Alice Lolita Muth (1887-1952)
- Alice Lolita Muth (1887-1952)
- Port-Royal Abbey, Paris, France
- Oil on canvas
- 20 x 24 inches
- Signed lower left
Located in the Valley of Chevreuse, southwest of Paris, Port-Royal-des-Champs was an abbey of Cisternian nuns that became the center of a theological movement known as Jansenism. The controversial movement was condemned by the Catholic Church and the French Monarchy.
Muth's painting features the neo-gothic chapel that sits where the chancel of the abbey used to stand before it was destroyed in the 18th century.
The subject of Port-Royal and the Jansenists would certainly have interested the artist who converted to Catholicism while living in Spain. She was baptized Lolita from the same font as Francisco Goya nearly 180 years earlier.
In 1929, Muth told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "I love America, but I can't wait for it to grow old. Europe has atmosphere. I adore the mystery of churches."
