Rosina Galli (Italian, 1892–1940) made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1914 and became an internationally renowned star. Here Galli’s braided hair and headdress recall those of the queen in Le Coq d’Or, an opera by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov that premiered in the United States in 1918. Drew-Bear’s complex, multifigure composition unfolds around the figure of Galli, with strange green creatures, flying angels, a floating clown’s head, a man with a blowpipe, a crouching blue monkey, and other dancing couples and musicians.
Drew-Bear was fifty-nine years old when she received a paint set from her daughter on Christmas in 1938, beginning a remarkable career as a largely self-taught artist. Born in England, she came to Philadelphia in 1905 and opened the London Flower Shop at 18th and Chestnut Streets, which she owned and operated for more than forty years. Known for sophisticated, high-end arrangements for gala events, she often painted in a second-floor studio above her shop. Drew-Bear briefly studied with Arthur B. Carles and spent a month in French artist Fernand Léger's atelier in 1949. She traveled extensively throughout Europe, Central America, and South America. In her seventies, she learned to scuba dive to paint marine life. Her work was acquired by prestigious collectors Sidney Janis and Albert Duveen.
