Andrée KARPELES (1885 - 1956) , 'Les Meules', c. 1946

c. 1946
Oil on canvas
H 61 x W 70 cm framed
Signed bottom right and on the back
 
Andrée Karpelès (Paris, 1885 - Grasse, 1956) was a fascinating artist who is best known for her depictions of India in the early 20th century. Our landscape was painted during one of her trips to Sweden with her family.
 
Karpelès's father was an importer of indigo and therefore her childhood was spent between Calcutta and Paris. She developped a passion for India and became very close to artists from the School of Bengal, playing an essential role in the promotion of contemporary Indian art on the French scene. Notable is her close friendship with the poet Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. From 1906, Karpelès exhibited almost every year at the Salon des Beaux Arts, the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants where several of her works were acquired by the French State. She is known for her landscapes and scenes of everyday life, as well as her talent for engraving and book illustration.
 
In 1932, she married Swedish publisher Carl Högman with whom she founded the publishing house Chitra, which translated indian texts for European readers. They moved to Grasse in the south of France, a hostpot for artist who visited her studio. She died there in 1956.
 
The artist and her family continued to travel and it is during one of their trips to her husband’s homeland that she painted our landscape. The Swedish countryside is recognisable in its flat expanse and wide, deep skies. The artist renders the depth of the horizon and the volumes of the landscapes beautifully, with broad and confident brushstrokes.