Portrait of Eve Balfour

Born in Ballarat, Victoria in 1869 Dora Ohlfsen rose to artistic promise at an early age. Her European roots stemmed from parents of Scandinavian descent, who had migrated to Australia to prosper in the newfound colonies. The Olfsen-Bagge family upbringing nurtured talents in music, languages and the arts. Fluent in German, and distinguished as an accomplished student of piano, Dora studied music in Berlin under the skilled composer Moritz Moszkowski, however a sudden onset of neuritis in her arm hindered a professional music career. In St. Petersburg, she met with her lifelong partner, the well-connected Elena von Kugelgen, and the pair freely participated in Russian social and cultural events before eventually moving to Italy in 1902.

Ohlfsen initially planned to study painting in Rome but she soon realised that, ‘sculpture attracted me most, and I worked at that’. A particular influence was the engraver Pierre Dautel. Like him, Ohflsen began to specialise in medal art and quickly achieved success, exhibiting regularly and receiving many portrait commissions over the years. Further experiences in the French Academy in Rome from renowned artists and teachers such as the French sculptor Camille Alaphilippe influenced Dora to work across different materials, and later progressed her portrait work into sculpture and intimate statuettes including Portrait of Eve Balfour.

While indicative of Ohlfsen’s academic training, Portrait of Eve Balfour is the more daring of her known sculptures. Ohlfsen here extends traditional tropes with an erotically-charged and sensually-infused portrait of New Zealand-born stage and early screen actor Eve Balfour (1890–1955). The sculptor’s emphasis of the model’s ‘bodily beauty’ was noted in its day, and with the work’s small scale and luscious art nouveau styling Ohlfsen presents the figure as a highly desirable, intimate offering to the viewer.