Marie Mela MUTER (1876-1967) Lot n° 14

PAYSAGE AUX OLIVIERS, circa 1923-1924 Oil on canvas Signed on the lower right 61 x 73 cm - 24 x 28.7 in. Signed on the lower right, oil on canvas Provenance - Galerie Joseph Billiet & Cie, Paris - Private collection, France. By descent. Exhibition - Paris: Galerie Joseph Billiet & Cie, Peintures et Aquarelles de Mela Muter, from Tuesday 3 to Tuesday 17 June 1924. Bibliography - Catalogue d'exposition de la Galerie Joseph Billiet & Cie, Peintures et Aquarelles de Mela Muter, du mardi 3 au mardi 17 juin 1924. Work listed under number 6 of the book. The fact that these paintings are the work of a woman, and full of grace, is disconcerting. The Public was born lazy and conceited. It makes a label for each of the notorious artists of our generation. Such a name evokes such a memory in his eyes. This minimum is enough to shine in conversation. But one cannot forget, having seen it only once, a painting by Mela Muter. Like the Spaniards of the great eras, Mela Muter willingly painted the human bodies that fate had marked with the most appalling seals. The mask of horror fascinated her as did the severed head of Gorgon in the past. This is what the public sees and remembers. But they should also have seen that Mela Muter's dilection for suffering torsos and eyes where death is reflected is not just a desire for picturesque. A fierce and rebellious pity lifts her up; and far from painting the blind or the physical with the Christian serenity of the Prado masters, it is with exasperated clairvoyance that she depicts those whose fallen lives appear in the most frightening light. Moreover, this is only one form of this so powerfully original talent. One can guess that Mela Muter is above all struck by the abrupt aspect of things and people; and, a rare and singular case, her observation can be prolonged, become meticulous, without fading away what was her first impression, without dimini