Mäda Primavesi was the daughter of the banker and industrialist Otto Primavesi, one of the financial backers of the Wiener Werkstätte and the actress Eugenia Primavesi 2 (born Butschek), whom Klimt painted in 1913. A series of preliminary pencil sketches for Mäda"s portrait, now in public and private collections, show that the composition evolved as the artist experimented with alternative poses and background motifs.