EPISODE · Nov 19, 2025 · 34 MIN
Gustav Klimt and the women who shaped his world
from Chronicles of Sex · host Benjamin Hazlitt
Meet Gustav Klimt, whose portrait of Elisabeth Lederer just fetched 236,5 million $ at Sotheby's in New York. The second most expensive painting ever sold. Klimt, living in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, was an artist, torn between muse and mistress, beauty and rebellion, the sacred and the profane. Klimt's iconic portraits of women, his fervent relationships with Emilie Flöge and Adele Bloch-Bauer and his scandalous vision have forever changed the way we see desire, art and the power of the feminine.
What this episode covers
Meet Gustav Klimt, whose portrait of Elisabeth Lederer just fetched 236,5 million $ at Sotheby's in New York. The second most expensive painting ever sold. Klimt, living in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, was an artist, torn between muse and mistress, beauty and rebellion, the sacred and the profane. Klimt's iconic portraits of women, his fervent relationships with Emilie Flöge and Adele Bloch-Bauer and his scandalous vision have forever changed the way we see desire, art and the power of the feminine.
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Gustav Klimt and the women who shaped his world
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