The Mysterious Artist

 

I did a post on my Phoenix Daily Photo site about this painting last year after I saw it at the University of Arizona Art Museum in Tucson.  I immediately fell in love with the painting.  The artist is Minda Hess who was born in 1906 and that is pretty much all that I've been able to discover about her.  A search found three other paintings attributed to her that appear on auction sites but I can find no biography of the artist herself.  Even her date of death is unknown.  It's like she simply disappeared. 

The painting is called "Le Grande Place" and it was painted in 1958.  The highest recorded price ever paid for one of her paintings was $1,000.  This particular painting was a gift to University Museum.  

I simply love the painting and feel it deserves another appearance.  I just wish I knew more about the artist. 

A Russian Countess

 

I stood in front of this painting for quite a long time.  There was just something about the way she was staring back with such an unexpected and self-assured look.  It was tinged with just a touch of mischief. This painting was on display at the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House in London.  It was part an exhibit of paintings on loan from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham.  

The painting is a portrait of Countess Golovina and was painted in Moscow by the French artist Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun.  Another artist I had not heard of before however after reading about her, I'm not sure how knowledge of her had escaped me.  During her years on this earth she painted 660 portraits and 200 landscapes in addition to many uncatalogued works in private collections around the world.  

Early in her career she painted several portraits of Marie Antoinette which opened a door to elite society and a vast social circle that spanned several countries.  I have to say that her Wikipedia page is one of the longest I've ever encountered.  She has paintings in the Louvre, Hermitage, the National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to name just few.  

I love this quote from the Barber Institute's website "Countess Golovina sweeps up her shawl and looks at us with startling candor".  What a perfect description.  

In the future, I will be looking for Vigee Le Brun paintings whenever I visit major art museums around the world.

Farm at Waltendlath

 

"Farm at Waltendlath" is a painting by a little known English artist named Dora Carrington (1893-1932). Carrington learned art from an early age and was encouraged by both her parents and her teachers.  It wasn't until the 1970's that her work started to be appreciated.  In 1978, the then director of the Tate Museum said Carrignton was "the most neglected serious painter of her time".  

Reading about her, I feel like she was one of those people who should have been born in another time.  If you are interested, you can read more about her here.

The painting above shows a farm in Keswick in the Lake District of England.  Carrington spent a summer holiday near there.  I found the painting at the Tate Britain in an exhibit featuring little known English artists.  The serenity of the scene appealed to me.

From New Zealand to England

 

This portrait of a young Maori dancer was painted by New Zealand artist Gottfried Lindauer.  Lindauer was born in what is now the Czech Republic but he moved to New Zealand in 1874.  Once there, he made a business of painting portraits of Maori people detailing their facial tattoos.  A series of these paintings featuring chiefs and warriors was shown at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition by Sir Walter Butler.  The Prince of Wales saw this painting of the young girl and was drawn to it so much so that Butler gave the painting to the Prince.  

That explains how it ended up in an exhibition at the Kings Gallery at Buckingham Palace and where I saw it and admired it too.  You can feel a certain warmth and confidence in her attractive face.