Lot 355: Fernando Álvarez De Sotomayor (En Ferrol 1875-1960 Madrid)

Fernando Álvarez De Sotomayor (En Ferrol 1875-1960 Madrid)
Portrait of Teresa Wilms Montt (1893-1921), three-quarter-length, seated on a stone bridge
dated '1908' (lower left)
oil on canvas
47 x 43 in. (119.4 x 109.2 cm.)

Acquired from the artist, and by descent in the family of the present owner.

In this large and beautifully rendered portrait, Sotomayor captures the independent spirit of his sitter, the Chilean feminist poet and essayist Teresa Wilms Montt (Viña del Mar 1893-1921 Paris). Married at only seventeen, Teresa soon grew restless in her role as a wife and mother in the subdued city of Santiago. In 1916, she left her husband and two small children for a life of adventure and artistic endeavors in the vibrant city of Buenos Aires. There her creative spirit soared and she published her first book of poetry, appropriately titled, Inquietudes sentimentales, which achieved great success in the city's intellectual circles. Two years later, Teresa ventured to Barcelona once again immersing herself in bohemian life, befriending the city's renowned dramatists, novelists and painters. In Barcelona, she published En la inquietud del mármol, a collection of essays on life and death and Anuarí, a work inspired by her romance with a young man in Buenos Aires who had killed himself. Teresa briefly reconnected with her children in 1920 before dying tragically the following year at the age of twenty-eight.

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Fundación Sotomayor in a certificate dated August 28, 2005.