Egg Tempera Animal Paintings

Siamese Cat with Kittens by Orovida Pissarro (1893-1968) Egg tempera on linen 39 x 48 cm (15³/₈ x 18⁷/₈ inches) Signed lower right Orovida and dated lower left 1934 Provenance J Ankri, 8th October 1967 Literature K L Erickson, Orovida Pissarro: Painter and Print-Maker with A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, (doctoral thesis), Oxford, 1992, Appendices, no. 51, p. 56 (illustrated) Exhibition London, The Leicester Galleries, Paintings by Orovida, February 1935, no. 6 Women’s International Art Club, 20th February - 13th March 1937, no. 273 London, Redfern Gallery, Ten Years of Work by Orovida, 5th-28th May 1938, no. 7 London, The Royal Society of British Artists, Summer Exhibition, 1947, no. 281 (possibly the etching) London, O’Hana Gallery, Paintings, Drawings and Coloured Etchings: Orovida, 3rd-18th October 1957, no. 13 Artist biography Orovida Camille Pissarro, Lucien and Esther Pissarro’s only child, was the first woman in the Pissarro family as well as the first of her generation to become an artist. Born in Epping, England in 1893, she lived and worked predominantly in London where she became a prominent member of several British arts clubs and societies. She first learned to paint in the Impressionist style of her father, but after a brief period of formal study with Walter Sickert in 1913 she renounced formal art schooling. Throughout her career, Orovida always remained outside of any mainstream British art movements. Much to Lucien's disappointment she soon turned away from naturalistic painting and developed her own unusual style combining elements of Japanese, Chinese, Persian and Indian art. Her rejection of Impressionism, which for the Pissarro family had become a way of life, together with the simultaneous decision to drop her famous last name and simply use Orovida as a ‘nom de peintre’, reflected a deep desire for independence and distance from the weight of the family legacy. Orovida's most distinctive and notable works were produced from the period of 1919 to 1939 using her own homemade egg tempera applied in thin, delicate washes to silk, linen or paper and sometimes embellished with brocade borders. These elegant and richly decorative works generally depict Eastern, Asian and African subjects, such as Mongolian horse...