Lot 214: Portrait of Olga Galea Naudi, nee Barbora

Portrait of Olga Galea Naudi, nee Barbora signed 'E C Dingli' (lower left) oil on canvas 25.2 x 19.7cm (9 15/16 x 7 3/4in).

25.2x 19.7cm

Olga Naudi (1887 - 1957) was the wife of an ex-military man, Carlo Galea Naudi, a lawyer and lifelong acquaintance of the artist Edward Caruana Dingli. Upon separating from his wife in 1913, Dingli began a scandalous relationship with Naudi which was to last for the rest of his life. It was at this time that Dingli decided to fully devote his life to art, building up a successful career and becoming, in Malta, the most prominent sought after portrait painter of his time. As a result various portraits of Naudi can be found in public and private collections all over the world. For a comparable portrait by the same hand, see 'Portrait of Olga Galea Naudi, nee Barbora', National Museum of Fine Arts (Valetta, Malta).