54 - Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch)

Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch) Stadtbild mit Platane Circa 1930-1935 Oil on canvas, relined. 55.2 x 46.4 cm. Framed. Signed 'Muter' in black lower right. A discarded painting of a stream with trees to verso, inscribed “Muter” on the stretcher. There also a handwritten note reading “La rue de [?], Avignon”. - In fine condition with fresh colours. Minuscule losses of colour in left margin. Provenance Estate of the artist; Galerie Bargera, Cologne; Private collection, Switzerland Mela Muter had a unique ability to capture the atmosphere and light of southern France in painted form. With her characteristically simplified style and impasto brushwork, she modelled landscapes and street scenes into powerful compositions filled with light. Plane trees, with their brightly shimmering bark, are omnipresent in the towns and held a special fascination for the painter: “With its soft and velvety bark in the colours of blonde hair and green water, the plane tree is the king of trees. It grows along the streets, fills the little squares, forces its way into gardens, lines the city walls and follows alongside anyone who goes away, as if it wished to never leave them (cited in: De París a Girona. Mela Muter i els artistes polonesos a Catalunya, exh. cat. Museu d’Art de Girona 2018/19, p. 137, translated from Catalan). The intimate connection between nature and cityscape described here is particularly prominent in our painting. The massive tree rises up between the residential buildings and the striking apse of a church, and its primal power corresponds to the centuries-old architecture. The interplay between the nuanced shades of green in the leaves and bark and the warm tone of the sandstone presumably captivated the painter.