Now Exhibiting, Countess Ingegerd Ahlefeldt-Laurvigen

It had to be.  My last day at the UK antique markets, no money left in my purse and certainly no space left on my rather over exhausted credit cards, and I had to find 8 original oil paintings, circa 1930/40 by the Woman pictured above.  Countess Ingegerd Ahlefeldt-Laurvigen (1900-1986), Painter; daughter of Count Preben Ferdinand, Danish Envoy.  A painter, poet and writer.  It was love at first sight and I had to have them.

6 weeks later and they just arrived in Sydney yesterday afternoon, are now unpacked (after lots of bubble wrap, card and inquisitive dogs!) and in the back of my car on their way to be professionally strung so that I can hang them in our freshly painted hallway.

Countess Ingegerd 'Johanne Marie' Ahlefeldt-Laurvigen painted these portraits in oil on canvas, of Chelsea pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, a retirement and nursing home for former members of the British Army who had been injured in service or who had served for more than 20 years.

Pensioners were entitled to come and go from the Royal Hospital as they pleased, and were permitted to wear civilian clothing wherever they travelled. However, within the hospital, and in the surrounding area, in-pensioners were encouraged to wear a blue uniform, and this is the uniform that Countess Ingegerd Ahlefeldt-Laurvigen captured on canvas while the pensioners 'sat' for her during her portrait sittings.  Her time and efforts were of no charge to the hospital, and here is where the paintings would have hung for many years.  Why they are not there now, I do not know.  All I know is I am somewhat humbled and quite honoured to have these works as an 'entrance' feature to my home, art of a Countess that has many of her works hung at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

If the pensioners traveled further from the Hospital, they had to wear their distinctive scarlet coats instead of the blue uniform. The scarlet coats were also worn for ceremonial occasions, accompanied by tricorne hats, and this is as it still is today.

The gentleman that I purchased the paintings from insisted that I had them framed in a large gilded frame, it's obvious from that comment that we are strangers......gold elaborate frames really aren't my bag!  Instead I choose to leave them as they are, unframed, with delicate, aged edges to the canvas and let the intricate brushwork of each portrait speak for itself.