Mela Muter (1876-1967) Poland, School Of Paris:"rue Carreterie, The Campanille Of Saint August"

Marie Mela MUTER (1876-1967) Poland, school of Paris: "Rue Carreterie, the campanille of Saint Augustin Avignon"; Oil on panel signed lower left, dimensions: 46.5 x 31 cm to be compared with the painting sold at Polski Dom Aukcyjny Wojciech Śladowski on 08/11/2018 ( https://polskidomaukcyjny.com.pl/oferta/sztuka- dawna/zaulek?auction=776 ) bearing the label of the same Tunisian gallery: Galerie Selection.
Mela Muter, pseudonym of Maria Melania Klingsland, born April 25, 1882 in Warsaw, Poland, and died May 14, 1967 in Paris1, is a French painter of Polish origin2. Biography Mela Muter grew up in a wealthy and cultured family in Warsaw. His brother, Zygmunt Klingsland, would become a Polish diplomat in Paris and a popular literary critic in Poland. In 1899, she married Michal Muttermilch, Polish writer, critic and socialist activist. In 1901, after a year of lessons in a drawing school for women run by J. Kotarbinski, she arrived with her husband in Paris and enrolled at the Académie Colarossi then at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière4, determined to become a professional painter. She exhibited in 1902 in Warsaw at the Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts, and in Paris at the Salon des Beaux-Arts, then at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Tuileries3,4. She was then present there regularly and became an important member of the artistic movement called the School of Paris4. She was noticed by the art dealer Ambroise Vollard4. Initially influenced by symbolism, she then evolved towards expressionism4, but throughout her career she remained aloof from fashions and trends3. She travels to Spain, but also to Brittany, in particular to Concarneau, Audierne, Douarnenez and Pont-Aven5. In 1914, the start of the First World War made her settle in Concarneau. “Peaceful Concarneau, far from Parisian anguish, as though out of danger, but my heart was heavy,” she wrote5. Between 1917 and 1920, Mela Muter became the companion of the writer Raymond Lefebvre, a socialist then communist pacifist activist. The relationship with Raymond Lefebvre causes his divorce with Michal Muttermilch. But Raymond Lefebvre died in 1920 in Russia in unexplained circumstances during a cruise in the White Sea3. She exhibited many times in Paris between the two wars. In 1921, she was invited to be part of the jury of the Salon d'Automne. She is also in contact with writers such as Henri Barbusse and Romain Rolland, or the architect Auguste Perret, the composers Maurice Raval and Erik Satie4. She binds a strong friendship with Rainer Maria Rilke4. She also became naturalized French in 19273. Abroad, she had major exhibitions in Barcelona, Germany, and in Washington at the Carnegie Institute. She is recognized particularly as a portrait painter6. She notably paints the portrait of her friends: Clemenceau, Ravel, Satie, as well as Rainer Maria Rilke. During the Second World War, she felt threatened because of her origins and her political ideas. She left Paris for Avignon and taught drawing, art history and literature there. She received a small apartment from the city authorities. After the war, she had sight problems, which improved after cataract surgery in 1965, which allowed her to rework the paint. She died in her studio on May 14, 19673. She is buried in the Parisian cemetery of Bagneux, in the 94th division.