Tchelitchew and Lenya

I’ve just found out that Pavel Tchelitchew produced at least two portraits of Lotte Lenya, one in 1929. Googling will give you one in a decent resolution and another in a thumbnail, and a chance there may be more out there. Tchelitchew painted quite a few images of Ruth Ford and Edith Sitwell, to say nothing of his companion Paul Henri Ford, but Lenya – who would have thought?

I discovered Tchelitchew two or three years ago when my wife and I went to see his exhibition in a private gallery in Moscow’s poshest suburb. I had not had a slightest idea of him before and have been very much interested in his work since. That’s dryly put – Tchelitchew was an artist of unique imagination and intellect.

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