The Orchid. Conrad Meili. Signed, Dated 64.

A charming little oil painting on cardboard depicting an orchid
resting on an entablature. It is simple, delicate, and refined.
Conrad MEILI was a Swiss painter born in 1895 in Zurich.
A student of Ferdinand Hodler, he was a notable contributor
to the Realist school, and his work was appreciated
during his lifetime in both Paris and Japan.
He joined the National Society of Fine Arts in the late 1920s
and lived in Paris beginning in 1930. It was in Paris that he met and married
the novelist Kikou Yamata in 1932, who was already well-established in
Parisian literary circles. In 1939, the couple set out on a short trip to Japan,
but found themselves stranded in the Land of the Rising Sun with the outbreak of World War II.
Already popular in Japan, Meili quickly found himself with a large number
of students.
In Japan, his style took on ukiyo-e influences, and he produced a vast number of works.
He returned to France in 1949 and was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1950.
He died in 1969 at the age of 73.
Dimensions of the painting alone: 22 cm x 13 cm.
With frame: 34 cm x 26 cm.