Lady Janet CLERK (1878 - ?) - Lot 105

Lady Janet CLERK (1878 - ?) Presumed Portrait of Ludmilla Pitoeff Oil on canvas, signed lower left 64 x 53 cm (Small holes) Painter and sculptor Janet Clerk was the wife of Sir George Russell Clerk (1874-1951), British ambassador to France (1934-1937). Her career as a painter lasted from 1920 to 1940. She exhibited her work alongside such esteemed artists as Bonnard, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso and Vuillard, at Galerie Berheim, Galerie de Berri and Galerie André Weil. Lady Clerk's paintings and drawings are distinguished by their humor, originality and emotional resonance. Among her best-known works are portraits of personalities such as the Prince of Wales and Mr. and Mrs. Chagall, exhibited at Bernheim in 1937. The Centre Georges Pompidou holds a portrait of Chagall painting and a painting of a merry-go-round. Lady Clerk was also a sculptor: an imaginary bird preserved at the Centre Pompidou bears witness to this.