Antique Rarities

Description

A portrait in oils, on board, by Eugen Spiro, signed and dated 1930. Truly evocative of the inter war period when increasing numbers of emancipated women excelled at pursuits hitherto regarded the domains of men. Although unnamed research might well reveal the identity of the subject - aviatrix, explorer, bohemian...or simply a society lady with a taste for more masculine attire?
In good, unrestored condition with its original frame its overall dimensions are 60 by 69cm - image only 40 by 49cm.
Born to a Jewish family in Breslau, Silesia, on April 18th 1874, Eugen Spiro was a member of avant-garde art Secessionist groups in Munich and Berlin. Whilst living in the capital he became involved with, and married to from 1904-6, the Austrian actress Tilla Durieux. After their separation he moved to Paris where he worked until the outbreak of WWI forced him to return to Germany, where he soon became a popular portrait painter. From 1915 to 1933 Spiro had a prolific career as a teacher, gallerist, and member of the board of the Berlin Secession. After the Nazis came to power the sixty-one-year-old Spiro fled to Paris, where he was involved in the founding of the “Union des Artistes Allemands Libres”, a federation of exiled German artists whose work was defamed by the Nazis. After the German occupation of France in 1940, Spiro emigrated to the United States where he spent the remainder of his days - dying at the age of 98 in New York on September 26 1972.
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