Author Description

The beautifully rendered children's book "Adorable Adele" tells the story of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the elegant daughter of a Jewish Viennese banking family, who would grow up to marry the wealthy sugar manufacturer Ferdinand Bloch and later be immortalized in one of the greatest portraits of the twentieth century, Gustav Klimt's "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (1907). The painting was confiscated by the Nazis when Ferdinand Bloch, by then a widower, fled Austria in 1939. After spending many years in a Viennese museum, it was finally reclaimed by Bloch-Bauer's niece, Maria, who parted with it in 2006, knowing that she wanted this long-lost masterpiece to be seen by as many people as possible. It is now one of the most important pieces in the collection of New York's renowned Neue Galerie. Illustrated with all of the pattern, color and gilt of fin-de-siècle Vienna, this sophisticated story book is a delight for children and adults alike.