Mela Muter (1876 Warsaw - 1967 Paris), Portrait of a man with glasses, (Boleslaw Nawrocki?), 1960s.

oil, plywood, 61 × 50 cm light frame
Signed l. g.: "MUTER"

Provenance:
- Poland, private collection
- Polswissart auction house, auction 16.10.2018, item 33.
- Agra Art auction house, auction 6.12.2009, item 106.
- Desa Unicum auction house, auction 16.04.2009, item 8.

"Mela Muter? a woman of captivating beauty, a brilliant painter".
Boleslaw Nawrocki

Dr. Boleslaw Nawrocki (1924-2008) was a versatile man from Warsaw who became famous as a lawyer, musician, musicologist and patron of the arts. Together with his wife, Lina Carminati-Nawrocki, they created one of the largest private collections of folk and non-professional art in Poland. Nawrocki was also a pianist, academic teacher, field researcher and social activist. His passion was not only collecting, but also supporting art, which resulted in building an impressive art collection. He became known as the greatest collector of Mela Muter's works and guardian of the artist's legacy. In 1958, during his stay in Paris, Nawrocki, as a scholarship holder of the French government, meets Mela Muter in person. This meeting marked the beginning of a long-standing friendship between the two. Nawrocki surrounds the ailing artist with care, and also fights for her artistic achievements. However, this is not the doctor's first encounter with the figure of the great painter. His father, in his collection had a painting of just Melania. Here is how he himself recalls, "As far back as I can remember, in my family home, among the dozens of paintings hanging on the walls by my Father and his colleagues, painters belonging to the so-called Ecole de Paris, there was a portrait of a beautiful woman in a hat adorned with feathers, done by my Father in Paris in 1903, which particularly attracted my attention. Even as a child I was fascinated by this particular painting. My father explained to me that it was his neighbor in the Paris artists' estate, 65 Bd Arago, where his Paris studio was located - Melania Mutermilch, who in time became one of the most prominent painters of the 20th century, known by the pseudonym "Mela Muter." This portrait miraculously survived the destruction of the last World War, and was not stolen by the Nazis like many other magnificent canvases belonging to my parents. As an adolescent growing up, I often asked myself whether the beauty depicted in my favorite canvas had survived the horrors of the last war? This painting hung above the piano I practiced on, spending many hours at it every day during my studies at the Higher School of Music in Lodz. I played the piano and stared at this beautiful, mysterious stranger, with whom I was almost in love..." ("Collection of Bolesław and Lina Nawrocki, Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch 1876-1967", Exhibition catalog, National Museum in Warsaw, December 1994 - February 1995, Warsaw 1994, p. 7.) And so the meeting in 1958 marked the beginning of a cordial acquaintance between the two. During the last years of the artist's life, Nawrocki took up documenting information about the artist - he collected rich photographic and biographical documentation. At Nawrocki's request, Mela also began to write down her memories. In 1965, the artist undergoes cataract surgery. Happy after regaining her sight, she painted a portrait of her mentor in gratitude for the help she had received so far. At the same time, she decided to correct and even repaint some of her works, which met with Nawrocki's disapproval and subsequently chilled relations between the painter and the lawyer - "Mela Muter had a difficult character and did not tolerate opinions different from her own, especially when it came to her painting." (Maria Melania Mutermilch 1876-1967", op. cit. p. 8.). The Nawrocki collection with works by Melania Muter was presented to a wider audience at an extremely rich exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw in 1995. Currently, this unique collection is part of the collection of the University Museum in Torun.