Founded some 14 years ago, and trading by appointment from bases in London and the South of France, Liss Fine Art Ltd (www.lissfineart.com), have built up a reputation of homing in on some of these little-known masters. This flair was exemplified in May when the firm produced a splendid and informative illustrated catalogue which, while offering paintings by familiar names such as Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) and Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), also featured less iconic artists.
Take, for example, Clara Esther Klinghoffer (1900-1970), whose oil on canvas The Girl with Flowers is illustrated right. Measuring 3ft 6in x 2ft (1.06 x 61cm) and painted when she was at the Slade in 1920, it is a key early work and was exhibited that year at the Goupil Gallery alongside works by Augustus John, Matisse and Lucien Pissarro. Even in such illustrious company, it was singled out by the critics, with the Daily Express declaring Klinghoffer as the new "girl genius of the Slade". Jacob Epstein considered her "an artist of great talent, a painter of the first order...in the very first rank of draughtsmen in the world".
Today, Klinghoffer's work is represented in major public collections, including the Tate and the V&A. Liss Fine Art were asking £16,000 for this portrait and, unsurprisingly, it proved an early seller.
I understand Klinghoffer's son, Michael Laurence, is producing a monograph on her. On publication, it could well bring about a major resurgence for her painting.
