Mela Muter

Mela Muter is the pseudonym used by Maria Melania Mutermilch (April 26, 1876 – May 14, 1967), the first professional Jewish painter in Poland.

[1][2] Muter's painting career began to flourish after she moved to Paris from Poland in 1901 at the age of twenty-five.

[3][4] Before World War I, Muter's painting practice aligned itself with the Naturalism movement; her signature works containing vivid hues and strong brush strokes.

Muter gained swift popularity in Paris and within five years of her residency in the city, had already begun showing her works.

The Klingsland family was financially generous and morally well-read, both are factors that would be reflected in Mela's artistic sensibilities.

Her younger brother, Zygmunt Klingsland, having also felt the affects the role of culture held in the family, went on to become an art critic and diplomat for the Polish Embassy in Paris.

Michal had a membership with the Polish Socialist Party and enjoyed a career as an art critic and writer.

After taking up his political ideals, Muter began producing pacifist artworks for the local socialist magazine, Clarte.

In style and application of paint, Vincent Van Gogh can be seen as a clear influence on Muter's earlier work.

In her full adulthood, Muter's work had ties with the expressionist movement, marked by a brighter color palette and more pointed compositions, often leaving areas of the canvas bare.

Muter wrote of her portrait painting process: "I don't ask myself whether a person in front of my easels is good, false, generous, intelligent.

I try to dominate them and represent them just as I do in the case of a flower, tomato or tree; to feel myself into their essence; if I manage to do that, I express myself through their personality.