Author: Soltan-Römer Anna , 1895 - 1974
Created: 1926.
Material / technique: paper, aquarelle.
Dimensions: 58x80 cm.
Signature: ASRömer/Janopol 1926.
Classical portraits of fortune tellers, reading the future from cards or palms, were painted by genre painters in the 17th century. The best known of them are the fortune tellers painted by Caravaggio and Georges de La Tour. These were charlatan fortune tellers who were outsiders in society. Anna Soltan-Römer (1895–1974) painted an elderly country woman trying to read signs of the future in a young peasant’s palm simply by referring to her own experience and the guidance of her own wisdom. The old woman is probably promising the younger one love, a fiancé, marriage, a family and children, that is to say, the happiness that is desired by most girls, even nowadays, despite the advances of feminism and the career opportunities opening up for women. The figures in the picture are probably workers on the estate of the artist’s husband, Antony Kazimierz Römer, at Janapole, near Rēzekne in Latvia, where the picture was painted.
Reference: "More Than Just Beauty. The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection." Compiled by G. Jankevičiūtė. Vilnius, LAWIN, 2012, P. 210.
Exhibitions: “More Than Just Beauty: The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection”, 12 October – 11 November 2012, National Gallery of Art; Vilnius.
Published: "More Than Just Beauty. The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection." Compiled by G. Jankevičiūtė. Vilnius, LAWIN, 2012, P. 210.