From muse to painter

It was a highly unusual event for the time: in the late 1920s, London's Airlington Gallery held a solo exhibition of a female Italian painter. Her name was Pasquarosa Marcelli and she had made a name for herself with original aesthetics and a certain spontaneity in her paintings. While she continued to enjoy artistic success in Italy and took part in the Venice Biennale several times until her death in 1973, the hype surrounding her quickly died down in other countries. The Estorick Collection in London is now commemorating him again with the exhibition Pasquarosa: From Muse to Painter. The museum is dedicated specifically to modern Italian art and emerged from the collection of Eric Estorick (1913-1993). The current exhibition runs from January 12 to April 28.

Pasquarosa Marcelli lived from 1896 to 1973 and moved to Rome as a young woman to model for painters. This is how she met her future husband Nino Bertoletti (1889-1971) and began painting herself in the mid-1910s. The self-taught artist quickly achieved success with art critics: as early as 1915, she attracted attention with her unusual paintings at an exhibition in Rome. Around 50 of her paintings and drawings from private collections are now on loan again in London.