Antique American Painting 1927 Elena De Hellebranth (1899-1988) Oil on Paper Lar

Description: A fantastic original signed oil on paper painting (two sided) by a well listed Hungarian/American female painter Elena de Hellebranth (1897-1988). The artist biography is included in detail at the bottom of this listing. The painting is dated 1927 and represents a male portrait in the style of Lucian Freud, whom the artist knew and admired. She shared his style and artistic interests. On the back of the portrait there is a second painting, an impressionist scene of two men in the water. Hellebranth had a large personal exhibition at the US National of the Smithsonian museum in Washington DC in 1935, with a catalog of her works published by the Smithsonian. It is unknown this particular painting was a part of that exhibition, but could reprsent a study for some of her works. The general condition of the painting is good. It comes unframed. The paper is slightly wavy but has no creases or rips. A fantastic original example by a well listed American painter. Fresh to the market, comes from a local estate. Please feel free to direct any additional questions prior to bidding. BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTIST; Bertha de Hellebranth and her sister Elena were born into a cultured upper-class family in Budapest, Bertha in 1899, Elena in 1897. Their father was a lawyer and their mother a student of Franz Liszt's last living pupil. Both sisters showed artistic potential early, beginning to paint at four or five years of age. Their parents encouraged them, and had the means to send them to the best art schools of the time. They studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Budapest, at the Académie Julian and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and painted portraits of European nobility. As Patricia Fazekas points out, "Growing up in a family of privilege, they seemed to have unusual access to many illustrious people." So we should not be surprised to find among their subjects members of high society, such as Count Andrássy Gyula, the Russian-born Princess Baby Galitzine, and Admiral Horthy Miklós, the Regent. Later on, their subjects included American heiress Gladys Vanderbilt (Countess László Széchenyi), President Theodore Roosevelt's granddaughter Paulina Longworth and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.Often, the sisters would paint the same subject at the same time, offering the sitter a choice of portraits. Most often, the sitter wanted both renditions.While Elena concentrated on working in oil and watercolor, Bertha used gouache and oil to achieve her effects. Elena gave lectures and workshops, was a writer and also wrote popular and ecclesiastical music, while Bertha also went in for sculpture and handicrafts.From the mid-thirties until World War II, Bertha and Elena divided their time between their home in Budapest and a home on the ocean at Ventnor, NJ. In 1925, they showed their work at the Nemzeti Szalon in Budapest, and in 1926, they had a joint exhibition of their portraits in the US. Both exhibited their work at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and most major museums and galleries in the US. Bertha also had exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both Bertha and Elena were Fellows of the Royal Society of Art (London), and garnered numerous prizes. Bertha was awarded First Prize by the National Academy of the American Water Color Society one year, and the Grand Prize of the Audubon Society. She was one of the founders of the now defunct World League of Hungarian Artists Abroad (Külföldi Magyar Képzőművészek Világszövetsége), and received a Gold Medal from the Cleveland Árpád Akadémia in 1963. (Elena also received the Akadémia's gold medal in 1965.) Their work is found in museums and galleries too numerous to mention.The de Hellebranth sisters were devout Catholics, and this is evident in their many portraits of clerics and religious subjects. Bertha's religious sculptures include not only the Patrona Hungariae which was given to St. Emery Church by the Transylvanian Franciscans in 1957, but also several now in the Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation in New Brunswick, NJ, as for example a statue of St. Francis and another of Christ. Elena contributed several folk style panels to the Hungarian Pavilion's display at the 1939 New York World's Fair, while Bertha exhibited a couple of sculptures, one entitled "Sleeping Shepherd".Bertha and Elena became American citizens in the 1940's, but as Elena remarked, "While we are Americans, the Hungarian blood still boils through us." Shipping is listed for a flat package. If you are international the painting can be rolled into a tube for a reduced shipping cost. Please message me for shipping questions.

Price: 499.99 USD

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

End Time: 2024-08-02T15:27:56.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD