrative quality. The composition avoids realistic lighting and anatomical shading, using loose, visible brushwork across the skin, garments, and flat background.
The story behind it
Klimt painted the square oil canvas between 1916 and 1917, near the end of his life. Unlike most commissioned portraits from this phase of his career, the work features imagined characters rather than specific sitters. The models remain unknown. The close physical pairing presents an ambiguous feminine relationship, reflecting themes of female intimacy popular in French culture during that era.
Viennese collectors August and Serena Lederer acquired the work directly from the artist. It stood among their prominent holdings of Klimt’s late works, which you can explore across the guide to every Klimt painting.
What happened to it
Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, Nazi authorities seized the Lederer art collection. They placed Women Friends onto the official Reich List of cultural property. In 1943, the regime included the canvas in a Klimt retrospective staged at the Vienna Secession building, which was then operating as the Friedrichstrasse Gallery.
After the exhibition closed, officials moved the painting to Schloss Immendorf for protection from wartime bombing. In 1945, an unexplained fire consumed the castle and completely destroyed the square canvas. Because the painting was lost in the blaze, only historical photographs preserve its appearance today.
Questions about Women Friends
What happened to Women Friends by Klimt?
Women Friends by Klimt was destroyed in May 1945 during a fire at Schloss Immendorf in Austria. Nazi authorities had transferred the seized Lederer collection to the castle for safekeeping after exhibiting it in 1943. The origins of the fire that burned the castle and destroyed the square canvas remain mysterious, leaving behind only historical photographs of the lost artwork.
What does Women Friends by Klimt show?
Women Friends by Klimt depicts two women against a patchy pink background. One woman stands naked with colorful jewelry and neck fabric, resting against a companion dressed in a loose red robe and patterned headscarf. Surrounding both figures are Chinese luck symbols, including a lotus flower, a phoenix on the left, and a crane on the right, all outlined in black.
