Flora Morgan Snell (1920-2007)

Flora Maria Morgan Snell (1920-2007)

Mermaid with Shell

1960’s, bronze, Signed Morgan Snell

E, Goddard Founder  Numbered 4.

Born into an elite family in Sao Paulo, Flora de Morgan Snell was able to follow her calling to be an artist, which she aspired to from an early age. She married a French Count and her luxurious life was divided between a mansion in Paris and an apartment in Rio. She was frequently in the society columns often wearing her signature vibrant colours with her blond hair combed up on her head. She was the opposite to the viscerally toned subjects she depicted in her paintings and sculptures.

The French Government were major clients for her work which included two enormous works, one for the Church of Trinite in Paris, The Virgin in the Temple and The Kidnappers of the Sea for the Post Office headquarters in Les Sables d’Orlon. Both paintings are over 20 meters square.

Morgan Snell, as she preferred to be known and sign her works, was frustrated that her career was held back by being female. The strength and vigour of her works led many to believe that they were the work of a male artist an idea that Morgan Snell did not dispute.

During her career she exhibited widely but fell out of recognition when she ceased work in 1978 after the death of her husband. She exhibited at the prestigious Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris on eight occasions between 1956 and 1974. She also exhibited in Greece Switzerland, Poland, USA, Canada, Germany and Brazil. In 2016 there was a retrospective of her work at the Centro Cultural Corrios in Rio de Janero.