Self-portrait
Self-portrait

Self-portrait

Author: Dembowska-Römer Zofia, 1885 - 1972

Created: 1932, Kiclamy.

Material / technique: paper, pencil.

Dimensions: 18x13 cm.

Signature: 32-II-2 (in the bottom-left corner of the painting).

The painter, engraver and drawer Zofia Dembowska-Romer (1885–1972) learned fundamentals of art from Helena Romer and at Vilnius School of Drawing. Later she perfected her skills in Kraków, Munich and Paris. In 1911, already married to the economist Eugeniusz Romer, she came to live at Tytuvėnai estate. The years spent there were the most productive in her life.  Zofia reached the peak of her creative activity between 1924 and 1939, when she painted mostly portraits of her children, her husband, servants of Tytuvėnai estate, hired workers and guests. This drawing, made in 1932, supplements the scanty legacy of her self-portraits. There are known four self-portraits painted by the artist in watercolours in 1925–1926 and 1928, which are kept in the collections of the Romer family in Warsaw and Montreal. The other two self-portraits painted in oil in the 1940s are kept by the descendants of the Romer family in Australia and in the capital of Belgium (Text by Ieva Burbaitė).

Reference: Jolanta Širkaitė, Dailininkė Sofija Romerienė (Zofia Romer, 1885–1972), Vilnius: Kultūros, filosofijos ir meno institutas, 2005; Idem, Dailininkai Römeriai. The Artists of the Römer family, Vilnius: Kultūros, filosofijos ir meno institutas, 2006.

Exhibitions: Exhibition "Personal. Lithuanian Women's Art 1918-1940", 2017, 14 April - 4 June 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius.

Published: :  More Than Just Beauty Compiled by G. Jankevičiūtė. Vilnius, LAWIN, 2012., Cat. No. 26; Académie de Vilna. VILNIUS DRAWING SCHOOL 1866–1915. Exhibition Catalogue. Compiled by dr. J. Širkaitė, Vilnius 2017, Cat. No. 331 P.302.