"Provençal Conversation, Cagnes-sur-Mer," Stella Bowen, 1936.
Bowen (1893-1947) was Australian by birth, but was educated in England....where she hung out with folks like T. S. Eliot, Wyndham Lewis, Violet Hunt, and William Butler Yeats, but it was Ford Madox Ford who she really connected with, and they became lovers for almost a decade.
The two ended up in Paris of the 20s, which they loved. She established a studio and blossomed as a painter. She separated from Ford in '27 and ended up back in England, but spent a month in Provence with friends. This painting is a memory of that time, hanging out with friends, working at her art, having leisurely meals of wine, bread, olives and grapes bought from a local market.
She wasn't earning much from her art, and was also a writer and broadcaster for the BBC. During WWII she was an official war artist, which finally gave her security and acclaim, especially for her portraits of Australian RAF pilots.
From a private collection.
#Art #StellaBowen #Modernism #Idyllic #Provence #Lunch #WomensHistory #WomenArtists