 In the late 1890s Adele met Klimt, and may have begun a relationship with him.Opinion is divided on whether Adele and Klimt had an affair.The artist Catherine Dean considered that Adele was "the only society lady painted by Klimt who is known definitely to be his mistress", while the journalist Melissa Müller and the academic Monica Tatzkow write that "no evidence has ever been produced that their relationship was more than a friendship".