-
A Portrait of Edith Maryon, Artist and Anthroposophist
- Author(s):
- John Paull (see profile)
- Date:
- 2018
- Subject(s):
- Art, Anthroposophy, Women, History, Art, English, Twentieth century
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- Women artist, women artists, Rudolf Steiner, Switzerland, Italian artist, Women's history, Early 20th-century English art
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/cnqp-5q25
- Abstract:
- The lost and last portrait of Edith Maryon (1872-1924), presented in the present paper, was painted by the Italian/Australian artist Ernesto Genoni (1885-1975) at Dornach in 1924. Maryon was appointed by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) at the Christmas Conference of the Anthroposophy Society, December 1923, as the leader of the Section for Sculptural Arts (akna Fine Art). She was an English sculptor who worked with Steiner to create the massive timber sculpture, ‘The Representative of Humanity’, now on display in the Goetheanum, the headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society, at Dornach, Switzerland. Ernesto Genoni trained at the renowned Brera Academy of Fine Art in Milan. He first met Maryon in 1920 on his first visit to Dornach. Genoni returned to Dornach at about the time of the Christmas Conference, December 1923, he successfully applied to Steiner to be in the inaugural First Class of the School of Spiritual Science. Genoni remained in Dornach for most of the year 1924. Edith Maryon died on 2 May 1924 reportedly of tuberculosis (TB). Genoni left Dornach only after Steiner withdrew from public life and retreated to his sick bed (on 28 September 1924). Genoni took the art that he had created at Dornach back to Milan, Italy, and some of it went on to Australia when he emigrated in 1926. Genoni’s portrait of Maryon has remained in the Genoni family in Milan since that time but with the subject long forgotten (or perhaps never known to the family). Genoni painted portraits of significant women in his life, including his sister Rosa and his niece Fanny (in Milan, Italy), and his partner Ileen Macpherson and his niece Anne Fiedler (in Melbourne, Australia). The portrait of this paper, is now identified as of Edith Maryon, thereby reuniting the artwork with its subject, and dating it in the last four months of Maryon’s life (January to April 1924).A Portrait of Edith Maryon, Artist and Anthroposophist
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 3 years ago
- License:
- Attribution
paull2018.maryon.jfa_.pdf