An evocative three-quarter length portrait of a strong Spanish woman with a confident stance. She’s wearing a green dress with an amber necklace and standing in front of a light background.
The artist, Wilhelm Gdanietz (1893-1969), has applied the paint with broad strokes and a little impasto in areas. On the reverse, an inscription simply reads ‘Spanierin’.
Gdanietz led a difficult life but overcame the odds to become a very successful painter. At the age of two, he became deaf following a bout of scarlet fever, which led to him spending much of his childhood at a ‘deaf and dumb’ institution. During this time, he must’ve found great solace in his art as by the age of 19 he gained access to the Academy in Düsseldorf.
His style was firmly rooted in the past and he was particularly inspired by the Dutch old masters. For a while, he moved to Holland where he ran a studio in Volendam. In 1930, he retired to Düsseldorf and lived in a cottage decorated with Delft tiles and Dutch antiques.
The portrait is housed within a wooden frame that’s probably its original.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 39” x 47” / 100cm x 120cm
Year of creation: c. 1930
Provenance: Germany
Condition: One small repair towards the top right but otherwise fine. Frame with some age-related wear.
Artist’s auction highlight: £1,486 achieved for ‘Great Achievement, a Volendam Fisherman completing a ship Model’ in 2004 at Christie's.
