81 - Willy Eisenschitz,

Willy Eisenschitz, Austrian 1889-1974 - Portrait of an old woman; oil on board, signed lower right 'W Eisenschitz', 56 x 42 cm (ARR) Provenance: Private Collection, acquired directly from the artist and thence by descent Note: this work and 'Portrait of a woman' are from the same collection. The sitter in the present lot was a relative of the present owner, who worked with Eisenchitz in the Les Minimes in the late 1920s/early 1930s. The second work depicts another relative of the owner. Willy Eisenschitz is celebrated for his poetic depictions of the landscapes and light of Provence, his adopted home from the 1930s onwards. His nuanced palette and expressive brushwork convey both the vibrancy and tranquility of the region. Eisenschitz enjoyed a distinguished career across Europe, exhibiting widely, including at the prestigious Adams Brothers Gallery in London in 1934. His influence and contribution to modern French painting were further recognized with a major retrospective at the Musée d’Art de Toulon in 1958, which featured a catalogue essay by the esteemed writer and critic André Salmon, underscoring his importance within 20th-century art.