112242

Tina Meller, née Agustina Marqués López; wife of Manuel de Izarduy 1929

Half-length, slightly left, head turned full face to the viewer, her right hand across her breast, holding a mantilla round her shoulders and head and a coral necklace

Oil on board, 86 x 59.5 cm (33 ⅞ x 23 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1929

Sitters’ Book II, f. 63: Tina Meller / 6-9-1929

The de László Room, New Place Hotel

Tina Meller was at the height of her popularity in 1929, receiving positive reviews in ‘Wake up and Dream’ with music by Cole Porter at the London Palladium: “An actress as well as dancer and has a hard, flashing manner that is a genuine style. She commands the stage as much by the power of mind as by that of movement.”^[1] Monte Cristo, the second of her two films, was also released that year; she had previously performed in Michel Strogoff in 1926. Her sister Raquel Meller (1888-1962) was an internationally successful actress and performer. They were born in Tarazon, Aragón to Telesforo Marqués Ibañez and his wife Isabel López Sainz.

De László found her particularly fascinating and made a number of portraits of the Spanish actress and dancer: a finished three-quarter length [6316], a full-length study [6317] and a preparatory drawing [6320]. The artist also filmed her dancing in his studio garden using his Ciné-Kodak model B, a gift from George Eastman in 1926.

The National Portrait Gallery collection has three photographs of Tina, taken by Ottoline Morell, in July 1929.

PROVENANCE:

Private Collection;

Sold Bonham’s, London, 2 March 2016, lot 97

Offered Christie's, London, 16 December 2021, lot 27

KF 2021