I have some mental pictures of what Amalia, my heroine in The Last Waltz, would look like and have played the game of trying to decide which actress would play the part if there were ever a movie.

My husband, David, is working on a website for the book and has found some wonderful photographs and paintings from turn-of-the-century Vienna (19th into 20th).  Following are two paintings by the great Viennese artist, Gustav Klimt, that fit my image of what Amalia would have looked like.

The first portrait is of Amalia at the beginning of the book, a girl of 19 just entering into society.

The second painting is Amalia in her late 30’s, involved in politics and Viennese society as the wife of a minister in the Austrian government. 

The actual portraits are of Sonia Knips, painted in 1898, Emilie Floege, a Viennese fashion designer and long-time friend of Klimt, completed in 1902.