Tadeusz Styka (1889 Kielce-1954 New York), Smiling - portrait of Dolly Grey

oil, canvas, 76.5 × 64 cm
Signed p. d.: "TADÉ.STYKA."

Coming from a family with painting traditions, Tadeusz Styka became famous as an outstanding portraitist, both in Europe and in the United States. His portrait gallery included images of well-known personalities from the world of politics, culture (such as: Pola Negri, Ignacy Paderewski, Maurice Maeterlinck, Wladyslaw Anders, Leo Tolstoy). In 1934, an exhibition of paintings by brothers Tadeusz and Adam Styka was held in the Zlota Sala at the Grand Hotel in Lodz. This is what a critic wrote about Tadeusz's works: "Tadeusz Styka is a painter par excellence of female portraits and as such has already made a name for himself on the foreign painting market - a well-deserved name. His type is a subtle blonde with slender lines.
Sophisticated and noble in her northern beauty. [But yet in his portrait of Miss Peggy Hopkins Joyce as well as in his portrait of Dancer S. we find the salient features of the easel painting of this exquisite painter of subtle French marquises, sprightly English aristocrats and whimsical New York salon lionesses. Subtlety of drawing, almost pastel softness and delicacy in grasping the subject - this is what brings Tadeusz Styka close to the models he paints - this is what predestines him as a painter of salon madonnas." ("From Lodz Exhibitions. Adam and Tadeusz Styka
in the Golden Hall of the Grand-Hotel," in "Republika" No. 120, dated May 3, 1934).

And we can find these features in the portrait presented at the auction. Here we see a flirtatiously smiling woman with juicy red lips smiling at the viewer. With her slender hands she gently holds her hat, which is about to be blown away by the wind. The woman seems to hypnotize the viewer, tempting with her coquettish gaze from under a thick fan of long lashes surrounding sparkling eyes. The sensual overtones of the portrait are emphasized by the woman's attire, which the artist depicted as a delicate, almost transparent fabric, surrounding the portrait's charms, leaving the rest to the imagination of the
viewer. The beauty portrayed is most likely Dolly Grey (1904 Rome-?), a silent movie star. Her real name was Clara Galassi. Gray appeared in Italian and German silent cinema of the second half of the 1920s. Her image Tadeusz immortalized more than once in his painting career.