Rosalie Glynn Grylls, Lady Mander (1905-1988)
Feliks Topolski (Warsaw 1907 - 1989)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1940
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
900 x 700 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1288944
Caption
Rosalie Mander is painted in academic dress with the stylised spires of her beloved Oxford (she was at Lady Margaret Hall) in the background. Topolski's expressionistic style, working at speed, with bold brushwork and strong colour, gives the portrait a restless, nervous quality which vividly conveys the vitality and energy remarked on by all who knew her. She combined a powerful intellect with tremendous vivacity: her friend from Oxford days, Lady Longford, described her as "the best of friends: amusing and amused, quick-thinking, full of anecdotes". How the portrait came to be commissioned is uncertain. The Manders may have met Topolski through Geoffrey Mander's eastern European connections, or more locally - Topolski married the daughter of a Wolverhampton businessman, Don Everall.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Rosalie Glynn Grylls, Lady Mander (1905 - 1988) by Feliks Topolski (Warsaw 1907 - 1989), circa 1940. Topolski was not a fashionable conventional portraitist, as this picture shows. Rosalie Mander is painted in academic dress with the stylised spires of her beloved Oxford (she was at Lady Margaret Hall) as the background. Topolski's expressionistic style, working at speed with bold brushwork and strong colour, gives the portrait a restless, nervous quality which vividly conveys the vitality and energy remarked on by all who knew her. She combined a powerful intellect with tremendous vivacity: her friend from Oxford days Lady Longford described her as "the best of friends: amusing and amused, quick-thinking, full of anecdotes". How the portrait came to be commissioned is uncertain. The Manders may have met Topolski through Geoffrey Mander's eastern European connections, or more locally - Topolski married the daughter of a Wolverhampton businessman, Don Everall
Full description
Oil painting on canvas, Rosalie Glynn Grylls, Lady Mander (1905 - 1988) by Feliks Topolski (Warsaw 1907 - 1989), circa 1940. Topolski was not a fashionable conventional portraitist, as this picture shows. Rosalie Mander is painted in academic dress with the stylised spires of her beloved Oxford (she was at Lady Margaret Hall) as the background. Topolski's expressionistic style, working at speed with bold brushwork and strong colour, gives the portrait a restless, nervous quality which vividly conveys the vitality and energy remarked on by all who knew her. She combined a powerful intellect with tremendous vivacity: her friend from Oxford days Lady Longford described her as "the best of friends: amusing and amused, quick-thinking, full of anecdotes". How the portrait came to be commissioned is uncertain. The Manders may have met Topolski through Geoffrey Mander's eastern European connections, or more locally - Topolski married the daughter of a Wolverhampton businessman, Don Everall. (adapted from author's unpublished property catalogue, Stephen Ponder, Wightwick Manor, circa 1995)
Provenance
Transferred to the National Trust on the death of Rosalie Glynn Grylls, Lady Mander (1905 - 1988)
Marks and inscriptions
Feliks Topolski (signed bottom left)
Makers and roles
Feliks Topolski (Warsaw 1907 - 1989), artist