Mela Muter (1876 Warsaw - 1967 Paris), Port of Collioure, 1920s.

oil, canvas, 60 × 73 cm
Signed p. d.: Muter

The painting presented in the auction offer comes from the period 1921-1926, when Melania regularly traveled to the charming town of Collioure in the Pyrenees.
"And this is how the artist recalls Collioure, a small seaside town located in the Eastern Pyrenees, which she visited willingly and often: "Collioure with its charming fishing harbor, rounded like a ripe fruit, full of multicolored staterooms, with its 11th century church watchtower transformed into a tower, with its mighty Templar castle walls stretching along the seashore, with its reddish, yellowish, violet-colored hills, on which an invisible wise hand has attached here and there little bouquets of trees or pink homesteads, all dominated by the Vauban fortress located on the highest hill, like a crown. The landscape is all the more unique because the beach preceding Collioure is quite average, while the next one in Banyuls is less varied compared to Collioure, as are many others [...]. It would seem that nature took special care to gather all the elements of a masterpiece in this place, with all the artistry, and, weary of her efforts, neglected other areas." Collection of Bolesław and Lina Nawrocki, Mela Muter (Maria Melania Mutermilch) 1876-1967., Exhibition catalog, National Museum in Warsaw, December 1994-February 1995, Warsaw 1994, p. 36.