The Girl On The Mantle

The girl sits on our mantle. She is no more than 14 or 15 and possesses the pleasant, but seen-it-all smile of adolescence. She wears a light blouse buttoned to the collar and behind her the blocky angles of San Francisco extend to the horizon. I have no idea who she is. She is identified in the title only as "Young Girl". We are quite fond of her.

Four years ago, sifting through Ebay's offerings of bad, or mass-produced, or fake art, I found the painting. It was a shock. The current bid was low - very low - and the artist was one whose work I had long coveted, though it was her photographs that had most held my interest. I was initially leery; small doubts about its authenticity lingered. I finally made a bid after emailing the gallery and getting reassured. That bid turned out to be the last and the painting arrived the following week. She's resided upon our mantle since then.


Lucienne Bloch enjoyed a long and fascinating life. Born in 1909, daughter of the composer Ernest Bloch, she worked in many artistic mediums - painting, glass, woodcuts, sculpture - but is best known for her murals and photography. Schooled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris she returned to America and landed the opportunity to work with Diego Rivera in the early 30's. She assisted him, grinding his pigments in mortar and pestle during part of his prolific period of mural production. She also befriended and became the close confidant to Frida Kahlo, despite Kahlo's words when first meeting her husband's new assistant: "I hate you."

Bloch is well-known for her intimate photos of Rivera and Kahlo and their work. The only existing photos of Rivera's infamous Rockefeller Center mural, that Rockefeller ordered destroyed, were taken by Bloch when she snuck a camera in under the guise of looking at it one last time.

At the request of Frank Lloyd Wright, she took a position teaching sculpture at Taliesen. While there she reunited with Diego and Frida and ended up with them in Detroit. Diego asked her to re-interest Frida in painting. Lucienne happily set up a studio in the apartment and it was there she and Frida spent their days painting and teaching one another english and spanish. When Frida had a painful miscarriage Lucienne helped her recover by working with her on small paintings.


All that time with Rivera/Kahlo helped a still young Lucienne develop much of her artistic style. She used it to her advantage when she went to work with the WPA painting murals. Many of them can still be found adorning buildings throughout the country. In 1991 Madonna became acquainted with Lucienne while looking into making a movie about Frida. As a result, Madonna funded the restoration of one of Lucienne's more famous murals of the 30's; the Evolution of Music in New York's George Washington High School.

In 1935 Lucienne married Stephen Pope Dimitroff, another Rivera assistant. The two of them settled eventually in Northern California to raise their children and continue their work. Over the years most of America's preeminent muralists came to them to learn or improve their craft. She also frequently worked as a photographer for Life magazine. Ms. Bloch passed away in 1999.

I have always been curious about our painting; who is the girl, was it a commissioned or personal. The title and the date, 1965, were the only pieces of info I had. Yesterday, I emailed Ms. Bloch's granddaughter, who oversees Lucienne's legacy. Her name is also Lucienne. I asked her if she had any information about the painting. We sent emails back and forth throughout the day as I provided pictures and details and she did her best to help me out. In the end she decided it was a commissioned piece though she did not know who the subject was. She remembered when it showed up on Ebay and asked if that was where I had gotten it. She said she would ask her mother about it but doubted her mother would know much more.

It was strange to correspond with the granddaughter of someone who had painted the picture on my mantle. Despite the dearth of information available about the painting, I somehow feel more connected to it just through a couple of emails. Though Bloch's paintings rarely come on the market and even images of any of them are hard to find, its value isn't something with which I'm concerned - it's worth what you pay for it is the best appraisal. But my fondness for it is substantial. I won't likely part with it.

The girl will stay on our mantle looking down on our family, its brushstrokes a link to nearly a century of history, art and social upheaval. Maybe that's what the girl is smiling about. Maybe her creator passed along all of it to her. Maybe she really has seen it all. Lucienne certainly did.