Adele Bloch-Bauer (August 9, 1881)

Adele Bloch-Bauer is best-known as the subject of two portraits by Gustav Klimt. Her descendants have had to fight for possession of these portraits, which were confiscated from the family in the Nazi era. I wrote about her last February as part of my study of cities where secular Jews had a major role (a study that I'm about to resume).

Bloch-Bauer herself played a role in the intense intellectual life of early-20th-century Vienna. Her salon welcomed many famous participants including "the composers Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) and Richard Strauss (1864–1949), Alma Mahler-Werfel (1879–1964), the authors Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) and Jakob Wassermann (1873–1934), artists from the circle of Gustav Klimt, actors from the Burgtheater, and after WWI, the Socialists Karl Renner (1870–1950) and Julius Tandler (1869–1936)." (See this article.)