Portrait of Mathilde Trau

The portrait of Mathilde Trau, née Speninger, was completed around 1893. It was actually unveiled together with its counterpart: a portrait of her husband Franz Trau. He ran a successful business as a court tea dealer in the Vienna Wollzeile, where Asian goods were offered as well as tea. Franz Trau was also an important art collector who was mainly known for his antiques collection. However, he was also interested in Asian, Viennese, and European paintings. The Traus also owned one of Klimt's drafts completed in watercolors for the painting "View of the Auditorium of the Old Burgtheater." Klimt received the commission from the city of Vienna from 1888–89 and gained the highest recognition for it, primarily because of the many inserted portraits of noble Viennese society figures. In the draft on paper that was completed even without the portraits of the theater visitors, Klimt later added the portraits of the Traus—the same images that also appear in the large portraits. Similar to other portraits from the early 1890s, this portrait demonstrates a particularly high degree of near-natural realism which is also characteristic for photographic depictions.