103. The Blue Hat Veil [1939-1940]

The 1940s mark to some extent the end of a stage of Maxy's career. Even though 1944 is considered the year of the last period "free" of painting, the period of World War II was to be defined by a considerable limitation of his artistic expression. The Anti-Semitic laws after 1940 removed Maxy from the artistic world, 1940 being the last year when he manifested publicly (until 1945). At the time, Maxy exhibited one of the typical portraits for the years 1935-1940, a portrait that recalls the plethora of faces the artist had immortalised since the early 1920s. Even though stylistically it is much more temperate, without the Avant-garde gravity of the olden days, the lady's face shows us Maxy’s skill. The portraits made by M.H. Maxy during the interwar period, at the stage that coincided with the years of creation of the most profound nature, related either to the Avant-garde movements or to the ones designed by Maxy himself (e.g.: Integralism), were particularly sublime due to the fact that the depicted faces were characters from the artist's group of acquaintances or from specific artistic movements. "The Blue Hat Veil" and the two portraits made of himself and his wife (Mela Maxy) seem to be the only portrait compositions from 1939-1940, thus restricting to some extent the universe of the artist. The lady in question could be someone in the circle of the Maxy Workshop (which closed in 1940 but reopened in 1941) or perhaps from the Jewish academic world (e.g.: the Jewish School of Art).

References

ILK, Michael, "M. H. Maxy, Der Integrale Künstler", Berlin, 2003
OPREA, Petre, "M. H. Maxy", Ed. Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1974
George Oprescu, "Viața Românească", mai 1940

Dimensions

width 60.6 cm, height 95 cm, custom 60,6x95

Description

oil on canvas, signed lower left, in black, "Maxy"

Research information

Opera a participat la expoziția Salonului Oficial. Pictură și Sculptură, aprilie-mai 1940, Palatul Artelor, București și este menționată și reprodusă în catalogul expoziției la cat. 170. Era ultima participare a lui Maxy la Salonul Oficial, în anii '40 fiindu-i interzisă participarea din cauza legislațiilor antisemite.

Dating

1939-1940

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