Elegant portrait of Gustave Ferrari (Geneva, September 28, 1872 – Geneva, July 29, 1948), known composer of Swiss origin, who studied music in Geneva and Paris. He composed, arranged and recorded numerous popular melodies for piano and voice, both in Europe and in America. In 1936, he appeared in a British film called “Men of Yesterday”. Ferrari was also known to have been the partner of famed French singer Yvette Guilbert. For this portrait, he is represented in a distinguished pose, holding a formal walking cane or staff of office with silver cap and red silk tassel in his right hand. He is dressed in a Regency-style white muslin shirt with ruffled front and cuffs and black bow tie, under a black coat and what appears to be a black cape. A silver watch chain is barely visible. His expression is serene and authoritative.
Maurice Frederick Codner (Stoke Newington, London, 1888-1958) was a British portrait and landscape painter, son of a steel merchant. He studied at Stationers’ Company School and Colchester School of Art. He exhibited his works at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and at the New English Art Club. In 1938 he received an honorary mention at the Salon de Paris and the Silver Medal in 1954. In 1937 he became a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and went on to become their honorary secretary.
Among his works are the portraits of Athene Seyler (1933), Evelyn Laye (1933), Sir George Broadbridge (1937), Lord Alexander of Tunis (1946), Kathleen Ferrier (1946), Leslie Henson (1952), Major Guilym Lloyd-George (1955) and Sir Albert Richardson (1956). He is perhaps best known for his portraits of King George VI (1951) and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1952). The portrait of Kathleen Ferrier is on display in the National Portrait Gallery. Many of his works belong to the UK National Collection of oil paintings and are on display in local authority and museum collections across the UK. Others have sold at prestigious auction houses such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams.
Artist: Maurice F. Codner (1888-1958).
Signed upper right corner: Maurice Codner. Dated on reverse: 1934.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Condition: Very good condition.
Dimensions: 91 x 72 cm. / 36 x 28 1/2 in.
Frame: 100 x 80 cm. / 39 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. Modern.
Origin: England.