Lot 10: Property from the estate of Blanche Thebom

A portrait of a lady, seated half-length wearing a brown velvet dress
oil on panel
16 3/4 x 12 1/2in (42.5 x 31.8cm)

PROVENANCE:
Blanche Thebom, San Francisco.

There is an extensive inscription upper right from a later date.

Blanche Thebom (1915-2010) was one of the great operatic mezzo-sopranos of the postwar era. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1944 and over the course of twenty-two years with the Met sang 356 performances in twenty-eight roles. She had studied with the renowned mezzo Edyth Walker, and when Thebom turned to teaching after her retirement, she passed along the bel canto style that she had been taught. Thebom moved to San Francisco in the 1980s and helped begin the Opera Arts Training Program of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, a program that lasted for 14 years.

Charities benefiting from the Blanche Thebom Trust are the Santa Fe Opera, the Merola Opera Program, and the Nature Conservancy, among others.