Beschreibung:

Emilie Mediz-Pelikan (Austrian 1861-1908)A triple portrait of Hermine, Emilia and HelenaPencil and coloured crayonSigned, dated 1897 and variously inscribed (lower right)45.5 x 67cm (17¾ x 26¼ in.)Provenance: The Estate of the late David Fyfe-JamiesonEmilie Mediz-Pelikan (nee Pelikan) was born in Vöcklabruck, Austria in 1861. She was a student of Albert August Zimmermann at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and she followed him when he was appointed professor in Salzburg and later in Munich. In 1888, following Zimmerman's death, she moved to the artist's colony in Dachau, outside Munich, where she formed a close relationship with the painter and head of the colony, Adolf Hölzel Amongst the other artists was the younger Viennese painter, Karl Mediz Around this time, she spent a while in Paris studying the Impressionists. Her first gallery exhibition was held in 1890 by which time she was living in Knokke, Belgium, where she met Mediz again. The two were married in Vienna in 1891, moving to Krems an der Donau where their daughter Gertrude was born. Success, however, was very hard to come by and they settled in Dresden in 1894. Stephen Ongpin, in his online notes for a work by Emilie Mediz-Pelikan wrote, 'In one of the only contemporary accounts of their work to be published in English, the British-Austrian art historian Amelia Sarah Levetus, who must have known the couple, wrote that 'These two artists are man and wife; they have wandered in many places together, over the highest mountains and across glaciers, on the banks of deep rivers and on their pilgrimages have painted scenery and portraits and everything else between. They have endured the greatest hardships together and have worked together; they have chosen the same subjects for their canvases, yet their individualities remain, and in similar subjects also there is a great variety of treatment...Frau Mediz-Pelikan also has immense energy, combined with poetry of expression more delicate than that of her husband; she loves to paint lavenders and silver greys, to bring out the very depths of that which she is depicting.' Both Emilie and Karl were invited, in 1898, to show three pictures each at the inaugural Vienna Secession exhibition. Whilst her early work showed the influence of her interest in Impressionism, fostered during her stay in Paris, her next phase showed a Symbolist quality, particularly in the power of nature. (Lot 271 in this sale was drawn in this year) In 1901 three oils by Mediz-Pelikan were included in the Internationale Kunstausstellung in Dresden, ('Harmonie in violette', 'Orangenbaum' and 'Oliven'). These oils were shown alongside works by, amongst others, Charles Rennie Mackintosh Anders Zorn Whistler, Lucien Pissarro Toulouse-Lautrec, and GF Watts. David Fyfe-Jamieson (1954-2020) was educated at Radley College where he was a celebrated cricketer. With his great friend Henry Wyndham, later chair of Sotheby's in London, he enrolled at the Sorbonne to learn French. Neither finished the course, spending more time eating out and watching Marx Brothers films. After a short spell in Australia, David went to South Africa where he worked for Wildenstein, eventually returning to London where he joined the Old Master Paintings Department of Sotheby's. He subsequently worked for Artemis Fine Art, a leading Old Master Art Consultancy. He eventually set up on his own in Dover Street, London, but closed it in 2000. He went on to reinvent himself as a cabinet maker in Shropshire, where he lived until he died last year.