Portrait of Orovida Pissarro
, 1962
102.2 x 86.8 cm (h x w)
Oil on canvas
© Clara Klinghoffer estate
Klinghoffer painted a number of celebrated sitters including Vivien Leigh as Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, and her friends Lucien and Orovida Pissarro. Her striking portrait of Orovida, Camille’s granddaughter, and herself an artist, presents Orovida as a series of ample forms including her rounded belly and face framed by her cropped pudding-basin hairstyle playfully echoed in the curves of the chair, the jug, plates, fruit and ornaments all forming a sinuous and slightly comical backdrop. The patterning of her kilt strikes a lone note of slightly controlled geometry.