Amalie ("Maltschi") Zuckerkandl, the sitter in this portrait, was a personal friend of Teresa ("Teddi") Bloch-Bauer's. Teddi's brother-in-law, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, apparently paid for this commission - presumably out of generosity towards Frau Zuckerkandl, and as further patronage of Klimt.
Gustav Klimt's death in 1918 rendered this portrait permanently unfinished. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, as the legal owner, hung it in his bedroom at his Vienna mansion, located at Elisabethstrasse, No. 18. It remained there until Herr Bloch-Bauer's assets were placed under a "Protection Order" in 1938. Nearly everything he owned was liquidated in the months that followed, and the Bloch-Bauer art collection was placed in "Protective Custody" in 1939.
What became of Amalie Zuckerkandl after 1939 remains unclear, although the portrait eventually surfaced in the possession of Vita Künstler, former owner of the Viennese Neue Galerie (an art gallery). Ms. Künstler donated the work to the Austrian Gallery in 1988. The Bloch-Bauer heirs are seeking its return in a separate lawsuit.