$53,550
Estimate: $12,000 - $18,000
Auction: May 11, 2021 12:00:00 PM EDT
Signed bottom right, oil on canvas.
Unframed
Provenance
Private Collection, Paris.
Private Collection, Paris (by family descent).
Note
We are grateful to Ms. Urszula Lazowski for confirming the authenticity of this work.
Born into a well-to-do artistic family in Warsaw, Maria-Mela Muter is considered the first professional Jewish female painter in Poland. An artist who painted landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, she moved to Paris in 1901, traveling in Bohemian circles, befriending and associating with major artists and authors of the day. She exhibited paintings in the Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes, the Paris Salon, the Salon de Tuileries, the Salon des Indépendants, and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. While her early works show the influence of Symbolism, the artist’s mature palette reveals the influences of artists as diverse as Vuillard, Cézanne, and Van Gogh. While a very popular portrait painter of artists and writers, as in the present lot “it was only in her still lifes that she exposed her sensitivity to the beauty of the world, expressed in a varied palette and in passionate color fantasies.” [1]
[1] Culture.pl, The Adam Mickiewicz Institute, https://culture.pl./en/artist/mela-muter-maria-melania-mutermilch.