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Premium MILLON
55
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Mela MUTER (Warsaw 1876 – Paris 1967)
See original version (French)
55
-
Mela MUTER (Warsaw 1876 – Paris 1967)
See original version (French)
Estimate €60,000 - €80,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Mela MUTER (Warsaw 1876 – Paris 1967)
Women on the banks of the Rhône in Avignon / Sketch of a man’s portrait
Circa 1940
Oil on double-sided canvas
100 x 96 cm
These works come from a collection of paintings assembled by an international lawyer from the mid-1950s onwards. On the advice of the painter David Peretz, Mr T collected works by artists such as Pinchus Krémègne, Michel Kikoïne, Mela Muter and Marcel Gromaire.
Mela Muter is a Franco-Polish painter and draughtswoman who is emblematic of the École de Paris. Maria Melania Kingsland was born in Warsaw into a well-to-do Polish Jewish family. She studied at the School of Drawing and Painting for Women in Warsaw. In 1901, she arrived in Paris with her husband Michal Muttermilch and enrolled at the Académie Colarossi, then at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. She quickly became a prominent figure in Montparnasse, exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Tuileries. Settling in Paris, where she had her own studio, she held highly acclaimed exhibitions, notably at Druet’s gallery. Her early works were Symbolist landscapes and portraits, but she later developed a more Expressionist style. Her landscapes of the South are influenced by Cézanne’s legacy, particularly in the geometrisation of forms, but also by the Fauvists and the Expressionists.
The painting shown here was painted around 1940 in Avignon. During the Second World War, Mela Muter lived in hiding in Avignon. She was helped and given shelter by a number of families and local residents.
Mela Muter is particularly distinguished by the importance she attaches to the human figure. Throughout her career, she painted portraits of numerous figures from the worlds of art, literature and politics, including François Pompon, Raymond Lefebvre, Léopold Gottlieb and Georges Clemenceau. Her work also features anonymous figures – ordinary men and women – who, under her brush, become true subjects of her paintings. Very close to her models, Mela Muter often encountered them by chance whilst out and about, and they became recurring figures in her compositions.
Overlooking the Rhône, three women are depicted standing, carrying jugs and a basket. They appear to be passing by and continuing on their way.
Here, Mela Muter has created a true masterpiece, whose pictorial language revolves around the subject, forms and colours. The repetition of the female figure lends the work a striking visual intensity. This group of women is both in the foreground and occupies almost the entire canvas. Furthermore, the vibrant colours give rhythm to the composition. Blue, in particular, runs from right to left across each of the figures and establishes a chromatic continuity between them. This repetition of colour traces a diagonal line that guides the viewer’s gaze.
Under Mela Muter’s brush, these women become monumental, like caryatids. Each figure takes on a three-dimensional quality. The treatment of forms, volumes and textures serves to amplify their presence in space.
On the reverse of the canvas, a sketch of a man’s portrait is visible. His sideways glance and pensive expression lend him a natural significance. His face is rendered in the artist’s characteristic style, using brushstrokes that leave visible areas of unpainted canvas. The vigour of the brushwork reveals the artist’s talent as a portraitist.
E.V
Provenance:
Gmurzynska Gallery, Cologne, 1960s
Passed down to the current owner
This work comes from a collection of paintings assembled by an international lawyer from the mid-1950s onwards. Advised by the painter David Peretz, Mr T collected works by artists such as Pinchus Krémègne, Michel Kikoïne, Mela Muter and Marcel Gromaire.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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