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Estella Frances Solomons HRHA (1882-1968)

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA
Estella Frances Solomons HRHA (1882-1968)

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Auction Date:2004 Sep 21 @ 18:00 (UTC)
Location:Ireland
Estella Frances Solomons HRHA (1882-1968)
PORTRAIT OF CARLO MANCINI
signed with initials and dated [1907] lower right; inscribed on reverse: "Carlo Mancini / by Estella F. Solomons / 26 Waterloo Road Dublin 1907"; also signed on reverse of canvas
oil on canvas, with the stamp of the Chenil Gallery, Chelsea, on reverse
61 by 51cm., 24 by 20in.
Provenance:
Private collection, England
This lightly handled and highly competent work was painted when Solomons was just 25 years of age and a student at the Chelsea Art School in London. Solomon’s former teacher and mentor, William Orpen, had established the school in late 1903, along with Augustus John and Orpen’s brother-in-law, Jack Knewstub. John had quickly lost interest in the venture and Orpen and Knewstub kept it afloat for barely two years, before selling the school in late 1905 to a Mrs Flowers. In May the following year however, Orpen wrote to Solomons about the prospect of further study at the Chelsea School, and a receipt exists among Solomon’s papers for fees paid for the first term (January - March) in 1907 (see Snoddy, p. 620). Knewstub meanwhile went on to found the Chenil Galleries on the King’s Road, Chelsea, dealing in pictures and operating as a framer and artists’ colour-man. Orpen began purchasing all of his canvasses there and it was most likely on his advice that Solomons did likewise.
The exact identity of the sitter in this work is uncertain. Solomons clearly names him as "Carlo Mancini", though whether it is the then 78 year old Italian painter of that name, a former teacher at the School of Art in Milan who died in 1910, is unknown. It is possible that the Italian artist may have visited the Chelsea School and sympathetically agreed to sit as a model to the young students. Regardless, the work clearly reveals the rapidity with which Solomons had learnt her art, particularly through the study of the Old Masters such as Rembrandt, whose influence can be discerned here.
€3000-€4000 (£2000-£2700 sterling approx.)