Abstracted Landscape, Ca 1935 Provence, Roman Ruins, French Modernist Woman Art Oil on Canvas

This provençal scene from the 1930s almost has a degree of abstraction. The artist Alice Kohn's’s artist’s gaze is intrigued by shapes and shades and juxtapositions of colours. The painting is dominated by warm, earthy tones: sandy yellows, ochres, and reddish browns for the ground, with deep greens and cool blues for the trees and the distant hills. Note how the painting renders the heat of a summer’s day in Provence perfectly: the sky is a pale blue-grey, suggesting the intense midday light which can wash out colours and create a high contrast between light and shadow.

Woman painters of the early 20th Century often had fascinating lives. By definition, were fearless, unconventional, adventurous. They needed to be, to carve out their place in a still male-dominated world. Alice Kohn (born 1902) is a case in point.

Born into a provincial middle class Jewish family, Alice painted and exhibited while moonlighting as an actress and singer on stage and on the radio, modelled for Picasso and fought undercover in the Resistance durning WW2!

Alice initially studied with fellow woman artist Madeleine Plantais before enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts from Lyon. She exhibited as early as 1926 at the Salon de Sud Est as well as at the Galerie Pouillé-Lecoutre and Galerie des Archers.

She became friends with René Dumas, Pierre Pelloux, Antoine Chartres, and Henri Vieilly with whom she created the group “Les Nouveaux”: the New Ones!

“Les Nouveaux” first exhibited together in 1931 at the Saint-Pierre gallery. Critics greatly praised Kohn’s works shown at the 1931 Salon d’Automne in Paris as well as the Salon du Sud Est. The Galerie Saint-Pierre in Lyon organised her first solo exhibition in 1933.

Our painting by Alice Kohn is unsigned and came from an estate close to the artist where we acquired a small number of works by Alice (please view our other listings to see them!). The authenticity of this work is guaranteed unconditionally, and a COA can be issued.

An oil on canvas measuring 46 x 61 cm, the size in a patinated box frame is 48 x 67 cm.

Nous parlons français, und wir sprechen auch Deutsch! Paintings may be viewed in Norwich and in Paris, as well as in London and Cambridge by appointment. Please contact us if you would like further details and images of an artwork.