Mela Muter
1876-1967

Mela Muter was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1876. She studied for a year at the School of Painting and Drawing for Women under Milosz Kotarbinski.

In 1901 Muter left Poland for Paris. She studied sporadically at l’Académie Colarossi and l’Académie de la Grand Chaumière. She exhibited at the annual Paris salons and also in group shows throughout Poland. She was granted her first solo exhibition in 1912 at the Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona and received membership to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts the same year. Other solo exhibitions include the Galerie Cheron, Galerie Druet and the Société pour l’Encouragement des Beaux-Arts Zacheta in Warsaw in 1923.

French citizenship was granted to Muter in 1927. She was remained closely associated with Polish born artists living in Paris at the time and was greatly influence by her travels in Spain and Britain. She married Michal Mutermilch, a Parisian correspondant for the Polish press until 1922.

Muter continued to exhibit in Paris, Munich and Pittsburg. She became well acquainted with her contempories and was greatly influenced by Leopold Gottlieb, Gauguin, Cézanne, Vuillard, Van Gogh and Dufy. She drew inspiration form the Pont-Aven school as well.

Her work was praised by Mieczyslaw and André Salmon and in 1953 a retrospective of 120 works was held in Paris. Muter died in 1967 and in 1994 a large exhibition of her work from the Boleslaw and Lina Nawrocki Collection was held by the Warsaw National Museum.