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 (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.