Gustav Klimt · memoir · posthumous portrait
Ria Munk: three portraits for a missing young woman
A sleeping face among flowers, an order that has become The dancer, then a large effigy left unfinished: Klimt tried three times to give a lasting image to Maria "Ria" Munk.
This file separately follows each painting, the painter's hesitations, the persecution of the family and the restitution of Ria Munk III in 2009.
The short answer
Why are there three portraits of Ria Munk?
Maria Munk, called Ria or "Mitzerl" in her family, died on December 28, 1911 at the age of twenty-four. His parents, the industrialist Alexander Munk and Aranka Pulitzer-Munk, asked Gustav Klimt to preserve his image. The painter knows their family environment, linked to Serena and August Lederer, his great patrons.
The first painting, completed in 1912, shows Ria on her deathbed, her eyes closed among the flowers. The family does not consider it the living memory they expected. A second full-length portrait is begun, but Klimt complains of not obtaining the resemblance; the canvas is probably reworked to become The dancer. In 1917, he undertook a third posthumous portrait. His death in February 1918 left the garment and floor partially drawn.
Talking about "three portraits" therefore remains fair, provided that their status is specified: the first is funerary; the second changed model and identity; the third is a late reconstruction, developed several years after Ria's disappearance.
Before the tables
A young Viennese woman too often brought back to the sole story of her death
Maria, known as Ria
Born in 1887 into a family of the Viennese Jewish upper middle class, Ria is the daughter of Aranka and Alexander Munk. The family also stays in Bad Aussee.
Sources show her seeking a margin of autonomy in a world where marriage remains the main social horizon of young women in her community. In particular, she took philosophy courses and frequented Viennese intellectual circles.
Her engagement to the German writer Hanns Heinz Ewers was broken. On December 28, 1911, she committed suicide. Old notices sometimes transform this death into a sentimental episode or a "Viennese drama". A more responsible reading avoids the spectacular: what art history can document is the family's work of mourning and Klimt's difficulty in producing an acceptable image of an absent person.
The order probably goes through Serena Lederer, sister of Aranka and essential patron of Klimt. The Munks are therefore not unknown customers: they belong to the family and cultural network in which the painter has worked for decades.
The three paintings do not allow us to "know" Ria. Rather, they show how a family and an artist tried, each with their own expectations, to negotiate absence.
Compare without confusing
Three images, three functions, three material destinies
The deathbed
A small square format, tightened on the sleeping face and flowers. This is the most directly funerary image.
- Format
- approximately 50 × 50.5 cm
- State
- completed
- Location
- private collection
The portrait erased
Klimt abandons the resemblance and transforms the commission into a dancer's figure, probably Johanna Jusl.
- Date
- around 1916 -1917
- State
- reworked, unfinished at the bottom
- Location
- private collection
The large unfinished portrait
A smiling figure, in a turned profile, taken in a floral and oriental decor still partially drawn.
- Format
- 180.7 × 89.9 cm
- State
- unfinished
- Location
- The Lewis Collection
| Version | What Klimt is looking for | What resists | What the work becomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ria Munk I | Soothe death through sleep, flowers and intimate framing. | The family expects a more vivid memory image. | A self-contained funeral portrait, now in private collection. |
| Ria Munk II | Reconstruct a full-length presence as if Ria were still alive. | Klimt writes that he fails to achieve the resemblance. | The canvas is reworked in The dancer ; initial identity fades. |
| Ria Munk III | Combine precise face, elegant pose and abundant late decor. | Klimt's death interrupted work in 1918. | Non-finito reveals the order of construction of the table. |
Ria Munk I
The sleeping face: an image of death made almost bearable
An intimate square
The small format brings the viewer closer to the face without giving the impression of a public or social portrait.
Eyes closed
Death is translated as sleep. This convention alleviates the violence of the event and maintains the idea of youth.
The floral bed
Flowers, cushions and hair create a colorful setting that evokes both the funeral rite and the iconography of Ophelia.
A presence without gaze
Unlike Klimt's social portraits, no exchange is possible: the entire composition organizes silent contemplation.
Family refusal
Sources differ on the exact wording - portrait rejected, deemed too painful or inadequate - but agree that a new order quickly follows.
A collector's life
The painting notably goes through the collection of Barbra Streisand before returning to the market at the end of the 20th century. It remains private today.
Ria Munk II
When resemblance fails The dancer
A covered identity
Erich Lederer reports that Ria's second portrait was reworked. Current research brings together the final figure of Johanna Jusl, dancer of the Court Opera ballet.
Transformation is not about correcting a few traits. The painting changes function: a missing young woman, whom the family wants to recognize, becomes a decorative and sensual figure. The kimono, the bouquet of anemones and the halo of flowers almost completely absorb the body.
La Neue Galerie recalls that this identification as an ancient portrait of Ria remains a theory, even if it is firmly anchored in testimonies and research. This caution is important: the title Ria Munk II describes a stage that has disappeared under current painting, not what we definitely see on the canvas.
The bottom remains unfinished and the charcoal drawing remains visible. The painting was nevertheless the first Klimt to travel to the United States: it was shown in 1922 in New York, during the opening of the American branch of the Wiener Werkstätte.
Ria Munk III
The most vivid portrait is also the one Klimt never finished
The returned profile
The body appears sideways while the face returns to us. This twist produces a mobile and smiling presence.
Face first
Complexion, hair, mouth and eyes are strongly advanced. Klimt establishes identity before completing clothing and space.
The dress under construction
Arabesques, reserves and visible features show how the painter had to gradually convert the body into a decorative surface.
A glued decor
Flowers, carpets, fabrics and orientalizing figures do not describe a real room. They form a mental montage around the model.
A reconstructed presence
Six years after Ria's death, the smile is not a direct observation. It responds to the family desire for a living and peaceful image.
Non-finito as a document
The 1918 ruling made the method visible: drawing on the prepared canvas, concentration on the head, then slow progression of patterns and colors.
The painting is materially unfinished, but its history is not: Aranka's ownership, dispossession, museum, restitution and sale have continued to change what we see in him.
Preparatory study
The design tests the movement before the fabrics become decor
The body under ornament
Before flowers and carpets, Klimt looks for the general dynamic: leg support, torso tilt, clothing wrap. The lines do not describe a specific costume; they organize a vertical silhouette.
The Leopold Museum preserves another study very close to the painted head, executed in pencil, white chalk and blue and red pencils on Japanese paper. More than ten head studies are associated with the painting in the catalog of drawings.
This abundance confirms the difficulty of the project. Klimt must create a resemblance without a living model, but also respond to a memory command. The drawing offers several possible solutions; the canvas only fixes one, still open.
Ria Munk III
From Aranka Munk's house to the 2009 restitution
Order and incompleteness
Klimt undertakes the third portrait. After his death, the painting returned to Aranka Munk, who kept it and hung it in her house in Bad Aussee.
Deportation and seizure
Aranka and her daughter Lola are deported. Aranka died in 1941; Lola disappeared the following year. Family property in Vienna and Bad Aussee was seized.
Wolfgang Gurlitt
The painting passed into the hands of the merchant Wolfgang Gurlitt. It then entered the municipal collections of Linz, the core of the future Lentos institution.
Acquisition by the city
The city of Linz acquires the Gurlitt ensemble including the portrait. For decades, the work has been presented as one of the museum's masterpieces.
Restitution
After research into provenance and a decision by the city council, Lentos returned the painting to the legitimate heirs of Aranka Munk.
Christie's Sale
The heirs sell Ria Munk III in London for £18.8 million. The work joins The Lewis Collection.
Museums and collections
Can we see the three portraits of Ria Munk today?
| Work | Current situation | Visiting advice |
|---|---|---|
| Ria Munk I | Private collection. | The painting appears during temporary exhibitions. Check the loans announced by the organizing institution. |
| The Dancer/Ria Munk II | Private collection; work regularly highlighted by the Neue Galerie in New York. | The Neue Galerie is closed until fall 2026. The future presence of the work must be confirmed on the official website. |
| Ria Munk III | The Lewis Collection, private collection. | She travels for exhibitions and has notably been presented at the Neue Galerie and in San Francisco. It is not guaranteed as a permanent exhibition. |
| Studies by Ria Munk III | Several museums, including the Leopold Museum and the Albertina in Vienna. | Works on paper rotate for conservation reasons; consult the instructions before traveling. |
For this cycle, "where to see the work?" does not have a permanent answer. The three paintings are private; museum notices and loan calendars are therefore more reliable than old printed guides.
Reproductions available
Compare the unfinished portrait and the canvas that has become The dancer
Two works from the cycle or its transformation are actually present in the store. The links below have been checked in the Shopify catalog.
Unfinished portrait of Maria Munk
The large vertical format leaves the design, the dress under construction and the late floral decoration visible.
See the product sheet
The dancer
The canvas from the supposed second essay: kimono, flowers, almost fused body and background.
See the product sheetKlimt file
Other late portraits to understand the 1917-1918 workshop
Elisabeth Lederer
Monumental portrait, seizure and restitution.
IncompletionJohanna Staude
The blue collar and the last years of Klimt.
1913 - 1918Amalie Zuckerkandl
A command interrupted by war and death.
Modern portraitMäda Primavesi
A child standing facing the decor.
BiographyKlimt's death
The facts of 1918 and the works left in the studio.
Controlled sources
Research bases, museum records and provenance
Gustav Klimt Database
The Munks, the three orders and the return.
Ria Munk IIIChristie's
Notice, analysis, origin and sale from 2010.
Ria Munk IINeue Gallery
The dancer, transformation and exhibition of 1922.
StudyLeopold Museum
Preparatory drawing and Klimt method.
DrawingAlbertina
Study for The dancer and identification of Johanna Jusl.
RestitutionLentos Kunstmuseum
Search for provenance and 2009 decision.
Family contextLentos - file
Ria, Aranka, Bad Aussee and the history of the painting.
Free imagesWikimedia Commons
Works by Klimt in the public domain.
Frequently asked questions
Ria Munk in six answers
Who was Ria Munk?
Maria "Ria" Munk, born in 1887, was the daughter of Aranka Pulitzer-Munk and Alexander Munk. She belonged to a family of the Viennese Jewish upper middle class, related to the Lederers.
Why did Klimt paint it three times?
His parents wanted a posthumous portrait. The first funerary image did not fully meet their expectations; the second did not give the desired resemblance and was reworked; the third remained unfinished when Klimt died.
Does the Dancer really represent Ria Munk?
According to a theory supported by family testimonies, the painting began as a second portrait of Ria. Klimt then transformed it, probably by representing the dancer Johanna Jusl. The image visible today is therefore no longer an identifiable portrait of Ria.
Why is Ria Munk III unfinished?
Klimt began painting in 1917 and died in February 1918. The face and upper decoration are advanced, but the dress and floor still show the preparatory design.
Has Ria Munk III been returned?
Yes. The Lentos Kunstmuseum in Linz returned it to the heirs of Aranka Munk in 2009 after research into provenance. It was sold at Christie's in 2010.
Where are the three paintings located?
All three are now in private collections. Ria Munk III belongs to The Lewis Collection. Their public presentation therefore depends on exhibitions and temporary loans.
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