Mercedes de Cordoba

An accomplished and charismatic singer, dancer, and musician, Mercedes de Cordoba was a muse-like figure in avant-garde circles. She met Carles in New York in 1904, and the couple married while living in France in 1909. Carles sent the portrait back to Philadelphia to be exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) that same year. Here Carles, whose art is characterized by incessant experimentation, seems at a crossroads between an impressionist approach and more avant-garde ideas. The ennobled figure seems to dissolve into broad, quick strokes of intense color (note the green dashes for shadows in the dress.) Background elements vie for the viewer’s attention, in particular geometric plays of light on the rear doors. Carles depicts himself as a reflection in the French window behind his subject. 

Born in Philadelphia, Carles had a staggering impact on the development of American modernism and abstract painting both through his own work and his role as a teacher. He was a powerful and controversial instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts who embraced the modern age and introduced his students to the work and ideas of the European avant-garde. Paintings by several of his students are in Woodmere’s collection, including Quita Brodhead, Jane Piper, Faye Swengel Badura, Bernard Badura, Jessie Drew-Bear, Elizabeth Godshalk Burger, Morris Blackburn, and Leon Kelly.

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