Dorothy Elaine Vicaji

Vicaji in 1919

Dorothy Elaine Vicaji (1890 - 13 February 1945) was an English portrait painter.

Early life

Dorothy Elaine Vicaji was born in London in 1890 to Jessie Julia (nee Watts) and Anglo-Indian artist Rustom Vicaji (1857–1934), who had married in Fulham in June 1889.[1][2] She lived at 17 Holly Mount, Hampstead during her childhood.[1]

The New Yorker magazine described her grandfather as a Persian moneylender who acquired a major landholding in India (Berar) that was taken back by its former ruler in an invasion.[3] She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art.[4]

Career

The New York Times described her as a painter of "royalty and society folk".[5] She worked in the United States and in Canada. The Illustrated London News reported on a 1926 exhibition of her work and included images of several of her portraits.[6]

Catherine Mary Sermonda Henniker Heaton, wife of the 2nd Baronet, painted by Dorothy Elaine Vicaji

Vicaji painted Queen Alexandra and Margaret Lloyd George.[7] She painted Baron Joseph Duveen,[8] and his daughter, Dorothy Dunveen.[6] She painted an Argentinian dancer.[9] She did a portrait of Mrs. Oliver Harriman.[10] She painted Sir Robert Borden, Lady Byng, and Prime Minister Louis-Alexandre Taschereau.[11] In Canada she worked in Montreal, Quebec, and Ottawa.[12] She spent time in The Spur gave a favorable accounting of her work including a painting of Mrs. Norman Stines of San Francisco.[4]

Vicaji's painting Cottages in a Wooded Glade was signed D. E. Vicaji.[13]

The Thomas Edison National Historical Park's collection includes her work.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b "Modernist Journals | Vicaji, Rustom (c.1857-c.1934)". modjourn.org. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
  2. ^ "VICAJI Dorothy Elaine 1899-1945 | Artist Biographies". www.artbiogs.co.uk.
  3. ^ Kahn, E. J. (April 7, 1939). "Tall Painter". The New Yorker – via www.newyorker.com.
  4. ^ a b "The Spur". Angus Company. February 23, 1922 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "DOROTHY E. VICAJI; Artist Painted Many Portraits of Royalty and Society Folk". The New York Times. February 22, 1945 – via NYTimes.com.
  6. ^ a b "The Illustrated London News". Illustrated London News & Sketch Limited. February 23, 1926 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "Art and Archaeology". Archaeological Institute of America. February 23, 1922 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ "Dorothy Elaine Vicaji - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
  9. ^ "'Argentina', the Dancer | Art UK". artuk.org.
  10. ^ "The American Journal of Nursing". J.B. Lippincott Company for the American Journal of Nursing Company. February 23, 1923 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ "The Eastern Underwriter". Eastern Underwriter. February 23, 1926 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ "The Spur". 1926.
  13. ^ https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-671065
  14. ^ Treasured Landscapes: National Park Service Art Collections Tell America's Stories. Government Printing Office. February 23, 2016. ISBN 978-0-692-53608-7 – via Google Books.