Portrait Of Dora Karplus Hartmann (1902–1974) By Olga Dormandi (1900–1971)

Large oil on canvas by Olga Dormandi (1900–1971) depicting a portrait of Dora Karplus Hartmann (1902–1974), who was a prominent child psychiatrist, pediatrician, educator, and psychoanalyst. This oil painting dates from the late 1930s, around 1938, the year in which both the artist and her subject were forced to flee their country due to the rise of Nazism. A “The Paris American Art Company” stamp is affixed to the back, on the stretcher. Dimensions: 130 x 81 cm.

Biography of Olga Dormandi:

Olga Dormandi was born in Budapest on February 19, 1900, and died in the 12th arrondissement of Paris on December 29, 1971. A native of Hungary and trained in a rich cultural environment, she carried on the legacy of the major modern movements through figurative art and portraiture, alongside international artists who helped renew the pictorial language of the 20th century. She exhibited at the Ernst Museum in Budapest in 1922. By the 1930s, she had established her artistic style. She fled Hungary with her family in 1938. Since Austria had been annexed by Germany during the Anschluss—a sign that the Nazis were also advancing toward Hungary—they found refuge in Paris. During the war, she was forced to maintain a high degree of discretion and devoted herself at the time to working with ceramics. At the end of the war, she resumed painting and drawing. A significant milestone in her career occurred in 1949 when her work was exhibited at the renowned Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, a major hub of the Parisian art scene. This exhibition confirmed her integration into an active and recognized artistic community. Her career was also marked by connections with the artists of her time, notably Róbert Berény, a leading figure in Hungarian modernism. Her work is distinguished by a particular attention to color—with a highly recognizable palette—a light touch in her handling of the medium, and a focus on the deconstruction of movement. She subsequently pursued a career as a portrait painter in the United States. Close to psychoanalytic circles, her portraits reflect a search for depth. One of her paintings was acquired by the Louvre in the 1950s. Starting in 1956, she made two trips a year to the United States, where she painted numerous portraits in various cities (New York, Chicago, Kansas City). She also exhibited extensively (Paris, London, New York, Chicago, etc.) and taught for several consecutive years at the Kansas City Art School.

Biography of Dora Karplus Hartmann:

Born in Vienna, Austria, on June 16, 1902, into a family of renowned professionals of Jewish descent. She earned her medical degree from the University of Vienna in 1925 and began practicing pediatrics that same year. In 1928, she married Heinz Hartmann, a psychoanalyst and student of Sigmund Freud. She began studying psychoanalysis—a choice her husband had initially opposed—and eventually became a psychoanalyst herself. The couple had two children: Ernst (whose first name was later anglicized to Ernest), born in 1934, and Lorenz (who became Lawrence), born in 1937. In 1938, they left Austria due to the rise of Nazism and stayed briefly in France and Switzerland before settling in New York in 1941. She earned her medical degree from New York University in 1942 and worked from 1942 to 1943 as a physician specializing in child psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital in New York, before opening a private practice in 1945. She collaborated closely with the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, as did her husband; she became a member in 1948, served as a training analyst and treasurer beginning in 1958, and became an educational advisor in 1963. In addition to her professional activities, Dora Karplus Hartmann was a passionate mountaineer. She died on April 21, 1974, in New York.