Marcel Vertès. Portrait of Lila de Nobili, the niece of the artist (Pierre Spivakoff collection) / France, 1938.

Artist: Marcel Vertès (Jewish-Hungarian-French, 1895–1961)
Date: 1938
Medium & Physical description: Gouache on board; 590 × 460 mm. Signed lower right: Vertès.
Sitter: Lila de Nobili (Jewish-Italian, 1916–2002) was the daughter of Dola Berta Vertès-Nobili [Weisz] (Jewish-Hungarian, 1885–?) and Prospero de Nobili (Italian, 1858–1945), and niece of Marcel Vertès.

Inscriptions (verso, in ink):
– Vertès | Portrait de Lila de Nobili | gouache | 1938
– Portrait de la Décoratrice de Théâtre Lila de Nobili peint par son oncle Marcel Vertès | signé en bas à droite | Donné par Lila de Nobili à Jean de Angelis | Pierre Spivakoff

Description:
Bust-length portrait of the Italian-born stage designer and illustrator Lila de Nobili, painted by her uncle Marcel Vertès in 1938. She is shown in a three-quarter view facing left. Her long dark hair frames her face; she wears a draped blue garment with red accents against a textured pink ground.

Provenance: Gift from Lila de Nobili to Jean de Angelis [Angélis], painter-decorator; later in the collection of Pierre Spivakoff, set designer and actor. Jean de Angelis and Pierre Spivakoff collaborated professionally in the theatre, including the 1988 production Monsieur Vénus – ou le Rêve fou de Louis II de Bavière (after Rachilde), directed by Spivakoff.