Collection

Self-Portrait in a Sanctuary

Luna Drexler

Basic information

ID: Ж-1177
Author: Luna Drexler
Name: Self-Portrait in a Sanctuary
Date of creation: 1923
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 86 x 62

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: self-portrait
Provenance: Collection of Lviv City Gallery

Information about author

Author: Luna Drexler
Artist's lifetime: 1882–1933
Biography: Luna Amalia Drexler (November 9, 1882, Lviv – November 5, 1933, ibid.) was a sculptor, painter, and public figure. In 1899, she studied at the art school of Marceli Harasimowicz in Lviv, where such prominent figures as Stanislaw Reichan, Stanislaw Batowski-Kaczor, and Antoni Popiel taught painting and sculpture. At the same time, during 1899 and 1902, she attended open classes of drawing and modeling in the Lviv Industrial School. For some time, the artist also attended the Adrian Baraniecki Higher Courses for Women in Krakow. In 1907, Drexler went to Paris, where she studied with Antoine Bourdelle and Jean Engalbert at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. It was at that time that she became acquainted with Rodin's creative work. In 1908, she came to Lviv again. At that time she worked in the former art studio of Tadeusz Baracz in the hotel "Krakivskyi". Between 1909 and 1910, she was in Paris, studying with Emile Antoine Bourdelle. In 1913, in Munich, the artist met Rudolf Steiner and became a member of his Anthroposophical Society. In 1917, she returned to Lviv and settled first in the house on St. Sophia Street, 30 (now Franka Street, 114), and later in the house on Parkova Street, 14 (built in 1910 by the architect Ivan Levynskyi), where she lived for the rest of her life. Luna-Amalia Drexler's artistic heritage consists of two hundred sculptures and several dozen paintings. Until the early 1910s, the artist preferred the aesthetics of Secession, Symbolism, and Impressionism in her work. Later Luna Drexler became interested in French medieval sculpture, ancient Greek sculpture, as well as the art of Egypt and Assyria; she often used archaic stylization in her works. Under the influence of Rudolf Steiner's ideas, the manifestation of spirituality and its artistic representation became the main idea of her creative work. Luna Amalia Drexler died at the age of 51. She was buried in Lviv in Lychakiv Cemetery on Field number 48, not far from the Cemetery of Polish Defenders of Lviv.

Object description

This is a waist-length portrait of a young woman against the background of a Buddhist shrine. The sculpture of the sitting Buddha with a halo around the figure is depicted on the right. The woman is wearing an oriental headdress resembling a turban, from under which the ends of a white handkerchief and her hair are visible. She is dressed in a blue chitone and a red robe with wide sleeves. On her chest there is an emblem of the letter T with the inscription PM; above the emblem there is a precious transparent stone, around which the letters SSREDNJC are placed. In her left hand, she holds a lamp with a small flame. She screens it with her right hand. The work is rich in color with the dominant red, yellow, and blue tones.

Inscriptions

At the bottom right there is an author's inscription "Luna Drexlerówna – 1923".

Self-Portrait in a Sanctuary

Other