Renée and Ray

She probably learned the technique of oil painting from the flower painter Anna Pricelius. Later she took painting lessons with Gustav Lehmann in Italy and Munich. In 1915 she moved to Brussels to live with her school friend Valeska Heynemann and continued her training with the painter Jos Albert and the sculptor Louis van der Meulen. She increasingly signed her works with the pseudonym Renée and later also used the name Ray. She got to know the patrons Bernhard Mayer and Paul Bachrach, who supported the Russian painter Alexej von Jawlensky.

Photo: Emmy Esther Scheyer, Brussels, circa 1915
Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection Archives, Pasadena, California