Elusive Elisa

Elisa Counis "Self-Portrait" 1839  The Uffizi Gallery Florence

Despite the arresting beauty of this image and the fact that it is in the collection of the Uffizi, I can find no information online about the artist, Elisa Counis, other than her life span (1812-1847) and a designated nationality of Italian. Her dates and the fact she was apparently a highly accomplished portraitist lead me to suspect that she was the daughter of Swiss portrait painter Salomon-Guillaume Counis (1785-1859.)  European borders changed a lot in the 1800s, and artists were notoriously peripatetic, so the Swiss/Italian designation of nationality is inconclusive.

This painting was included in an exhibition at the Uffizi several years ago titled AUTORITTRATE, "Artiste di capriccioso e destrissimo ingengo" which roughly translates as "Artists of whimsy and ingenuity" (although the word destrissimo appears to defy direct translation? Please let me know if you know what it means.) The exhibit dates were December 17, 2010  through January 30, 2011 and it was held in the museum's Sala delle Reali Poste. The exhibit was aimed to raise awareness of the many self-portraits specifically by women artists both historical and contemporary included in the vast collections of the Uffizi. 

The Global Village

David Zukas "Kulungugu House Painters" 2007  private collection

David Zukas (b.1970) is a multi-media artist based on Staten Island, New York. The well-known sculptor Patrick Vilaire is his father-in-law and artistic mentor. Zukas says of his own work, "I have been an artist and educator for over twelve years, traveling and studying regions most affected by the African Diaspora from its origins in West Africa to final destinations in the Americas such as Haiti. My most profound learning experience as an artist was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana. I taught in the Ghanaian public schools and helped to develop markets for local artisan work.  The culture of the Ewe people is now woven like kente cloth into my artwork. Africa has immensely impacted my work and is a predominant theme."

The figures in this drawing depict Ghanaian women practicing the ancient art of painting geometric designs onto traditional mud wall houses. While Zukas was teaching in Ghana he was allowed to briefly participate in this traditionally female art practice, and also allowed to take photographs of the women in the act of painting, from which he has created several pieces of his own work which celebrate their art.

Zukas says, "If technology has made us a "global village"- then it is going to take the entire village to raise this child." The artist's website can be seen here. 

Marie Two Times

Marie Ellenreider  "Self Portrait" miniature ca. 1810 The Daulton Collection

Marie Ellenreider (1791-1863) was born in Konstanz, Germany into an artistic family (her grandfather  was Franz Ludwig Herrman, a noted painter and frescoist) who encouraged their daughter in her artistic studies. She studied with miniaturist Joseph Einsle, and her early portraits were very favorably received.  She became the first woman honored with admission into the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.

Marie Ellenreider "Self Portrait" 1819 Rosgartenmuseum Konstanz 

In the 1820's she went to Rome where she fell under the influence of Johann Overbeck, a passionately religious Christian painter, who was a member of the Nazarene movement, a group of German painters who sought to revive honesty and sincerity in Christian Art. From this time forward Ellenreider began producing mainly religious paintings. In 1929 she was appointed court painter to Grand Duchess Sophie of Baden (Princess Sophie of Sweden.)

In the 1840s Ellenreifer returned to Konstanz and continued making religious pieces. Two of these were acquired by Queen Victoria and remain in the royal collection.

Twenty Years Apart!

Elizabeth Osborne  "Figure in Studio"  1967  Collection of the Artist

Elizabeth Osborne (b. 1936) is a contemporary artist based in Philadelphia, PA.  She studied at the the University of Pennsylvania and also at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her talent was recognized at an early stage, and she received numerous awards while in school, and a Fulbright Fellowship in 1964. She began teaching at PAFA in the early 60's becoming one of the few women instructors at that time. An influential and beloved teacher, she only recently retired from full-time teaching and was awarded the 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Alumni Association of PAFA. I myself was one of Liz's students, and very gratefully so, and it was a real thrill for me as the current president of PAFA's Alumni Association Council to have the honor of actually giving the award to Liz!

Elizabeth Osborne  "The Studio"  1987  Private Collection 

Liz Osborne's beautiful work ranges from representational to abstract, and also explores the space inbetween these two states, but whatever the genre her paintings are known always for their clear and subtle use of color as well as an imitable and characteristic balance and elegance. Curator Robert Cozzolino has written of her work, "Osborne may be known to some for her virtuoso, glowing realist watercolors of the late 1970s or monumental, hallucinatory landscapes of the early and mid-1970s; still others may know her recent boldly-painted ruminations of nature in its micro- and macrocosm.  Yet Osborne's oeuvre is full of surprises, stylistically experimental yet cohesive, hauntingly introspective and complex in its artistic and personal associations."

 The artist shows at Locks Gallery in Philadelphia and is in numerous private and public collections, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Delaware Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her website can be seen here.

The Lost Lavinia

Lavinia Fontana Zappi "Print after a Self-Portrait" date and location unknown

So, it appears that the painting from which this print was made, is lost.  I came across the image in a reissue of an old book from 1905, Women Painters of the World, by Walter Shaw Sparrow. Leafing through my eye was caught by this piece I had never before seen, captioned:
 PORTRAIT (EXECUTED BY HERSELF) OF LAVINIA FONTANA ZAPPI, PAINTER IN ORDINARY TO POPE GREGORY XIII. FROM A CARBON PRINT BY BRAUN, CLÉMENT & CO., PARIS, AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE

However after several pretty intensive web searches including a visit to the Virtual Uffizi I have to conclude that the original has disappeared. The Uffizi lays claim to only one Fontana, Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalen. 

Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) was born into an artistic family in Bologna, Italy, a city known for its learning and its anomalous stance on gender equality. Fontana's father was a well-known painter, Prospero Fontana, and as was customary in those days, Lavinia naturally went into the family business. She married a lesser-known painter Paolo Zappi, and subsequently gave birth to eleven children while continuing to support the family through her artistic output. Zappi took care of the household and also served as his wife's studio assistant. In 1603 Fontana and her family moved to Rome at the invitation of Pope Clement VIII. She had a very successful career, enjoying papal patronage and being elected to the Accademia di San Luca in 1611. She produced over 100 documented works during her lifetime, although her entire output is unknown. Some of her pieces were, in the past, wrongly attributed to artist Guido Reni.

By the way, you can peruse Women Painters of the World online, as it is up on the wonderful and amazing Project Gutenberg. Leaf through the book here, if you are interested. It's full of old world charm and nifty surprises. And mysteries, too, waiting to be solved by some dedicated art detective!

Sarah

Sarah Lamb "Self Portrait at Easel" 2007  collection of the artist

Sarah Lamb (b.1971) is a contemporary American painter who is best known for her beautifully textured still-lives. Her canvases depict everything from mussel shells on a pottery platter to peonies in silver teapots and have a kind of magnetic power that draws the eye and the breath. Despite their less than kinetic subject matter her work emits such a powerful pull that her shows routinely sell out and in fact Lamb's gallery in NYC keeps a waiting list of people who want her work! Because although she is a dedicated and hard-working artist there are only so many hours in each day. Especially when one is a natural light painter (Lamb works only from life using mainly the light that pours into her skylit studio.)  Every now and then though, Lamb will take a small "vacation" from her main ouevre and work on a small portrait or landscape, such as we see here in this charming self-portrait.

While an undergraduate at Brenau Women's College, Lamb spent a semester studying abroad at the Studio Center International in Florence, Italy. This helped her find her aesthetic focus and after graduating she spent two years studying in the Loire Valley at the Ecole Albery Defois. In 1997 she began six years of study at the Water Street Atelier with Jacob Collins. She is represented by Spanierman Gallery in New York, by the Meredith Long Gallery in Houston Texas and by John Pence Gallery in San Francisco. She is married to painter David Larned and she and her family live in the Brandywine Valley area of Pennsylvania, to which they were drawn by its natural beauty and its deep art-historical roots. Sarah Lamb's website can be seen here.

Ludovica

Ludovica Anina Thornam  "self Portrait"  1885  location unknown 

Ludovica Anina Thornam (1853-1896) was a Danish portrait and genre painter. Immediately following high school she studied for two years with painter Vilhelm Kyhn in Copenhagen, the same Drawing School for Women that Anna Ancher attended.  A few years later Thornam fulfilled a long-held dream to go to Paris where she continued her studies at the Académie Julian from approximately 1887 through 1893. In addition to her academic studies, during these years she went on painting/study trips around Europe with her sister Emmy Marie Thornam, who was also a painter. Ludovica specialized as a portrait painter and additionally she gave private lessons.  It is noted that she was one of the few Danish women painters at that time who made their living through painting. She died at a relatively young age, in her very early forties, and I was unable to find out any further information about her. Her sister Emmy, who was a professional writer as well as a professional painter,  wrote a book that was published in 1932 titled Min søster og jeg (trans: "My Sister and I") which I assume gives more biographical information about these two painting sisters. If anyone has read it, or has a copy please let me know!