JOHN KOCH (AMERICAN 1909-1978)
PORTRAIT OF VIRGINIA, LADY AIRLIE, AS A YOUNG GIRL
Auction: Property from the Estate of Virginia Fortune Ryan Ogilvy, Dowager Countess of Airlie | Wed 3rd Sept at 10am | Lots 45 to 170
Description
Signed lower left, oil on canvas
Dimensions
90cm x 70cm (35.5in x 27.5in)
Provenance
Property from the Estate of Virginia Fortune Ryan Ogilvy, Dowager Countess of Airlie
Footnote
John Koch spent several years in the late 1920s and early 1930s living in Paris, copying Old Master works in the Louvre, exhibiting at the Salons, and socializing with avant-garde artists and writers including André Gide, André Malraux, and Jean Cocteau. Despite a few attempts at incorporating Surrealist themes into his own work, Koch did not stray far from his primary interest in realism. Upon returning to the U.S. and settling in New York City in late 1934, Koch found financial success as a portrait painter, while also working on elegant, meticulously detailed interior scenes involving seemingly complex, enigmatic social interactions.