Dorothea Stefula (Germany, 1914-1997) - The Visit, Oil on Canvas.

Dorothea Stefula (Germany, 1914-1997) - The Visit, Oil on Canvas.

Dorothea Stefula (Germany, 1914-1997) - The Visit, Oil on Canvas.

Signed.

Titled on the reverse.

Framed.

26x31cm.

Frame: 47x52cm.

Dorothea Stefula (b. Hamburg 1914 - d. Prien 1997).

Gyorgy Stefula (b. Hamburg 1913 - d. Bad Trissl 1999).

Son of a Hungarian jockey and the daughter of a Luxembourg wine grower,

Gyorgy Stefula was born in 1913 in Hamburg, the oldest of three children.

The premature death of his father and the loss of his maternal inheritance forced this talented artist to resign himself to training as an art teacher rather than studying at art school.

Later, in 1935, he nonetheless tried his hand as an art student at the Academy of Art, changing direction shortly afterwards and going to the master school for painting in Altona, which suited him better.

With his "Masters degree" in his pocket, in 1938 he agreed to produce his first commission for the facade of a Hamburg residence.

In 1940, he married the book illustrator and graphic designer Dorothea Huter, whom he had known at the Academy of Art and who worked as a children's book illustrator following her studies. 

While Gyorgy Stefula was doing his military service in the German air force from 1940 to 1945, his wife and their two-year old son Stefan were uprooted by the bombing and forced to go to Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria, where Susanne was born the subsequent year followed by their second son, Tobias, in 1952.

From 1955 on, the couple became established in Osternach Bay in Prien.

Their works ranged from monumental postal building facades in Munich and Dusseldorf, the Haus der Kunst in Munich and frescoes in the Convention Centre in Coburg, to designing stamps - three series of stories were printed, not forgetting the best book, a children's book published in 1955 called "das Paradies".

Children's books and schoolbooks remained Dorothea Stefula's domain: "Vevi" and "Kein Park zu verkaufen" appeared in 1957, and "Wunderwelt" was published in 1968 by Schwann. She had a talent for illustrating newspapers, almanacs and calendars, in addition to leaflets and publicity material for large businesses. At the 1964 "Premio Internationale per le Pittrici" competition in Bozen, Dorothea Stefula won the gold medal.

The couple's (joint) projects: Scenery and costumes for the ballet "Taubenflug" choreographed by Alan Carter at the Bavarian National Opera in Munich (1955). 

Since the 1950s, works by the Stefulas have become part of the permanent collections of large Bavarian museums.

And part of the collections of private collectors from Uppsala to Florence and from Paris to Vienna.

_{source: stefulas.com}