Mela Muter Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Mela Muter Art Value Price Guide

Dec. 10, 2024
Marie Mela MUTER, 1876-1967 (Poland/France)
Est: £30,000 - £60,000
Maria Melania MUTERMILCH (1876-1967) Autumn still-life, c.1920s Oil on cardboard, size 40 x 40 cm (15 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches) Frame dimensions 50 x 50 cm (19 2/3 x 19 2/3 inches) Signed lower left
Cultural Traditions
Nov. 30, 2024
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Alte Frau,
Est: €12,000 - €15,000
Signed 'Muter' upper rigt in red. - Numbered "47" verso in black brush. Label of Galerie Bargera, Cologne verso, therein work information and inscribed "No 43".
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Nov. 30, 2024
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Boote am Hafen,
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Signed 'Muter' in black lower right.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Nov. 30, 2024
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Berglandschaft,
Est: €12,000 - €15,000
Unsigned. Galerie Bargera, Cologne, label verso, therein work information and inscribed "No 41".
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Nov. 28, 2024
MELA MUTER (1876-1967) Pot de fleurs et journal
Est: €20,000 - €30,000
MELA MUTER (1876-1967) Pot de fleurs et journal Huile sur toile Signée en bas à droite (Petites restaurations) Oil on canvas, signed lower right 65 x 54 cm - 25 5/8 x 21 1/4 in. Provenance Collection particulière, France Oeuvre en rapport Mela Muter (1876-1967), Géranium, vers 1920, huile sur panneau, signée en haut à gauche, 60,5 x 50,5 cm, anciennes collections Oscar Ghez (Genève, Petit Palais) et Wojciech Fibak (achat en 1987), collection particulière, in. Ventes, École de Paris et 19th Century and Modern Art, Desa Unicum, Varsovie, 14 mai 2019, lot 20, et 15 mars 2018, lot 55 « Il faut être peu bavard en art, ne pas raconter tous les détails, ne donner que les choses essentielles. » Mela Muter « Avec Mela Muter, chaque portrait devient un drame intérieur qui s'avoue, une détresse qui vous empoigne, avec une prédilection pour le thème des maternités où s'exprime toute sa tendresse. Ses portraits sont chargés d'une intensité dramatique rendue par une construction forte, un réalisme fouillé qui atteint la crudité et une touche baroque qui rend la peinture palpitante. Ses paysages sont d'une poésie âpre, Mela Muter s'en empare, s'y introduit et se traduit par eux. Ses natures mortes présentent le même tempérament frémissant où affleure toute son inquiétude slave : "Concarneau paisible, loin de l'angoisse parisienne, comme hors du danger mais mon cœur était lourd. Je sentais ce danger dans chaque fibre de mon cœur. Je me suis enfermée dans le grenier vide de l'hôtel et j'ai eu recours, comme toujours dans les cas de tristesse mortelle, au seul remède qui pourrait me soulager. Je me suis mise à peindre, pas des figures, on n'avait ni le temps ni la patience pour servir de modèle. Les natures mortes - crustacés et poissons insensibles aux drames humains, à la folie des hommes - les remplacèrent. Une de ces natures mortes surtout fut très marquée par mon état psychique, elle était tragique avec les contorsions des anguilles noires, énormes, le rouge des carapaces, le blanc livide du papier." (Septembre 1914). Son art est violent, proche des expressionnistes allemands, l'artiste a intégré le synthétisme de Gauguin et le lyrisme des couleurs des Fauves. C'est une peinture qui dérange par le choc qu'elle provoque, allant parfois jusqu'à la brutalité, tant sa hâte l'emporte. Parlant de sa peinture, Mela Muter souligne : "Il faut être peu bavard en art, ne pas raconter tous les détails, ne donner que les choses essentielles. La grande joie du spectateur est d'apporter sa part de collaboration dans la dégustation d'une œuvre d'art, il faut que devant cette sobriété il puisse compléter, par sa création à lui, la vision évoquée par l'artiste." Ainsi elle laisse nue et blanche la toile en certains endroits, zone où le souvenir reconstitue librement le ton. Mela Muter exprime son propre tempérament tout en étant conditionnée par son temps et son passé ; elle appartient aux peintres de Montparnasse, mais conserve ses racines. L'empreinte polonaise qui imprègne sa vision des choses ou des gens est toujours palpable, il y a un dénominateur commun qui sous-tend ses tableaux et participe à cette vibration particulière faite d'humanisme mélancolique, de déracinement, traduisant une vision tragique de la vie. Il faut savoir que le déchirement spirituel qui est lisible dans ses œuvres est l'effet de son choix pour l'avant-garde artistique parisienne avec, pour conséquence, l'expatriation. André Salmon écrivait ainsi dans Pologne Littéraire, du 15 décembre 1933 : "Mela Muter fut, au premier chef, l'une de ces fortes individualités et l'un des plus éminents révélateurs de l'art national. C'est par là seulement qu'elle est dépendante de l'École de Paris. Ce qu'elle doit à la France, c'est d'être devenue, en même temps qu'un des parfaits représentants de l'art vivant, un grand peintre polonais." » Catherine Puget, « Mela Muter. La rage de peindre d'une femme », in. cat. expo. Mela Muter, Musée de Pont-Aven, 2 octobre 1993-2 janvier 1994, Pont-Aven : Musée de Pont-Aven, 1993, n.p.
Aguttes
Oct. 18, 2024
Marie Mela MUTER (1876-1967) Polish - French
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Maria Melania MUTERMILCH, Mela MUTER (1876-1967) ; Landscape with haystacks ; early 20th century ; oil on canvas / unframed ; dimensions 19 x 27 cm (7 1/2 x 20 2/3 in.) ; signed lower left corner ; Shipping to USA - DHL $330 , National post with tracking service $185 / Shipping to EU, Middle Assia - DHL $230 , National post with tracking service $115
Art-Torg
Oct. 12, 2024
Muter, Marie Mela (1876 - 1967) zugeschrieben
Est: -
Muter, Marie Mela (1876 - 1967) zugeschrieben Oel/Leinwand. Interieur mit Uhr. Links unten sign. 54 x 61 cm, Rahmen 75 x 42 cm.
Kunst-und Auktionshaus Schloss Hagenburg
Jul. 20, 2024
FRENCH FRUIT STILL LIFE OIL PAINTING BY MELA MUTER
Est: $100 - $150
Oil on canvas painting by Maria Melania Mutermilch, known as Mela Muter, 1876 to 1967, the first professional Jewish-Polish artist based in Paris, France. The artwork represents a still life with grapes, apples, and wine. Untitled, undated. Signed by the artist in the lower right. Collectible Figurative Fine Art, Genre Painting, Women Artists.
Antique Arena Inc
Jun. 29, 2024
Muter, Marie Mela (1876 - 1967) zugeschrieben
Est: -
Muter, Marie Mela (1876 - 1967) zugeschrieben Oel/Leinwand. Interieur mit Uhr. Links unten sign. 54 x 61 cm, Rahmen 75 x 42 cm.
Kunst-und Auktionshaus Schloss Hagenburg
Jun. 04, 2024
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Männliches Portrait,
Est: €40,000 - €50,000
Signed 'Muter' in mauve upper left, barely legibly titled 'Portrait de Roudsouder' [?] verso on canvas. - Barely legibly inscribed in handwriting 'Portret Rudsuda[...] chiarau [?] Kommunist' on paper label.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Jun. 04, 2024
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Selbstportrait, Circa 1911
Est: €30,000 - €40,000
Signed 'MUTER' in black upper left. This self-portrait presents the Polish painter as a young woman in a self-assured pose with her curious and questioning gaze directed towards the viewer. Presumably created around 1911, her youthful features do not convey the experience she had already gathered during the ten years since her move from Warsaw to Paris. After continuing to study art in Paris – at the Académie Colarossi, among other places – she first focused her attention on the works of van Gogh, Cezanne and Vuillard. But she soon pursued her own path. The artist developed an expressive power, a colouristic diversity and a feel for the psychology of her sitters that runs throughout her entire oeuvre. Even during the early years of her career, she was already a sought-after portraitist of the jeunesse dorée, the intellectual scene and the poor people of Paris – and in 1911 she became a member of the Salon d’Automne alongside Metzinger and de Chirico. Her numerous exhibitions over the following decades reflect her success from the period before her work became forgotten in the course of the Second World War. From the 1960s Muter’s work once again became a focus of galleries in New York, Paris and Cologne – and this was important not least for the renewed attention devoted to her work in the art scene of her native Poland.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
May. 05, 2024
MELA MUTER (1876 - 1967) - 20th Cent. oil on panel
Est: €1,000 - €3,000
20th Cent. oil on panel, most likely depicting 'Raymond Lefebvre' (on a very fine support marouflaged on cardboard or fine panel) attributed to Mela Muter on the back there is a "Still Life", probably painted by another hand MELA MUTER (1876 - 1967) (Polen) olieverfschilderij op paneel (zeer fijne drager gemaroufleerd op karton of fijn paneel) met een onafgewerkt portret, hoogstwaarschijnlijk van Raymond Lefebvre - 75,8 x 61 op verso is er een "Stilleven", waarschijnlijk van een andere hand - toegeschreven aan
DVC
Feb. 17, 2024
FRENCH PAINTING NOTRE DAME DE PARIS BY MELA MUTER
Est: $100 - $150
Mela Muter, or Maria Melania Mutermilch, Polish, 1876 to 1967, watercolor painting on paper depicting a view to Notre-Dame de Paris. Signed lower left. Framed. Mela Muter was the first professional Jewish painter in Poland. She lived most of her life in France. Muters painting career began to flourish after she moved to Paris from Poland in 1901 at the age of twenty-five. Mid Century Paintings And Art Collectibles.
Antique Arena Inc
Feb. 16, 2024
Marie Mela MUTER (1876-1967) Polish - French
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Maria Melania MUTERMILCH, Mela MUTER (1876-1967) ; Landscape with haystacks ; early 20th century ; oil on canvas / unframed ; dimensions 19 x 27 cm (7 1/2 x 20 2/3 in.) ; signed lower left corner ; Shipping to USA - DHL $330 , National post with tracking service $185 / Shipping to EU, Middle Assia - DHL $230 , National post with tracking service $115
Art-Torg
Dec. 02, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Boote am Hafen,
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Signed 'Muter' in black lower right.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 02, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Landschaft mit Bäumen,
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Signed 'MUTER' in black lower right
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 02, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Straßenszene mit Bäumen,
Est: €3,000 - €4,000
Signed 'Muter' in pen and ink lower right.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 02, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Vieux Paris, 1920s
Est: €25,000 - €30,000
Signed 'Muter' in black lower right. Verso titled "rue de Paris" on stretcher in pencil. Typewritten "No 19 Mela Muter Vieux Paris 253" on old, red-bordered paper label and inscribed "F 20".
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 02, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Sitzende im rosafarbenen Kleid. Verso: Männliches Portrait,
Est: €40,000 - €50,000
Signed 'Muter' verso in blue upper right. The Polish-French painter Mela Muter was a superb portraitist. In addition to works commissioned by France’s celebrities, including Georges Clemenceau, Romain Rolland, Diego Rivera and Ambroise Vollard, Muter also created numerous images depicting members of the simple, rural populace. With dark outlines, a muted palette and visible brushwork, she succeeded in reflecting the character of her sitters: “That is why I had to project myself into my model”, she writes, “Make contact with them. I had to fully grasp them and then paint them. […] I had a vision of how the picture needed to look, and I preserved this idea until the portrait was complete” (cited in Mela Muter, exh. cat. Köln 1967, p. 14). In the 1920s Muter’s work was regularly presented at the exhibitions of the Salon d’Automne as well as the Salon des Indépendants and she experienced her first commercial successes. The portrait here, “Sitzende im rosafarbenen Kleid” was probably created during this period or shortly thereafter. Muter has captured the young woman seated on a simple chair inside an interior featuring a stone floor and a window. She is wearing a plain pink dress, whose colour corresponds to that of the flower as well as the terracotta tiles. The focus is on the depiction of the head, with its curly brown hair and fine facial features. The young woman gazes alertly out of the picture and to the left. Because of the vigorous, post-impressionist brushwork and the warm palette, she generates a relaxed and cheerful atmosphere. The man with a straw hat and khaki-coloured shirt portrayed on the reverse side is shown before a scene featuring a bridge in the south of France.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 01, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Mme André Salmon, Circa 1920 (?)
Est: €50,000 - €60,000
Signed and titled 'Muter Mme André Salmon' in violet lower left. This portrait of Jeanne Salmon (1882-1949) may well have been created at a later point in time, considering that the advanced age of the sitter is recognisable in the features of her face. Jeanne Blazy-Escarpette and André Salmon were married in Paris in 1909. Following Salmon’s return from St Petersburg, where he had worked for the embassy, he went back to Paris in 1904 and joined the leading minds of the artistic avant-garde, such as Picasso, Apollinaire and others. Picasso showed his seminal painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” for the first time at Salmon’s “Salon d’Antin”. Salmon was also successful as a journalist and writer in the years that followed, but he found himself in financial difficulties in the 1930s. Jeanne’s increasing dependency on opium forced him to accept assignments from more or less insignificant journals until he was sent to cover the Spanish Civil War as a reporter. Mela Muter, the magnificent chronicler of the Paris-based elite of France’s cultural scene, captured her portraits’ sitters – in this case, the wife of the well-known author André Salmon – with a precise sense for their desolate financial situations and their corresponding emotional states.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Nov. 15, 2023
MELA MUTER (1876-1967) Vue de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon avec le fort Saint-André et la collégiale Notre-Dame
Est: €30,000 - €50,000
MELA MUTER (1876-1967) Vue de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon avec le fort Saint-André et la collégiale Notre-Dame Détrempe sur toile Signée en bas à droite Annotée 'M[?]e Muter rue Velouterie 12' sur le châssis Tempera on canvas, signed lower right, inscribed 'M[?]e Muter rue Velouterie 12' on the stretcher 74,5 x 85 cm - 29 3/8 x 33 1/2 in. Provenance - Collection particulière, France (acquis auprès de l'artiste puis par descendance) - Acquis auprès de cette dernière « Il faut être peu bavard en art, ne pas raconter tous les détails, ne donner que les choses essentielles. La grande joie du spectateur est d'apporter sa part de collaboration dans la dégustation d'une oeuvre d'art, il faut que devant cette sobriété il puisse compléter, par sa création à lui, la vision évoquée par l'artiste. » Louis Chaumeil, 1967 « Mela Muter a heureusement servi la peinture polonaise par l'affirmation, la plus volontaire qui se puisse concevoir, de sa personnalité propre. Certains artistes européens du XXe siècle vinrent à Paris, de préférence à la Rome du passé et au Munich d'un incertain avenir, les uns pour s'abandonner totalement aux effets du climat double : climat séquanien ou de tel autre coin de France élu, et climat pictural, de la France artistique d'après l'école de Barbizon, d'après Courbet, d'après les Impressionnistes et parfois sous l'autorité reconnue du plus tyrannique des maîtres de l'art dit indépendant : Henri Matisse. D'autres semblent avoir pressenti que ce qu'on allait me permettre de définir l'Art vivant, bien loin de menacer les nations justement orgueilleuses d'une culture personnelle, de ses justifications et de ses illustrations, d'une sorte de cosmopolitisme pictural engendrant plus que la monotonie, c'est-à-dire le pire des académismes, favoriserait les expressions nationales après la pleine libératiiion des individus soumis tout de même à des règles, ces règles étant reconnues aux sources mêmes de l'art de peindre. Mela Muter fut, au premier chef, l'une de ces fortes individualités et l'un des plus éminents révélateurs de l'art national. C'est par là seulement qu'elle est dépendante de l'École de Paris. Ce qu'elle doit à Ia France c'est d'être devenue, en même temps qu'un des parfaits représentants de l'Art vivant, un grand peintre polonais. [...] Je pense que Mela Muter a raisonné son art de peintre en poète qui ne se limite, qui ne précise sa mesure qu'en son ambition d'instruire le monde du secret de porter toute chose à sa valeur lyrique, ambition plus pressante que celle de limiter ces chances de lyrisme (qui sont en fait universelles) à quelques occasions données arbitrairement comme exemplaires entre toutes. [...] Mela Muter, dès les premiers jours de son heureuse et laborieuse carrière, a pris rang parmi ces novateurs ennemis de la fausse originalité, artistes et poètes dont Picasso a bien dit qu'ils s'influencèrent tour à tour et dont l'un des hauts desseins fut de restituer l'art à la vie. C'est pour cela que l'art de Mela Muter, dégagé des aigreurs de ses devanciers immédiats, n'est pas littéralement un thème de joie, hors du rythme universel. [...] Nul mieux que Mela Muter n'aura, loin d'aucun recours à un autre art que le sien, chaleureusement prodigué ces calmes effusions fixant comme en un point idéal les propriétés directes des formes et des couleurs et ce qui commande au monde des paroles. Réalisme orphique qui se suffit, même si l'auteur, peintre pour poète, prétend à quelque préfiguration d'un avenir souverain. » André Salmon, « La peinture de Mela Muter », in Pologne littéraire, 15 décembre 1933, n° 87, p. 5
Aguttes
Nov. 11, 2023
MELA MUTER POLISH/FRENCH 1876-1967
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
Still Life with Fruit and Green Bottle, oil on canvas, 21 1/4 x 25 1/2 in (54 x 65 cm), signed lower right,
Trinity International Auctions & Appraisals, LLC
Oct. 11, 2023
Mela Muter (1876-1967) Maternite
Est: €40,000 - €60,000
Mela Muter (1876-1967) Maternite Oil on canvas Signed on the top left 46 x 38,5 cm Provenance : Private collection, France Mela Muter (1876-1967) Maternité Huile sur toile Signée en haut à gauche 46 x 38,5 cm Provenance : Collection particulière, France
Piasa
Oct. 11, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch) (1876-1967) Untitled, (Portrait d'homme)
Est: €40,000 - €60,000
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch) (1876-1967) Untitled, (Portrait d'homme) Oil on panel Signed on the top right 82 x 60 cm Provenance : Private collection, Paris Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch dit) (1876-1967) Sans titre, (Portrait d'homme) Huile sur panneau Signé en haut à droite 82 x 60 cm Provenance : Collection particulière, Paris
Piasa
Oct. 11, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch) (1876-1967) Untitled, (Portrait de femme)
Est: €40,000 - €60,000
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch) (1876-1967) Untitled, (Portrait de femme) Oil on canvas Signed on the bottom left 79 x 58 cm Provenance : Private collection, Paris Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch dit) (1876-1967) Sans titre, (Portrait de femme) Huile sur toile Signée en bas à gauche 79 x 58 cm Provenance : Collection particulière, Paris
Piasa
Oct. 11, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch) (1876-1967) Untitled
Est: €60,000 - €90,000
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch) (1876-1967) Untitled Oil on canvas Signed on the bottom right 76 x 85 cm Provenance : Private collection, Paris Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch dit) (1876-1967) Sans titre Huile sur toile Signée en bas à droite 76 x 85 cm Provenance : Collection particulière, Paris
Piasa
Jun. 09, 2023
Marie Mela MUTER (1876-1967) Polish - French
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Maria Melania MUTERMILCH, Mela MUTER (1876-1967) ; Nude ; the 1st quarter of the 20th century ; oil on canvas / unframed ; dimensions 33 x 55 cm (13 x 21 2/3 in.) ; signed lower right corner ; Shipping to USA - DHL $330 , National post with tracking service $185 / Shipping to EU, Middle Assia - DHL $230 , National post with tracking service $115
Art-Torg
Jun. 07, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Südliche Landschaft, Circa 1910/1920s
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Unsigned.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Jun. 07, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Geschwister. Verso: Porträt des Vaters der Künstlerin, Fabian Klingsland, Circa 1910s
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Signed 'MUTER' in ink lower left and signed and titled 'Mon Père adoré Muter' in ballpoint pen verso lower left.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Jun. 07, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Porträt eines Mannes (Herr Hamon), Circa 1920s
Est: €20,000 - €30,000
Unsigned. With printed labels of Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne, verso, therein inscribed by hand with the artist, title, dimensions, and "Kat. Nr. 195", also label of Galerie Bargera, Cologne, therein inscribed by hand with the artist and "Herr Hamon".
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Jun. 07, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), One of Mela Muter's palettes,
Est: €4,000 -
Signed 'Muter' in violet lower right.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Jun. 06, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Geschwisterpaar. Verso: Damenporträt, Circa 1930/1940s
Est: €60,000 - €70,000
Each signed 'Muter' in red / black upper right.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Jun. 06, 2023
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Mutter mit Kindern, 1911
Est: €100,000 - €120,000
Signed 'Muter' in black lower left. A photograph of the painting is documented in the photo archive of the Galerie Bargera. Mela Muter actually became known and renowned for her highly expressive portraits. Born into a wealthy Jewish-Polish family engaged in the retail business, she quickly found her footing in Parisian society at the start of the 20th century and became friends with important avant-garde artists. She had studied in Warsaw as well as the Grande Chaumière and Colarossi academies in Paris. Shortly thereafter, she was creating portraits of public figures: from the art market, literary world, politics and upper-class circles. At the same time, however, she had an exceptionally empathetic interest in poorer members of the populace. With psychological curiosity, but never lacking distance, society’s disadvantaged are depicted in sometimes prominently proportioned formats: children attired in a meagre and impoverished manner as well as street musicians or families in a domestic atmosphere. Our large-format painting depicts a young woman having a meal with her children. The room is filled with light, and a mild breeze gently passes through the open window to stir the curtains. The view of mountains and a river anchors the domestic scene in a rural natural setting and also points to Mela Muter’s interest in landscape painting. Points of light and the perspective unfolding rapidly from the lower edge of the painting invigorate the figural scene, and this is further enhanced by the summery boldness of the colours found in the dresses and utensils. The pyramidal structure and use of light here present the mother as the origin of all life and thus as an allegory of Maternité, possessing an innate aura of sacred calm. Muter always also seeks the characteristic, the timeless, in the individual. This picture meant so much to the painter that she kept it until the end of her life and, evidently responding to the wish of a collector, she later preferred to paint a smaller version than to give it up (for the smaller version, see: Magda Michalska, Mela Muter – Accomplished Portraitist and devoted Mother, in: Daily Art Magazine, 27 Jan. 2023, p. 2; exh. cat. Paris 1966 (Galerie Jean-Claude Bellier), Mela Muter, cat. no. 29 with ill.; exh. cat. New York 1967 (Hammer Galleries), Mela Muter, cat. no. 17 with ill.).
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Jun. 03, 2023
MELA MUTER PORTRAIT EINES MANNES (1926)
Est: €70,000 - €140,000
MELA MUTER ('eigentlich Maria Melania Mutermilch') 1886 Waschau, Polen - 1967 Paris PORTRAIT EINES MANNES (1926) Öl auf Leinwand. 100,5 x 82 cm (R. 117,5 x 98 cm). Oben links signiert 'Muter' sowie oben rechts datiert '1926'. Verso: Rückseitig mit Klebeetikett 'Papillon Gallery, Los Angeles' sowie 'Polswiss Art, Warschau'. Mela Muter, eigentlich Maria Melania Mutermilch, wurde 1896 in Warschau geboren und besuchte die Malschule für Frauen von Milosz Kotarbinsky in Warschau. Muter war kurzzeitig Studentin an der Académie Colarossi und der Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Bereits im Jahr 1901 zog sie mit ihrem Ehemann, den Schriftsteller und Kunstkritiker Michal Mutermilch nach Paris, wo sie Kontakte in der Pariser Kunstszene knüpfte, unter anderen mit Arthur Honegger, Anatole France, Romain Rolland, Auguste Perret und Edgar Varèse sowie den polnischen Künstlern Henryk Sienkiewicz, Wladyslaw Reymont und Bronislaw Huberman.Das hier angebotene 'Portrait eines Mannes' aus dem Jahr 1926 zeigt die Darstellung einer männlichen Person auf einem Sessel sitzend. Vor dem neutralen Hintergrund platziert, dominieren vor allem die Brauntöne in diesem Gemälde. Muter zeigt einen variierenden Farbauftrag, der von der pointillistischen Farbauftrag im Bereich des Gesichts hin zu einem langen Pinselduktus im Bereich der Darstellung der Kleidung.Ihre Werke wurden seit 1902 in der Société nationale des Beaux-Arts ausgestellt, deren Mitglied sie seit 1912 war. Zudem stellte sie im Salon d'Automne sowie seit 1924 im Salon de Tuileries aus. Es folgten mehrere Beteiligungen bei Gruppenausstellungen, wie bei Druet, Billiet und in der Galerie La Renaissance in Paris, bei Thannhauser in München, in der Galerie Dalman in Barcelona sowie im Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. Ihre Werke wurden von Paul Cézanne, Paul Gaugin und Vincent van Gogh beeinflusst und zeigen vornehmlich Portraits, Landschaften und Stillleben.Die Zeit während des Zweiten Weltkrieges verbrachte Muter im Süden Frankreichs in Avignon, bevor sie wieder nach Paris zurückkehrte. Aufgrund der Verschlechterung ihrer Sehkraft konnte Muter jedoch nur noch eingeschränkt weiterarbeiten. Im Jahr 1927 erhielt Muter die französische Staatsangehörigkeit. Und 1945 kehrte sie nach Paris zurück, wo sie schließlich im Jahr 1967 verstarb. Ihre Werke befinden sich in den Sammlungen Musée d'Art Moderne und im Petit Palais in Genf, sowie in Museen in Algier, Avignon, Barcelona, Belfort, Gerona, La Rochelle, Lwow, Lyon und Nantes.Das Portrait eines Mannes von Mela Muter wurde in den 1970er Jahren von der Papillon Gallery in Los Angeles als Portrait von Arthur Honegger geführt. Rahmen. Provenienz: Papillon Gallery, Los Angeles, wohl nach 1972 bis ca. 2000; seit 2014 Privatsammlung Polen. MELA MUTER (properly Maria Melania Mutermilch) 1886 Waschau, Poland - 1967 Paris PORTRAIT OF A MAN (1926) Oil on canvas. 100,5 x 82 cm (f. 117,5 x 98 cm). Signed 'Muter' at upper left and dated '1926' at upper right. Verso: Adhesive label on the reverse 'Papillon Gallery, Los Angeles' and 'Polswiss Art, Warsaw'. Frame. Mela Muter, properly Maria Melania Mutermilch, was born in Warsaw in 1896 and attended Milosz Kotarbinsky's painting school for women in Warsaw. Muter was briefly a student at the Académie Colarossi and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. As early as 1901 she moved to Paris with her husband, the writer and art critic Michal Mutermilch, where she made contacts in the Parisian avantgarde, among others with Arthur Honegger, Anatole France, Romain Rolland, Auguste Perret and Edgar Varèse as well as the Polish artists Henryk Sienkiewicz, Wladyslaw Reymont and Bronislaw Huberman. The 'Portrait of a Man' from 1926 offered here shows a depiction of a male person sitting on an armchair. Placed against the neutral background, the brown tones in particular dominate this painting. Muter shows a varying application of paint, from the pointillist application of paint in the area of the face to a long brushstroke in the area of the depiction of clothing. Her works were exhibited at the Société nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1902, of which she had been a member since 1912. She also exhibited at the Salon d'Automne and, from 1924, at the Salon de Tuileries. Several participations in group exhibitions followed, such as at Druet, Billiet and the Galerie La Renaissance in Paris, at Thannhauser in Munich, at the Galerie Dalman in Barcelona and at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. Her works were influenced by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gaugin and Vincent van Gogh and show mainly portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Muter spent the period during the Second World War in the south of France in Avignon before returning to Paris. However, due to the deterioration of her eyesight, Muter was only able to continue working to a limited extent. In 1927, Muter was granted French citizenship. In 1945 she returned to Paris, where she died in 1967. Her works are in the collections of the Musée d'Art Moderne and the Petit Palais in Geneva, as well as in museums in Algiers, Avignon, Barcelona, Belfort, Gerona, La Rochelle, Lwow, Lyon and Nantes. Portrait of a Man by Mela Muter was listed as a portrait of Arthur Honegger by the Papillon Gallery in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Provenance: Papillon Gallery, Los Angeles, after 1972 until c. 2000; since 2014 private collection Poland.
Hargesheimer Kunstauktionen Düsseldorf
Mar. 12, 2023
Mela Muter 1876-1967 "Portrait"
Est: $6,000 - $8,000
oil on canvas signed on the top left size: 56*46 including the frame Painting has been restored by Shteren Gallery
Alma
Jan. 19, 2023
Mela MUTER (1876-1967) - Villa entourée d'arbres - Huile sur panneau signée en bas à droite - 18 x 2
Est: €8,000 - €12,000
Mela MUTER (1876-1967) - Villa entourée d'arbres - Huile sur panneau signée en bas à droite - 18 x 23 cm - Petrits trous dans le panneau Mela MUTER (1876-1967) - Villa surrounded by trees - Oil on panel signed lower right - 18 x 23 cm - Petrits holes in the panel
Expertisez Enchères
Dec. 02, 2022
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Portrait eines jungen Malers, 1939
Est: €30,000 - €40,000
Unsigned. - Titled "art peintre Aron, Avignon" by an unknown hand verso and with the label of Galerie Bargera, Cologne, thereon inscribed with artist, title, year and no. "23".
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 02, 2022
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Portrait eines Literaten, Circa 1920s
Est: €50,000 - €60,000
Signed 'Muter' in brown upper left. Mela Muter was a masterful portrait painter, and her talents were in great demand among her Parisian contemporaries after the end of World War I. She portrayed countless famous public figures, including the gallerist Ambroise Vollard and the politician Georges Clemenceau, but she also had an interest in people from the simplest of backgrounds. Muter was able to depict every one of her models with an unmistakable intensity. Usually captured in a serious and contemplative mood, they are completely mindful and alert. They do not present a pose, and sometimes they do not even seem to be aware of the painter’s presence. This also applies to both of the male portraits up for sale at this auction. The men, whose identities are now unknown, represent very different types of people and have also been approached differently on a painterly level. They are, however, equally effective in displaying Muter’s capacity for empathy. Still, the artist always emphatically resisted being seen as a psychological authority. “No, I don’t make psychological portraits. I don’t even know how one would go about painting a psychological portrait. Is the person that I’m painting good, generous, inauthentic or intelligent? I don’t even ask myself this question. I simply try to get a grasp on this person, like I do with a flower or a piece of fruit or a tree. I penetrate them – if I succeed – and express myself through them. (Without a doubt, a certain melancholia, certain pains and a certain despondency come more naturally to me than elegance and cheerfulness.)” (cited in: Mela Muter. Retrospektiv-Ausstellung, Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne 1967, n.p.)
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 02, 2022
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Ansicht von Avignon. Verso: Mutter mit Kind, Probably circa 1940
Est: €80,000 - €100,000
Signed 'Muter' in blue lower left. Signed 'Muter' in grey lower left verso. The verso view is documented in the Photographic Archive of Galeria Bargera, Cologne. This double-sided painting unites two disciplines mastered by Mela Muter: landscape and portrait. In 1940 the war drove Mela Muter to flee from Paris to southern France, where she lived in Avignon part of the time and created striking views of the city. This magnificent panorama captures its spatial context from an elevated vantage point and shows the historic city in a warm atmosphere flooded with light. The olive trees and simple residential buildings in the foreground lead us to the two arms of the Rhône. To the right in the middle ground, on the near riverbank, rises the silhouette of the Tour Philippe-le-Bel, which once marked the border between the Kingdom of France and the Papal Territory of Avignon. The ruin of the Pont Saint-Bénézet can be recognised above the second arm of the river; the town’s medieval core stretches out behind it, crowned by the monumental walls and towers of the papal palace. Muter mastered the depiction of this complex, many-layered landscape; organic natural forms and the cubic contours of buildings merge into a harmonious unity. The use of warm tones of white and ochre that seem to reflect the sun as well as the accents in fresh blue and red are characteristic of her views from southern France. The artist’s emotional connection with the theme of motherhood becomes clear in the double portrait on the other side. Depictions of women with their children, often from the most modest social classes, are among her most common subjects. The seated mother forms a single compositional unit with the small child on her lap, and the cool, nuanced variety of flesh tones as well as the blue tones of the clothing further underscore this bond. The mother’s downturned face and the earnest gaze of her child exclude any kind of sentimentality; representational details like the dots on the blouse and the cross window shimmering through the white curtains situate the scene in the midst of life.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Nov. 17, 2022
MELA MUTER SIGNED WATERCOLOUR AND INK DRAWING 1920 POLISH ECOLE DE PARIS
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
MELA MUTER 1876-1967 (Maria Melania Muter) Warsaw 1876 - 1967 Paris (Polish) Title: Port in Saint Tropez, 1920 Technique: Signed Watercolour and Ink on Thick Textured Card Size: 43 x 53.8 cm. / 17 x 21.2 in. Additional Information: This watercolour and ink painting is signed by the artist “Muter” in the lower right image. It is also titled “Port in Saint Tropez” and dated “1920” on the Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne label, verso. Provenance: Private Collection, Rhineland, Germany Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne, Germany Private collection, Toronto, Canada Condition: Very good condition. A small stain, verso (not visible recto). Remnants of adhesive tape along the sheet edges, verso.
Gilden's Art Gallery
Oct. 15, 2022
MELA MUTER (POLISH 1876-1967)
Est: $40,000 - $60,000
MELA MUTER (POLISH 1876-1967) Portrait of a Boy with Geraniums, oil on canvas 80 x 60 cm (31 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.) framed dimensions: 102 x 82 cm (40 1/8 x 32 1/4 in.) export stamp on verso PROVENANCE Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne (label on stretcher) LOT NOTES Mela Muter was the first widely recognized Polish painter of Jewish descent. Muter spent most of her life in Paris, where she gained popularity as a portraitist, known for her brave brush strokes and bright colors influenced by post-impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh. Following Muter's death in 1967 a retrospective of her works was shown at Galerie Gmurzynska in Cologne, at Petite Palais, Geneva and in Galarie Alber ler in Paris and later in 1994 The National Museum of Warsaw organized a retrospective of her work. Muter was features in Polish Women Artists and Avant-Garde: Voices of Freedom at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC in 1991.
Shapiro Auctions LLC
Oct. 12, 2022
MELA MUTER (MARIA MELANIA MUTERMILCH) (1876-1967) Rue avec clocher d'église (Painted in Avignon circa 1930)
Est: £30,000 - £50,000
MELA MUTER (MARIA MELANIA MUTERMILCH) (1876-1967) Rue avec clocher d'église signed 'Muter Muter' (lower centre); signed 'Muter' (on the reverse) oil on card 72.8 x 54.3cm (28 11/16 x 21 3/8in). Painted in Avignon circa 1930 For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
Jul. 16, 2022
MELA MUTER (POLISH, 1886-1967)
Est: $18,000 - $26,000
MELA MUTER Polish, 1886-1967 Villeneuve-les-Avignon Oil on canvas Signed lower left. Vibrant and mountainous landscape on a sunny day showing the powerful influence of Paul Cezanne. Gilt frame. About the artist: Mela Muter is the pseudonym used by Maria Melania Mutermilch, the first professional Jewish painter in Poland. She lived most of her life in France. Muter's painting career began to flourish after she moved to Paris from Poland in 1901 at the age of twenty-five. Before World War I, Muter's painting practice aligned itself with the Naturalism movement; her signature works containing vivid hues and strong brush strokes. Muter gained swift popularity in Paris and within five years of her residency in the city, had already begun showing her works. Muter received French citizenship in 1927. After the outbreak of WWII Muter fled to Avignon for safety during the Nazi occupation. After the war, Muter returned to Paris where she worked and resided until her death in 1967. Provenance: ex-private Paris collection.
Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers
Jun. 06, 2022
Mela Muter (Polish, 1876-1967) STREET SCENE
Est: €15,000 - €20,000
Mela Muter (Polish, 1876-1967) STREET SCENE oil on panel signed lower left h:17.50 w:12.50 in. With second painting of Church Saint-Didier, Avignon on reverse. Born into an influential family with strong artistic and cultural sensibilities in Warsaw in 1876, Maria Melania Klingsland made the most of her early-life advantages to become the first professional Jewish painter in Poland. While her career as an artist truly took flight after her move to Paris in 1901, she received a good grounding in her youth as her parents enrolled her in drawing and piano classes before she advanced her artistic studies at the School of Drawing and Painting for Women. She married the Socialist art critic Michal Mutermilch at the age of 23 before giving birth to their only son Andrzej in 1900. A year later the family of three would move to Paris, where Muter would continue her studies at the Académie Colarossi and Académie de la Grande Chaumiére. Her work, synonymous with the Naturalism movement, quickly became popular and within a couple of years she was exhibiting her work across the French capital, as well as in her native Poland. One of the original members of the Paris School, Muter's travels across Europe saw her focus shift from landscapes to more character driven work, inspired by the people she saw and met. The First World War would bring great upheaval in Muter's personal life. While her husband was away fighting, she had an affair with the writer and activist Raymond Lefebvre. Divorced from Mutermilch, she cared for and lived with Lefebvre until his death in mysterious circumstances in Russia in 1920. During their time together, she adopted his political ideals, even producing pacifist artworks for Socialist publications. A year after converting to Christianity, Muter lost her son Andrzej to bone tuberculosis. Three years later, in 1927, she became a French citizen, before also gaining membership of the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Artes and the Sociéte des Femmes Artistes Modernes. During the Nazi occupation of France in World War II she fled to Avignon and hid in the south of France. However sometime after the war ended, she was unable to work due to sight issues, rectified with surgery in 1965. By that stage, a retrospective of her work had already been held in Paris in 1953. However, with her sight restored, she returned to painting and exhibited in Cologne, New York, and Paris. Muter died in her studio in 1967, at the age of ninety-one.
Whyte's
Jun. 01, 2022
Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch), Dorfplatz im Regen. Verso: Biblische Szene (Flucht nach Ägypten),
Est: €60,000 - €80,000
Signed 'MUTER' lower right in black. The work is documented in the photo archive of Galerie Bargera, Cologne. Townscapes occupy a special place in Mela Muter's work. In this image of a small-town marketplace during a summer rain, she achieves a particularly vibrant depiction of an everyday scene. The village fountain, which forms the composition's visual anchor, has been shifted to the painting's left edge; the heavily cropped facade of a church rises up behind it. Women, some of them provided with umbrellas, hurry across the square with bowed heads: the slender crowns of the plane trees offer them little protection from the rain. The yellow and grey facades of the houses surrounding the square can be seen in the background. Muter has built up the entire composition out of loosely placed brushstrokes and expertly employed the light ground of the canvas as a compositional element. She has dissolved the uneven, puddle-filled cobblestone surface into short, multicoloured, wavy lines - thus setting it in motion visually. The contours of the houses and the crowns of the trees have become blurred in the rain and the painter has used rapid, diagonal layers of strokes to cause them to merge together and shimmer. Scattered across the picture plane, long and narrow streaks - some added in white, some scratched into the wet paint - very vividly suggest the paths of the falling drops. Despite the rain and the dark sky, the atmosphere is by no means gloomy; in fact, light yellow and tints of white as well as warm tones of stone define the composition. In the view carried out on the reverse side, but ultimately discarded, the artist has combined two contrary subjects in an extraordinary way. She has transferred the Holy Family's Flight into Egypt to a modern industrial landscape - an iconographic juxtaposition that Muter also realised in a very similar manner in the painting “Flucht nach Ägypten: Flusshafen von la Villette”, circa 1938/39 (Boleslaw Collection and Lina Nawrocki).
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Mar. 25, 2022
Painting, Mela Muter
Est: $50,000 - $70,000
Mela Muter (Polish/French, 1876-1967), "Fishing Town with Women on Beach" and "Seascape with Trees" (verso), oil on canvas (double-sided), signed lower right, inscribed "#29" on label (Maxwell Galleries, San Francisco, CA) affixed on stretcher verso, canvas: 19.5"h x 25.5"w, overall (with frame): 32.5" x 26.5"w
Clars Auctions
Feb. 11, 2022
Marie Mela MUTER (1876-1967) Polish - French
Est: $12,000 - $16,000
Maria Melania MUTERMILCH (1876 Warsaw - 1967 Paris) ; oil on canvas / unframed ; dimensions 81 x 100 cm (32 x 39 1/3 in.) ; signed upper right corner ; Shipping to USA - DHL $420 , National post with tracking service $220 / Shipping to EU, Russia, Middle Assia - DHL $290 , National post with tracking service $130
Art-Torg
Jan. 15, 2022
Marie Mela Muter (1876-1967), 'Bauernhaus mit Baum' / 'A farmer's house with a tree', 20. Jh.
Est: €500 - €1,000
Technik: Aquarell auf Büttenkarton, Signatur: unsigniert, rückseitig bezeichnet, Maße: 41 x 28 cm, Zustand: gut, kleine Randläsur, obere linke Ecke knickfaltig + Technique: watercolor on laid paper, Signature: unsigned, inscribed on the reverse, Dimensions: 41 x 28 cm, Condition: good, small marginal tear, upper left corner creased
Auktionshaus Schwab