2014 - Austria 50 € - Judith II - Proof

Gold coin 'Judith II' - 3rd in serie Klimt and his women (Klimt und seine Frauen)

Gustav Klimt did not just paint women, he revolutionised the world’s image of them. The third coin in our incomparable Klimt and his Women series, Judith II, in which the saviour of the Israelites is portrayed as a chilling femme fatale, shows this to magnificent effect.

Painted in 1909, the life-size portrait shows a gaunt and bushy-haired Judith looking to her right as she clutches the severed head of Holoferenes, an Assyrian general who was threatening to destroy her home city of Bethulia. Klimt’s customary swirling art nouveau ornamentation features on this side of the coin as well as on its obverse, which is graced with Nuda Veritasfrom Klimt’s golden phase. Painted in 1889, the long-haired beauty holding a mirror shows artistic truth without compromise and is a perfect example of Klimt's artistic vision. This was a vision that led the painter to co-found the Vienna Secession, the artistic movement that rejected the conservatism of the early 20th-century Viennese art world.

Struck in Proof quality with a maximum mintage of 30,000, each coin comes in a case complete with a numbered certificate of authenticity. A superb wooden presentation case is also available for those keen to complete the entire five-coin Klimt and his Women collection.