Madeleine Luka (1894–1989), *the Nurse*, 1928, Oil On Canvas

Madeleine LUKA (1894–1989)
The Nurse, 1928
Oil on canvas
Signed “madeleine LUKA” lower right
Titled and dated on an old exhibition label on the back
48 x 38 cm

Provenance: Artist’s family, by descent.
Exhibition: Galerie Zak, Paris 6th arrondissement, label on the back.

Born in 1894 in Val-d’Oise, Madeleine Bottet(known as Madeleine Luka) adopted an artist’s name based on that of her husband, Robert Kula. Self-taught, she taught herself painting and poetry. She is counted among the naïve painters who flourished without a teacher or set method.

Madeleine Luka’s painting reflects her rejection of technicality and intellectualism, “scourges of the 20th century” as described by her writer friend Francis Jammes (1868–1938)*. Painting the spontaneous innocence of her family circle fulfills a deep need within the young woman. A tender childhood, a dreamy adolescence, fragile motherhood, and animals depicted amid a jubilant natural world constitute her favorite themes. Her world, constructed like an Eden, is populated by figures brimming with grace and innocence. Her paintings transcend space and time to evoke the sounds and scents of happy memories that are now eternal.

Critics welcomed her work, quickly overlooking the clumsiness of her early pieces. The art historian Élie Faure(1873–1937)saw in her work a depiction of simple emotions, a revitalizing style of painting that “does not seek conformity outside the heart”**.

Madeleine Luka exhibited regularly at the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d’Automne between 1927 and 1938. Beginning in 1931, she participated in group exhibitions organized by the Société des Femmes Artistes Modernes, founded by Marie-Anne Camax-Zoegger. In 1935, her work was exhibited at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery as well as in various French galleries in the postwar period.

*Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, Madeleine Luka, Paintings, Paris, Éditions André Saurêt, 1976.

**Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, Madeleine Luka, Paintings, Paris, Éditions André Sauret, 1976, pp. 10–11; presentation of the Madeleine Luka exhibition at the Simonson Gallery, April 1931.

Public Collections

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art – Paris, Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts – Albi, Toulouse-Lautrec Museum – Grenoble, Museum of Fine Arts - L’Isle-Adam, Louis Senlecq Museum of Art and History - Amiens, Musée de Picardie

Bibliography

Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, Madeleine Luka, Paintings, Paris, Éditions André Saurêt, 1976.
Jean-Albert Cartier, Madeleine Luka, Paris, Éditions Orféa, 1954.