Sold Lot #18 Anne Burgess Rowe Oil Painting Portrait of a Woman

Anne Burgess Rowe oil on paper portrait of a woman in a hat. Signed mid right recto.
Nicely framed in wooden frame.
Framed size measures 22" x 26".
Condition: Paper has a slight wrinkle in it but this is because it is not fully laid down on the backing/frame. It is tacked along the edges. Back paper is torn.
Bio:
St. Louis, MO (1938-2020)
Anne Burgess Rowe, a painter, was teaching English as a second language. Students came for a few sessions, brushed up, moved on. But four stuck with her for a solid year, meeting around a table at the Schlafly library, struggling through the convolutions of English and telling their own stories as they did so.As she learned about their different cultures, favorite foods, music, art, and life stories, Rowe found herself yearning to paint their portraits. All four agreed readily, so she took picture after picture, capturing different expressions. Then she gave them the homework: Write your their life story in their native tongue, then translating it into English.

Meanwhile, she’d begun to paint, drawing as much on their interior lives as the snapshots. Portraiture, for her, is not mere likeness; it captures a personality’s essence. She even found a way to work their backgrounds into their portraits’ background, leaving space for their past and asking them to rewrite their stories on ricepaper, so the swashes of Farsi or delicate Korean characters could become part of their portrait’s texture.

At a potluck international dinner, Rowe presented the portraits to her students as gifts. Their journeys would travel with them, more visible than memory.

Pickup DetailsPick-up Saturdays 12-5pm or by appointment.