Bösendorfer Klimt ‘Woman in Gold’ 214VC Grand Piano

Gustav Klimt ( 1862-1918 ), one of the most famous Austrian painters and artists of the Viennese Art Nouveau, and Bösendorfer, both greatly represent Austrian culture, dedicated craftsmanship, as well as artistic expression. The second model of our Klimt Series is dedicated to the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

In 1903, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, wealthy entrepreneur and connoisseur of great art, asks Gustav Klimt to portrait his wife. Klimt agrees and in the same year, travels to Italy. The gold-decorated church mosaics inspire him to translate this rich artistic expression to contemporary art. Over the following years, Klimt produces more than 100 sketches and studies for the dedicated painting. He experiments with various techniques until he succeeds in applying extensive amounts of silver and gold leaf to the oil painting.

With sophisticated reprographic techniques the high resolution image of the original painting was reproduced on the inside of the Bösendorfer Grand Piano lid. Furthermore, the Klimt painting has been refined by the skilled application of gold leaf. Our Bösendorfer Artisans lavishly gilded the music desk and the leg tops to reflect the golden expression of Art Nouveau. The Klimt model is limited to 25 instruments and each Grand Piano carries an individually crafted brass plate. A sincere tribute to precious materials and lavish art.

Every detail of a Bösendorfer Piano is carefully considered.

Resonance Case Principle

Very similar in principle to a violin, the whole body, not just the soundboard, supports sound formation. The core of the piano rim consists of a 10 mm quarter-sawn piece that is specially grooved by experienced craftsmen to allow it to be bent to the silhouette around the inner rim. This is unique to Bösendorfer. When a note is played, the integrated spruce components become acoustically active, forming a complete resonating body that allows the whole instrument to project your play and delivers an outstanding richness of tone colour. This complex construction is part of the Viennese tradition of piano making.