Description:

Antonio Marti (Spanish/New Orleans, b. 1813), "Portrait of Mme. Felix Grima, neé Marie Sophie Adelaide Montegut (1811-1876)", 1852, oil on canvas, signed and inscribed "Hecho por Antonio Marti sordo-mudo, 1852" lower right, 31 3/4 in. x 25 1/2 in., giltwood frame. Provenance: Descended in the family of the sitter. Note: Antonio Marti (also called Antonio Martí i Brach), a native of Barcelona, had a natural affinity for the visual arts from an early age, enrolling at the Escola Llotja (School of Arts in Barcelona) at the age of fifteen and winning multiple prizes over his nine years at the school, despite the fact that he was both deaf and mute. From 1837 to 1840, Marti enrolled in La Escuela de Sordomudos (School of the Deaf and Dumb) in order to overcome his disability and function within the art world as a practicing artist. At the time, his teachers praised his work, noting that after less than a year Marti “knows the idea of a thousand three hundred thirty significant words.” Certainly this education aided Marti’s career in Spain and overseas, including New Orleans, where he is known to have painted at least two portraits, including that of Senora Beltran now in the collection of the Louisiana State Museum. Marti’s beautifully rendered portrait of Adelaide Montegut Grima offered here highlights her beauty, as well as her fashionable 1850s clothing and jewelry. The granddaughter of Dr. Joseph Montegut (whose family was painted by José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza), Adelaide Montegut married Felix Grima in 1831. An earlier portrait of Madame Grima and a portrait of her husband, both attributed to Jacques Amans, are illustrated in the Louisiana Portraits book. The couple’s home, which was designed by William Brand and built the year of their marriage, is now called the Hermann-Grima House and is located at 820 St. Louis Street. Ref.: Bruns, Mrs. Thomas Nelson Carter. Louisiana Portraits. New Orleans: Colonial Dames, 1975; Pradillo y Esteban, Pedro Jose and Elena Garcia Esteban. “Descubrimiento y restauracion de La Virgen de la leche, una obra del pintor Antonio Marti i Brach, sordomudo,” RACBASJ, Butlleti XXIX, 2015; Ricao, Antonio Gascon and Jose Gabriel Storch de Gracia y Asensio. “La Escuela de Sordomudos de La Junta de Comercio de Barcelona (1838-1840).” Barcelona, 2004.

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September 15, 2018 10:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

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