Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt was the daughter of August and Serena Lederer， Gustav Klimt’s most important patrons. The family’s collection eventually grew to include some fifteen canvases by the artist， among them an 1899 portrait of Serena—described by those who knew her as the best-dressed woman in Vienna—and a 1915 painting of her mother， Charlotte Pulitzer， a relation of Joseph Pulitzer， founder of the famous prize for writing1. Elisabeth was twenty years old in 1914， when Klimt began the preparatory studies for the portrait he would complete some two years later.

伊麗莎白·巴霍芬-埃希特是古斯塔夫·克里姆特最重要的贊助人奧古斯特·萊德雷爾和塞麗娜·萊德雷爾夫婦的女兒。萊德雷爾家藏品眾多，最終收藏的克里姆特的油畫約有15幅，其中包括1899年塞麗娜的肖像——那些認(rèn)識(shí)塞麗娜的人都說她是維也納最會(huì)穿衣的女人——和1915年塞麗娜母親夏洛特·普利策的畫像，夏洛特是那個(gè)著名寫作獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)的創(chuàng)始人約瑟夫·普利策的親戚。1914年，伊麗莎白20歲，克里姆特開始準(zhǔn)備為她創(chuàng)作肖像，大概兩年后才完成。

In almost all Klimt’s late portraits， he chose a standing pose and used a “horizon-line” approach to divide the background into two planes. In the Bachofen-Echt portrait， the line of demarcation2 is lower， so that the illusion of a landscape setting is diminished， though as in Klimt’s landscapes， the horizontal and vertical planes can easily be read as two perfectly flat bands of color.

在晚期創(chuàng)作的所有肖像畫中，克里姆特幾乎都選擇了以站姿呈現(xiàn)人物，并通過添加“水平線”將背景分成兩個(gè)平面。在巴霍芬-埃希特的這幅肖像中，這條分界線畫得較低，觀者因而不太可能把背景錯(cuò)看成某處風(fēng)景，不過，就像在克里姆特的風(fēng)景畫中，水平和垂直的平面會(huì)很容易被看成兩條完全平整的色帶。

Elisabeth’s stance is echoed by a triangular configuration similar to that in the Primavesi painting3， but this shape is here placed against the back wall rather than on the floor， so that any feeling of perspectival distance it may create is automatically cut short， snapped back to the foreground by the woman’s face， which forms the triangle’s apex. Like the Primavesi portrait， this one amply evidences the artist’s ability to manipulate space in order to enhance his sitter’s presence.

伊麗莎白的站姿也采用了與普里馬維西那幅畫類似的三角結(jié)構(gòu)，但這次背襯三角的是后墻而非地板，所以觀者可能感受到的任何視角距離都被自動(dòng)縮短，作為三角頂點(diǎn)的女子面龐會(huì)將觀者目光迅速拉回前景。與普里馬維西的肖像一樣，伊麗莎白的這幅肖像充分表明了克里姆特?fù)碛薪艹龅目臻g掌控力，能夠增強(qiáng)所畫對(duì)象的存在感。

The use of concrete oriental motifs—which were to become increasingly pronounced in Klimt’s subsequent work—was an important innovation in the Bachofen-Echt picture. The influence of the Orient in compositions such as Judith and the Head of Holofernes has already been noted. What distinguishes the later work is the extraction of isolated pictorial elements and their adaptation to Klimt’s own idiosyncratic4 ends.

使用具象的東方圖案是這幅肖像畫的一大創(chuàng)新——在克里姆特后來的作品中，東方元素變得愈加明顯?！吨斓纤古c赫羅弗尼斯的頭顱》等早期作品中就體現(xiàn)出了東亞的影響，那時(shí)已經(jīng)引起人們注意。后期作品的不同之處在于，克里姆特選取了孤立的圖像元素用于達(dá)成自己獨(dú)特的藝術(shù)目標(biāo)。

1指普利策獎(jiǎng)（The Pulitzer Prizes）。該獎(jiǎng)是根據(jù)美國報(bào)業(yè)巨頭約瑟夫·普利策（Joseph Pulitzer）的遺愿于1917年設(shè)立的，后發(fā)展為美國新聞界的最高獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)。目前普利策獎(jiǎng)包括14項(xiàng)新聞?lì)惇?jiǎng)項(xiàng)和7項(xiàng)創(chuàng)作類獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)。

2 demarcation劃分，界限。" 3指克里姆特的畫作《瑪達(dá)·普里馬維西肖像》（Portrait of M?da Primavesi），約作于1912年，目前藏于美國大都會(huì)藝術(shù)博物館。" 4 idiosyncratic個(gè)人特有的，獨(dú)特的。