€300 - €600
Star Lot: A glorious original Stella Steyn (Irish, b.1907 - d.1987) oil on board painting featuring a wonderfully dynamic portrait of a middle-aged woman, basked in warm light. Her rosey cheeks and wonderfully observed facial features glow in the natural light from left of frame. Contrasting to the highly rendered face, her body is much looser, with dynamic energetic brushstrokes creating a sense of weight and movement in the folds of her garment. Unsigned, yet purchased from her studio sale under Thomson, Roddick & Medcalf (numbered and dated to verso). Steyn's expressive works proved popular, fetching close to 10,000 at notable auctions.
MM: 51 x 79 cm
Steyn was born in Dublin and attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art under Patrick Tuohy. Her early work at the DMSA was influenced by Aubrey Beardsley and Harry Clarke, Tuohy introduced the influence of Paul Cézanne. Steyn then travelled to Paris, studying at La Grande Chaumière and the Académie Scandinave. In Paris, she met James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, being asked by Joyce to illustrate an edition of Finnegan's Wake. whytes.ie Steyn exhibited at the RHA, at the Painter's Gallery, St. Stephen's Green, the Tailteann Games, the 1928 Summer Olympics and the first Irish exhibition of contemporary art in Manhattan between 1927 and 1930. In 1931, Steyn enrolled in the Bauhaus, being taught by Kandinsky, Klee and Albers, the first known Irish artist to do so. In 1938 Steyn married the academic David Ross, settling in England and rarely displaying work. Retrospective exhibitions of her work in the Gorry Gallery and the Molesworth Gallery, 1995 and 2001 respectively, renewed interest in her work in Ireland. There is an excellent video of this lot our social medial pages Facebook, instagram and tic tok.
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