03/30/2025
Gustav Klimt painting goes on display 🤯👏👏👏
"Klimt gives him such a dignity and warmth. It is touching, because you feel this is a person you know."
In 2023, an Austrian couple brought a photo of a dusty, crudely framed painting into the Wienerroither & Kohlbacher Gallery in Vienna and claimed that the artwork had been painted by Gustav Klimt. Considering the painting's poor condition, the gallery workers were initially skeptical, but after consulting with an art historian, they were able to confirm that it had been created by the renowned Austrian artist after all.
But this rediscovery means more than just the chance to highlight a long-lost illustration. It's also a powerful reminder of how African tribes were exploited across Europe in the 19th century. The painting depicts an African prince named William Nii Nortey Dowuona, who once led the Osu tribe in present-day Ghana, and the reason why Klimt was able to paint him in such detail is that the prince was put on display at an ethnographic exhibition — better known today as a "human zoo" — in Vienna in 1896.
Learn more about this historic painting and its rediscovery: https://inter.st/qcpy
