ISABELLE DE STEIGER – PRESUMED PORTRAIT OF PETROVNA BLAVATSKA, 1887

PRESUMED PORTRAIT OF PETROVNA BLAVATSKA, 1887
Oil on canvas (relined)
Signed, dated 1887 lower right
54 x 43 cm.

Born in Russia, Helena Petrovna Blavatska (Jekaterinoslav 1831 – London 1891) visited several countries, including India. She became an authority of Indian mysticism and, from 1875, directed an order in New York, the Theosophical Society. Already a major celebrity when arriving in London, she founded an esoteric section of the aforesaid society, and brought an Oriental influence on the hermetic order, the Golden Dawn. Blavatska published works, just like the orientalist painter Isabelle de Steiger who later became a member of the Golden Dawn.