Adele Bloch-Bauer I was a Jewish bourgeois salon matron living in Vienna in the 1920s. She commissioned the work of Austrian artistGustav Klimt. She was his patron. In her bedroom, she kept a photo of Klimt standing outside his studio, where she would pose for him. Their friendship would last almost 20 years.

But who was she, this woman immortalized in gold? What were her hopes and dreams, failings and aspirations? And what did she see in Klimt?

You won't find these answers in the Hollywood film "Woman in Gold," a historical drama starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, which centers on the dramatic legal battle for the restitution of five Klimt paintings which were seized by the Nazis from Adele Bloch-Bauer’s Vienna townhouse during World War II.

A fuller picture of the patron and her artist is now showing at "Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold," an intimate exhibition at the Neue Galerie museum in New York, now on view through September 7, 2015.Entering the second floor of the Neue Galerie museum, visitors are first struck by Klimt’s masterpiece, the Woman in Goldherself. In an adjoining room, a display of approximately 50 works, including paintings, archival sketches, and rare photographs of Klimt and the Bloch-Bauer family are arranged with elegant simplicity. Even Adele’s personal jewelry collection is on view.

“I was really struck by the importance of making it easier for the public to approach these icons of the early 20th century,” said Neue Galerie curator Janis Staggs, who organized the exhibition. “Klimt is one of the most important, renowned artists of his generation. When they're put on that pedestal, it's hard to see them for what they really are.”

After the success of Anne Marie O'Connor's book The Lady in Gold, and the Woman in Gold film release in April, the Neue Galerie made it an “imperative” to provide a more complex reading of the artist and his patron.

The Painting

The richest details, however, can be gleaned from the portrait itself.

An elaborate, complex oil on canvas, Klimt’s Woman in Gold depicts Adele Bloch-Bauer I in a shimmering gold gown, posing regally – her hair up in an au courant bun; her neck ornamented with a grand, diamond choker. Up close, the texture of Adele’s gown reveals the ridges of gesso material covered meticulously with gold and silver metallic leaf. Majesty and movement mark this mosaic-style painting, which Klimt took four years to complete.

During the time Klimt worked on this painting (1904-1907), Adele Bloch-Bauer I gave birth to a newborn son, who died within days of his birth. The painting’s amulet eyes, which cover Adele’s gown, are considered by art historians to reflect the universal eyes of God.

And yet, on a rainy, somber morning in the Neue Galerie, curator Janis Staggs expressed what most casual spectators might miss: "In many ways this portrait belies the real Adele. One thing Maria [Altmann] has said - was that her aunt was a modern woman.” Standing before the portrait, Staggs speaks with telling passion. The drama of this story has got to her too. And I delight in listening.

"Klimt presents her for us as this secular icon in bourgeois attire. Beneath that facade was a woman who desperately wanted to study at university, but was unable. She harbored very social liberal views, and was an active proponent of them,” said Staggs.

An active supporter of worker's rights, women's suffrage, and children's orphanages in Vienna, Adele Bloch-Bauer I was also known to wear reform dress – a loose fitting fashion movement, which encouraged women to ditch the corsets and express their individuality through clothes. Klimt’s gown and diamond choker would have been worn only on a special occasion.

As for Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), his father was a goldsmith and engraver, giving the young artist a craftsman’s knowledge of the precious metal. Studying at the school of Applied Arts in Vienna, he became known for landscapes, striking portraits, and erotic drawings of women.

Soon after World War I, Adele and her husband Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer purchased an elegant townhouse across from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. At this address, they regularly hosted salons, whose guests included artists, intellectuals and politicians. Among them were Richard Strauss, Stefan Zweig, and Gustav Klimt.

Adele was the only model Klimt ever painted twice.

By 1938, after both Klimt and his golden muse had passed away, the Nazis seized Ferdinand Block-Bauer’s townhouse estate in Vienna, including five Klimt paintings.

As depicted in this year’s film Woman in Gold, Adele’s niece Maria Altmann (1916-2011), played by actress Helen Mirren, worked with lawyer Randol Schoenberg and successfully sued the Austrian Government for the return of her family’s Klimt paintings. In 2006, Neue Galerie’s co-founder and President Ronald S. Lauder purchased Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for $135 million. It hangs in the second floor New York gallery today.