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Gertrude Klares Bedell
Dreamy Vintage Watercolor of Two Figures by Artist Gertrude Klares Bedell

ca. 1940s

About the Item

A dreamy watercolor of two figures in repose Gertrude Klares Bedell. Artwork size: 18" x 13 1/2". Framed size: 26 1/2" x 22". Biography from Askart: An Austrian countess born in Hungary, Baroness Ceceial Klarise became known in America as Trude Klaris Bedell. She was a noted stained-glass and cathedral glass window designer. She married a Nebraska artist, Austin Eli/Ell Bedell, and spent time with him in his native town of North Platte. Trude grew up in Vienna as an upper class titled Austrian. She took her early education at an exclusive girls' school in Schwarzwald, and further studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and the Accademia di Belli Arti in Florence, Italy. She became “a designer of church windows for Ignaz Durr, a leading art window atelier of Vienna.” (Bucklin 30) In Vienna, on August 14, 1926 at Schottenhof, the many generation family home of her mother, Trude married Austin Bedell, whom she had met at a studio party sometime during their studies at the Vienna Art Academy. The couple opened a portrait studio in Vienna, and according to a description of their marriage in The Lincoln Star newspaper, October 28, 1828 “Mr. Bedell and his very attractive wife will come to the States. . . .Tiffany and Company of New York, has offered Mrs. Bedell a splendid position, and as she is deeply interested in her work, she may accept it.” (Crosby). In the 1930's Trude spent time with Austin on a mural project in North Platte, where his widowed mother was remarried to Emil F. Seeberger. The couple’s arrival stirred much interest, especially because of Trude’s heritage and art talents. A feature article about them in the July 29, 1930 Omaha World-Herald had the following description: For six months two artists with considerable reputations in Europe have been quietly working at North Platte, Neb., planning a series of murals of earliest Nebraska life. One is Austin Bedell, born in North Platte, later a pupil at Creighton Prep school in Omaha, then a student at the Chicago Art Institute, and finally a painter in Vienna, where his work as a painter of portraits and other pictorial designs has become well known. The other is his wife, Trude Klaris, whose success as designer of stained-glass windows began when she was 17 years old. Then, in competition with Austria’s greatest designers, the hitherto unknown girl won the prize and the right to design the windows in a Vienna cathedral. Today both are in Omaha, visiting Mr. And Mrs. J.B. Hays, 4821 Webster, an aunt and uncle of Mr. Bedell. They will be here eight days to go through early church histories of the state, on file in Creighton University’s library. ‘We’re going on to New York to live,’ said Mr. Bedell. ‘We plan to exhibit our work there and to attempt to become established in New York as we have been in Vienna. The four murals I’ve been working on in North Platte are concerned with pioneer subjects---the sodhouse, the prairie tornado, the burning of Julesburg and other incidents in early life in this territory.’ He would not confirm the report that his work is being considered for the new cathedral at Grand Island, although his research at the Creighton library here is along that line. Although she is very unwilling to have it known, Miss Klaris was a baroness in old Vienna, and was a close friend of many personages in the royal Hapsburg family. ‘That’s all over now,’ she protested, when asked about her noble rank. ‘I’m going to be an American and my name is Trude Klaris.’” And indeed, Trude did get her citizenship and remained in the United States. But she and Austin Bedell divorced in New York City in April 1935, having been separated three years earlier. The divorce stirred some public interest and likely embarrassment because of his infidelity described by his landlady and quoted in the New York Daily News: Brooklyn section, April 28, 1935. By 1937, Austin had remarried and was living in Los Angeles; where he died of heart failure in 1951. Trude stayed for some time in New York City living at 365 West End Avenue in Manhattan. Census records of 1940 list her as “divorced, working as a secretary, and living with her mother and two other Austrian relatives.” A brief description of the last years of her life is from Joan Brammer who lived in an apartment in West Los Angeles next to Trude, whom she referred to as Gertrude. Joan wrote that she knew “very little about her except that she was a one-time artist in her 70s from a wealthy Austrian family. . . .She died October 1977 in Santa Barbara, California.”
  • Creator:
    Gertrude Klares Bedell (1903 - 1977, American)
  • Creation Year:
    ca. 1940s
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    Framed size: 26 1/2" x 22"Price: $1,400
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    See Photos.
  • Gallery Location:
    Chicago, IL
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: #147651stDibs: LU2591215314602

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