Oil on cardboard, signed p.g. "G.Mendoly".
Dimensions in frame: 85x65 cm (70x50 cm)
Christo Mendoly Stefanoff (Kazanłyk 1898 - 1966 Montreal) - painter of Bulgarian origin, for many years living in Poland, created under the pseudonym Grzegorz Mendoly. He accepted Polish citizenship in 1939, but already in the 1930s, as a recognized painter, he exhibited his works in Warsaw's Zachęta, Krakow, Lodz and Bydgoszcz, among others. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia under Czech painter Ivan Markowiczek. For painting the panorama "Stara Zagora", the Sofia academy, with the support of Tsar Boris III, awarded the painter the title of professor. The artist then traveled to Vienna and Budapest, where he was engaged to paint in the studio of the famous Pilip Laslo, a Hungarian artist who portrayed European royal personalities. After this brief experience, Mendoly traveled around the countries of Europe , North Africa and Asia Minor. Among other things, he stayed for an extended period of time in Venice, where he painted several well-known and distinctive paintings. Contemporary critics, describe his naturalistic painting as mature but typical and classical. He was also a renowned portraitist - he portrayed many notable personalities of the time including Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Benito Mussolini, poet Rabindranath Tagore, Greta Garbo and many others.
