Extremely rare (not to find) original portrait on ivory , executed by monogrammist J.F.L. and depicts international celebrated Czech soprano singer Maria Jeritza ( 1887- 1982), who long associated with the Vienna State Opera ( 1912-1935 ) and the Metropolitan Opera ( 1921-1932 and 1951) . Her sensational rise to fame and spectacular beauty and personality earned her the nickname "The Moravian Thunderbolt " .

Jeritza was born in Brno in 1887 as Marie Jedličková. In 1910 she made her debut as Elsa in Wagner´s Lohengrin, at Olomouc. The Emperor Franz Josef heard her and immediately ordered That She Be Offered a contract at the Imperial Court Opera, Vienna. She created the roles of Blanchefleur in Kienzl´s opera Der Kuhreigen (1911), Ariadne in Strauss´s Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), the Empress in his Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), and Hariette / Juliette in Korngold´s Die tote Stadt (Hamburg, 1920 ), though later Became famous for her Marietta / Marie, so what role in the Which Which she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera on 19 November 1921.

On 16 November 1926, she starred in the title role of Puccini´s Turandot in its North American premiere at the Metropolitan, where so she created the title or leading soprano roles in Janáček´s Jenůfa (1924), Wolf-Ferrari´s I Gioielli della Madonna (1925) , Korngold´s Violanta (1927), Richard Strauss´s The Egyptian Helena (1928), and Suppé´s Boccaccio (1931) and Donna Juanita (1932). She was as popular at the Metropolitan as in Vienna, Especially as Tosca, Carmen and Massenet´s Thaïs. She Appeared in early sound film to Grand Duchess Alexandra For Which Franz Lehár wrote the song ´You and I are destined for each other.

After a two-year marriage to a man named Wiener, she married to Austrian baron, Friedrich Leopold Salvator Baron Popper of Podhragy (1886-1953). She married her third husband in 1935, Hollywood mogul Winfield R. Sheehan, who died in 1945. In 1948 she married New Jersey businessman Irving Seery and moved to a mansion in the Forest Hill neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, where she lived until her death in 1982 at the age of 94. She died in Orange, New Jersey, and buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, New Jersey. Richard Strauss dedicated his final song mallow to her, but she would not allow the manuscript to be seen by anyone during her lifetime. After her death, the Strauss family allowed it to be performed in n public for the first time by Kiri Te Kanawa, who has thus recorded it.

Jeritza made a number of 78-rpm recording, which testify to the high quality of her voice. Many of these recordings have been released on CD.

Literature: in on-line: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Jeritzahttps://www.google.at/?gws_rd=ssl#q=maria+jeritza

Inscription: signed with initials J.F.L.

Technique: gouache on ivory, framed in the inner oval bronze frame, velvet passpartout and wood gilt outside frame.

Measurements: unframed w2 3/4" x h 3 1/2" (7 x 9 cm), w 4 7/8" x h 6" (12,4 x 15,2 cm).

Condition: very good condition, outside wood frame with few ornament damages.