paintings by
Dora HOLZHANDLER

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Earl’s Court, 1970
13 x 10” oil on canvas £4,500

Dora Holzhandler was born in Paris in 1928 of émigré Jewish/Polish parents. In 1934 the family moved to London. She returned to Paris when she was 17 to study at the Sorbonne. Two years later in 1948 she became a student at the Anglo-French Art Centre in St John’s Wood, London, where she met and married a fellow student, George Swinford, and settled in Hampstead.

“Although she informally attended art classes both in London and Paris between 1946 and 1950, Dora is, as she readily admits, ‘self-taught’. The influences of Chagall and Rousseau are clear and Dora further credits Matisse and Dufy as sources of inspiration in her work. Her paintings have a unique mixture of innate sophistication and childlike freshness. She is renowned for the deceptive simplicity of her style which makes her work instantly recognisable. Her figures are stylised with moon-like faces, almond shaped eyes and gentle curvaceous bodies.

“Dora Holzhandler’s vibrantly patterned oil paintings of lovers, families and friends, her more fluid gouaches of Rabbis and a Jewish childhood and her lucid, ethereal watercolours have all developed a worldwide following. Collectors including Charlie Chaplin and Maureen Lipman, have been enchanted by her pristine and original perspective on everyday life, sparkling with humanity and contemplative humour.”

Bill Clark, Clark Art Ltd


Dora Holzhandler with Sister Wendy

In an exhibiting career that stretches back to 1949, Dora Holzhandler has shown her work at many venues in London, in Bath, Glasgow, Hale (Cheshire), Liverpool and Manchester in the UK. Abroad, her work has been seen in Paris, Carcassonne, Sète, Nîmes and Montpelier in France; in New York and Los Angeles in the USA, as well as in galleries in Holland and Finland. Dora has strong connections with Cornwall and is a frequent visitor, having spent the winter of 1975/76 living in St Ives.

Along the public collections that include Dora Holzhandler paintings are Brighton Art Gallery and Museum; the Ben Uri Art Collection, London; the Nuffield Foundation; The Sternberg Centre, London, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, Glasgow and the Museum of Art, Haifa.

This, her first major solo exhibition in Falmouth and Cornwall, includes work that spans the period from 1970 to 2007.

“I love to paint. For me, painting is play, a divine world of play that I have created and which always awaits me, colour light and form, a pure paradise.”

Dora Holzhandler in Philip Vann’s biography of the artist (ISBN 0-85331-724-0)

“Dora Holzhandler grasps life and celebrates it. She sees us clearly; for her all is sacred, all is aflame with divine power.”

Sister Wendy Beckett

“Dora Holzhandler’s universe of lovers, gardens, markets, birds and flowers is recognisably the one we daily inhabit, but it is also transfigured by the light of another dimension, that of the mystic and poet.”

Philip Vann

“It is no doubt the strongly and consciously Jewish element in her subject-matter that makes us think sometimes of Chagall. But whereas his loving couples tend to fly through the upper atmosphere, hers are clearly anchored to beds or divans in the real world. Sometimes, even one can glimpse a recognisable landscape through a window.”

John Russell Taylor

Please call 01326 318452 (gallery hours) or 01736 786016 (evenings and weekends) or e-mail: gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk to reserve the work of your choice.

Paintings may be collected by arrangement or we can arrange delivery from as little as £20 depending on size and distance. Money back if not entirely satisfied (provided we are informed within 3 days of your work being collected/delivered). Cheques and all major credit cards accepted. ‘OWN Art’ interest free loand available. Colours may vary between the original paintings and the printed reproductions. All paintings are framed.

Holding a sprig of flowers, 1986
9.5 x 9.5” watercolour £900

Harbour view
10.5 x 10” gouache £SOLD

Autumn roadsweeper, 1991
14.5 x 13.75” mixed media £3,950

Covent Garden
20 x 17.5” oil on canvas £4,750

Mother and child in winter
18 x 14” oil on canvas £6,250

Rubik cube
14.75 x 11” oil on board £4,250

Bath tub, 1998
16 x 20” oil on canvas £4,000

Woman and child in the rain, 1990
11.5 x 10.5” watercolour £1,250

The Tea Party, 1991
16 x 16” watercolour £1,250

The Rose Garden, 1987
12.25 x 10.75” pastel £950

Afternoon walk, 1983
8.5 x 7.5” watercolour £SOLD

Benalmaena, 1990
10 x 10” watercolour £950

Babies, 2002
15.75 x 20” oil on board £4,600

The Balloon Man on Brighton Pier, 1991
13.5 x 9” oil on canvas £3,600

Bathing belle
16.75 x 15” gouache £1,550

Summer lovers 2007
16.25 x 11.25” oil on board £3,200

The Happy Couple, 1998
12.25 x11.5” pastel £970

Happy hats
12 x 12” oil on canvas £3,750

Lovers kissing, 1992
15.75 x 12.5” pastel £1,550

Le petit dejeuner, 1998
21.5 x 16” oil on canvas £5,000

Playful child
6.5 x 4.75” watercolour £525

The perfume counter, 1991
12.5 x 10.5” watercolour £1,250

Rosh Hashanah
18 x 12” oil on canvas £5,500

Spring bouquet, 1991
11 x 10.25” watercolour £1,050

The little book of poems, 1990
10.25 x 8.75” pastel £850

Lovers in summer, 2004
24 x 20” oil on canvas £6,750

Young Lovers
10.5 x 9.5” watercolour £950

Going for a walk, 1977
18 x 12” oil on board £4,500

St Ives 1996
9.5 x 9.5” watercolour £850

Self-Portrait St Ives
9 x 11.75” oil on board £2,800

Summer shower
14 x 15” gouache £1,350

Standing nude in the bathroom
18 x 10” oil on canvas £3,400

Woman and child, 1999
7.75 x 5.25” watercolour £600

Woman flower arranging, 1997
19 x 11.5” oil on board £4,785

Jewish wedding
24 x 20” oil on canvas £6,750

The Ice-cream Stall, 1986
16 x 12” oil on board £4,750

Summer picnic 1992
19.25 x 17” gouache £1,850

First kiss, 1998
7.25 x 7” watercolour £SOLD

Playing cards I, 1987
10 x 9” watercolour £895

Porthmeor Beach
28 x 24” oil on canvas £6,950

Purim meal
22 x 18” oil on canvas £6,250

Playing Cards II, 1989
10.75 x 10.5” watercolour £1,095

The newlyweds
14.5 x 13” gouache £1,250

Mediterranean lovers, 1982
18.75 x 14.75” watercolour £1,850

One o’clock toddlers club
14 x 12” oil on canvas £3,200

Orange lovers
42 x 30” oil on canvas £15,000

Thai Buddha
14 x 11” oil on board £3,200

Summer wedding 1996
15.75 x 15.75” gouache £SOLD

Mother and child in springtime
22 x 18” oil on board £4,200

Mother and child I, 1991
16 x 12” oil on artists board £4,750

Woman, sun and sea
7.75 x 5.24” watercolour £595

Umbrella seller, 1991
15 x 10.25” oil on canvas £7,250

The Park, 1999
24 x 22” oil on canvas £4,500

29th March - 16th April 2008 at
The Great Atlantic Falmouth Gallery
48 Arwenack Street, Falmouth TR11 3JH
Tel 01326 318452

www.greatatlantic.co.uk e-mail: gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk

exhibition held in conjunction with
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