Notes

The present lot shows a woman in a stage-costume dress, with her distinctive, elongated profile set against a graded, emerald green light. Reminiscent of the devotional, quattrocento portraits by the likes of Lippi, Piero and Botticelli, the work sits neatly with Preller's numerous other formal profile portraits such as Girl with an Oriole (1948) and The Gateway (1949). While Preller very rarely painted recognisable portraits of his close circle, the sitter in this instance is certainly the artist’s dear friend, Pat Philip. She appeared in at least three other paintings by Preller: she was the subject of The Profile (1952), which was exhibited at the Galerie Vincent; the very same work was painted into The Long Shelf (1952); while Karel Nel, co-author of the recent, double-volume monograph on Alexis Preller, has also suggested that she was the likely model for the recently re-discovered Woman with Red Hair or Ophelia (1944).

Interestingly, for many years Pat Philip owned both the The Profile and The Long Shelf. She also kept the present lot as it comes to auction directly from the sitter's relative.