Serena Lederer

Serena Lederer ( Hungarian notation Szeréna Lederer ), born Pulitzer ( Budapest born May 20, 1867, † March 27, 1943 ibid ) was the wife of industrialist August Lederer, confidante of Gustav Klimt and the driving force behind the construction of the Great Lederer 's Klimtsammlung.

Biography

The daughter of a wealthy family ( the American journalist and publisher Joseph Pulitzer was a relative ) was in her youth as a famous beauty. All her life she used the occurrence and airs a Grande Dame. On June 5, 1892 she married before the Pest rabbinate the 1857 -born industrialist August Lederer.

The family of three children, Fritz, Eric, and Elisabeth sprung, resided in Raab (Győr ) in Bartensteingasse 8 in Vienna and in Ledererschlössel in Weidlingau. In Vienna's city apartment, allegedly at the behest of the lady of the house was not to be photographed, a special room of the Klimt collection was dedicated. The image of the Szeréna Lederer from 1899 here was the beginning of a close friendly relationship. About Recommendation Gustav Klimt's wrong after 1912 Egon Schiele also in the house Lederer and befriended especially with Erich Lederer, the younger son of the family.

Szeréna Lederer considered the motor behind the art purchases August Lederer. There Klimt portraits of her mother, Charlotte Pulitzer (1833-1920), her daughter Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt and of itself what extent the relationship Szeréna Lederer to Gustav Klimt had intimate character, is difficult to prove. In the era of National Socialism, as the possession of Aryan ancestors was essential for survival, their daughter Elisabeth reached in any case the official recognition of Klimt's illegitimate father.