In 1921, German avant-garde painter Anita Clara Rée toured the Tyrol region of Austria and painted this portrait of a woman sitting in a Christian church or room with Christian art. She clutches a string of rosary beads and looks away to the right from the artist. Her attire is simple daily wear for the era with a blue skirt, white high-neck blouse with pointy shoulders, and a flat blue hat with a single white flower. Behind her a black car plays on wooden steps.
Born into an old Jewish family of Hamburg merchants who traded in goods from India, Rée studied with Arthur Siebelist, Max Liebermann, Franz Nölken, Fernand Léger, and others in various art communities. From around 1914, she gained recognition as a portrait painter. She returned to Hamburg in 1926 and helped found GEDOK, an association of women artists. In 1932, the Nazis had denounced her as a Jew and the Hamburg Art Association called her an "alien".
Rée killed herself after the anti-Semitic government declared her work degenerate; however, some of her works were saved by Wilhelm Werner, a groundskeeper at the Kunsthalle Hamburg, who hid them in his apartment.
Tiroler Bäuerin by Anita Rée (German) - Oil on canvas / 1921 - Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany) #womeninart #anitaree #AnitaRée #art #artwork #painting #portrait #oilpainting #Lenbachhaus #artoftheday #womanartist #womensart #germanartist #germanart #bskyart #gedok #avant-garde #tyrol