Beschreibung:

BORIS PASTOUKHOFF (RUSSIAN 1894-1974) Portrait of Mrs. Florence 'Bunny' Heath Horton Austin oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm (21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in.) signed lower left in Latin and dated lower right 1939 Paris PROVENANCEEstate of Dr. Warren R. Austin and Mrs. Florence 'Bunny' Heath Austin, Austin Val Verde Mansion, Montecito, CaliforniaPrivate Collection, U.S.A.RELATED LITERATUREBerge Aran and Gail Jansen, Austin Val Verde: A Montecito Masterpiece, Balcony Press, 2006Gail Jansen, Jay Belloli, and Ann Mitchell, Austin Val Verde: Impressions of a Montecito Masterpiece, Balcony Press, 2007The woman in this exceptional portrait by Pastoukhoff was Florence "Bunny" Heath Horton Austin (1915-1991), the Heiress to an immense fortune stemming from Horace E. Horton who founded Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. in 1867. She was one of the richest women in the first half of the 20th century. Florence Heath Horton married Dr. Warren Austin (1911-1999) after the war and took his surname. During World War II, Dr. Austin was the the personal physician of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor while the Duke was Governer of the Bahamas. He would later also be the first resident physician of Montecito, California. In 1955, Mr. and Mrs. Austin bought "Val Verde," which comprised seventeen and a half acres in Montecito. Val Verde is celebrated not only for its Greco-Roman mansion designed by Bertram Goodhue, but also for its extensive landscaped grounds, facing the mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Frequent guests at the estate included Katherine Hepbuun, Gloria Swanson, Vincent Price, any many other celebrities from the worlds of film, stage, music, literature, and art. Val Verde is rightly considered one of the most important early 20th Century estates in Southern California still in existence, and the Austins lived there until their deaths in 1991 and 1999 respectively. At the time this portrait was painted, Mrs. Austin was a beautiful and radiant 24-year old visiting Paris.