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Adge Baker (fl.1920-1980)
SNOW ON CHELSEA
oil on canvas
signed lower right; with inscribed label detailing title, artist’s name and address on reverse; also with James Bourlet &
Sons Ltd., Nassau St. & Mortimer St., London on reverse
12½ x 16in. (31¾ x 40.64cm)
Inscription on label on reverse gives the artist’s address as, 6 Stamford Bridge Studios, Wandon Road, Chelsea.Adge
Barker was an Anglo-Irish painter. She has a well publicised relationship with renowned New York artist and gallerist
Betty Parsons (1900-1982) over a period of eight years while both artists were living in Paris in 1924. They shared a
house together for six years living on Rue Boulard in Montparnasse following Parsons’ divorce from fellow American
Schuyler Livingston Parsons, eight years her senior. Supported by alimony while in Europe, Parsons spent her time in
Paris painting and in the company of older like-minded members of the expatriate community such as Natalie Clifford
Barney, Romaine Brooks, Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein, and Alice B. Toklas. She returned to the United States in 1933 and
later opened the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York City in 1946 which soon became one of the most prestigious of the
mid-twentieth century. It closed in 1981, a year before Parsons’ death. Parson’s relationship in Paris with Adge Baker and
her sexuality during her youth was stifled in her later years by the more repressive atmosphere she encountered in the
US following WWII. Nonetheless, Parsons remains a very significant symbol of struggle against social oppression and is
remembered as a staunch supporter of liberal thinking within the artistic community in America.
€150-€200 (£110-£140 approx.)
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 24Christmas Auction Ar t & Collectibles 8 December 2015