Previously unknown painting by Gustav Klimt discovered in The Netherlands

A previously unknown oil painting by Gustav Klimt, was recently discovered in a private home in the Netherlands.
The Dutch owner told that her ancestors, the couple Richard and Clara Koenig-Bunge, had allegedly bought the painting in 1902 from an exhibition in Düsseldorf.

To be sure of its authenticity, the woman contacted Alfred Weidinger, Vice Director of Austria’s Belvedere museum, which holds the world’s largest Klimt collection.
In 2007, Prestel published an annotated catalogue edited by Alfred Weidinger, with scenic work containing several landscapes painted by the artist, but not the one that the Dutch woman had hanging at her place.

Following an investigation, Weidinger finds out that in August 1901, Klimt wrote to his girlfriend Marie Zimmermann that he had "several landscapes", including a red farmhouse, a group of trees in the shade with a sunlit meadow, and just one lake was "in progress."
The Klimt specialist also had access to a photo of the XIII Secession, the Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists, which took place in February/March 1902, and where the lakefront image is clearly visible as part of a triptych.

Alfred Weidinger is pleased to include the painting in his updated catalogue of works by Klimt, which will be published this year by Random House. And secondly, because next year the 150th Birthday of the prince of painters is celebrated. The Jubilee Year will start at the Belvedere on 25 October 2011 with the opening of the exhibition curated by Weidinger: "Gustav Klimt / Josef Hoffmann Pioniere der Moderne" and will last until 4 March 2012.

The discovered painting by Gustav Klimt is entitled "Seeufer mit Birken" (lakeside with birch trees) and was painted in 1901.

Based on Thomas Trenkler's article from Der Standard. Photo by Alfred Weidinger