Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Watercolor on paper. 1921-24.

Natalie Mei (1900-1975), who graduated from Pallas in 1924 as the first woman, was an outstanding watercolorist and, in her earlier free art, a sharp-eyed imager of the mentality of the era, especially a visualizer of women’s emancipation after World War I.

The work “Reclining semi-nude with a woman and a cat”, exhibited at Kumu’s recent exhibition “The Mei Sisters. Avant-garde and Everyday Life”, is important in many ways. On the one hand, it is full of feminine intrigue about the relationship between the two women but on the other hand, it also tells the story of the arrival of modern art movements in Estonia.

The curator of the exhibition, Kai Stahl, also wrote more about the work in the 2025 special issue of “Kunstiteeduslikke uurimusi” (Artistic Studies): “Natalie Mei never had the opportunity to visit Paris but she was certainly aware of Manet’s “Olympia.” This is indicated by her second watercolor, which recently came to the public from a private collection, in which she not only reinterpreted the motif of a reclining young woman in a way typical of Western female artists but was specifically modeled on Manet’s painting. /…/ The recently discovered work is undated and untitled but based on the composition, painting technique and color scheme, I believe that it was completed around the same time as Mei’s “Reclining half-nude” or slightly later, most likely during the Pallas Art School period (1921-1924).

As a student of Nikolai Triik, the artist avoided using black during that period. In the exhibition of the Mei sisters, this watercolor is given the title “Reclining semi-nude with a woman and a cat.” Mei has depicted this young, slender woman lying on the bed from the same angle and as semi-nude as in the work dated 1921. /…/ The long sandy hair and small breasts suggest the woman’s youth. She looks at us as neutrally and emotionlessly as Victorine Meurent in Manet’s painting “Olympia”. Direct references to Manet’s masterpiece are the cat and the maid, who are presented in a so-called homespun interpretation.” (p. 136)

The work was exhibited at the exhibition “The Mei Sisters. Avant-garde and Everyday Life” held at Kumu from 14.03-31.08.2025 and has also been reproduced in a special issue of Art Studies (2025, p. 126).

Text: Katre Palm, Harry Liivrand