DORNA, EMMANUEL (1909-1984)

"Fleurs Pontificales" (c.1940)
oil on canvas
61 x 46cm
signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Dorna was a respected Jewish-Romanian artist & physician. Having studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest, Dorna travelled to Paris, where he befriended important Jewish artist, Moïse Kisling, who had recently returned to France following the fall of Paris in 1946. Kisling welcomed Dorna into the École de Paris, a community of mostly Jewish artists and mostly immigrants who were responsible for producing some of the most important artists of the of the early 20th century, including Picasso, Modigliani, Delaunay, Dufy, Matisse & Mondrian. Kisling introduced Dorna to fellow member, Jewish-Russian master, Marc Chagall, who greatly influenced Dorna's expressionist style.
This work, signed in Hebrew, was completed around 1950 in Paris before he relocated to Israel, where he remained until his death