7027 - Schleusner, Thea

Schleusner, Thea Portrait of Leopoldine Konstantin Oil on painting board. 1911. 50 x 40 cm. Signed "Thea Schleusner" in light gray with a brush at the bottom left, dated and inscribed "London." Not only does the yellow feather on her hat radiate energy, but so does her graceful face, turned in profile. As part of Max Reinhardt’s troupe, the actress Leopoldine Konstantin performed in London in 1911, where they staged the play “Sumrun.” Reinhardt staged this pantomime—based on motifs from Oriental fairy tales by Friedrich Freska—at the Berliner Kammerspiele in 1910, with music by Victor Hollaender. In her costume and with lively expression, Schleusner portrays the Austrian actress, who made her debut in 1907 with Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and soon became a well-known figure in Berlin’s salons. She achieved worldwide fame, however, through her leading role in Hitchcock’s film “Notorious.” As a painter, Thea Schleusner belongs to the Lost Generation. Trained at the Women’s Academy of the Association for Female Artists and Art Lovers in Berlin, she went to Paris for two years around 1898 and attended the Académie Colarossi and Eugène Carrière’s Académie Moderne. A large portion of her works was destroyed during a night of bombing in World War II; in recent years, her artistic oeuvre has been receiving increasing recognition. Provenance: Private collection, Bavaria Private collection, Berlin - Please request condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.