About the artist:

Anna Chromy was a Czech-German painter and sculptor. At the end of World War II, Chromy's family was expelled from Czechoslovakia to Vienna, Austria. Her family did not have enough money for her to attend art school however, so only after she married and moved to Paris was it possible. She received her education at the École des Beaux-Arts. It was here she realised an interest in Salvador Dalí and other surrealists, and began using the soft colours of William Turner in her paintings.

A life-threatening accident in 1992 meant that Chromy was unable to paint for eight years. She turned her attention to sculpture using bronze and marble as her media.

Anna Chromy was born to a Czech mother and a German father on 18 July 1940, in Český Krumlov, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Chromy's childhood in Bohemia provided her with her first indulgence in art, and she was often fascinated with images of ancient palaces displaying sculptures, graphics and paintings. After World War II, at the age of five, Chromy and her family were forced to leave Český Krumlov and move to Austria. While in Austria, the musical culture of Vienna and Salzburg made a lasting impression on Chromy, and would eventually be the inspiration for many of her works of art. In 1970, Chromy and her husband, Wolfgang, moved to Barbizon, France, which is southeast of Paris. Here, Chromy was surrounded by artists who came from far and wide to paint the beautiful forests of Fontainebleau. While in Barbizon, Chromy began to study at the Academy de la Grande Chaumire in Paris.

It was during her studies in Paris that Chromy met her mentor, Salvador Dalí, who also became a personal friend. As his pupil, Dali inspired Chromy's imagination and creativity with his personal style of art known as surrealism. Chromy developed an appreciation of Dali's style, and her paintings drew from her admiration of Dali and other artists of surrealism such as Max Ernst, Rene Magritte. She did a charcoal of Dali and Gala titled "Homage Dali & Gala," and Dali's image appears in her 1981 oil painting, "The Boat of Cadaces."

Beginning in the 1980s, Chromy's work began to be the image of many widely publicized events. In 1985, Chromy created three sketches called the Faces of Peace for the United Nations Year of Peace in New York. Her painting, Man, Earth, Universe, which was Chromy's interpretation of transcendence to a better world, became the official painting of the 1992 World's Fair, also known as EXPO 92, in Seville, Spain. In 1985, Chromy and her husband established a new home in Cap Martin, France, on the Côte d'Azur, where she and her husband enjoyed many years with their three dogs and several cats. In this villa, Chromy had the room to display all her works of art, turning her home into her own exclusive museum. Chromy found pleasure adding her own individuality to this villa. She painted a mural of angels on one of the ceilings and dancing figures across her wardrobe doors. She turned one of the rooms into a studio where she painted her "Last Supper." Today, Anna's sculpture, "Coat of Saint Martin", sits at the entrance of Cap Martin.

Chromy died in Monaco, where she lived from 1980, on 18 September 2021 at the age of 81.