Marriage and move to Europe

The Slade and ensuing success

In 1926, Klinghoffer married the Dutch journalist Joop Stoppelman, moving with him to Paris in 1928; the couple moved again to Holland in 1930 with their daughter Sonia. While living in the Netherlands, Klinghoffer balanced family life, and the birth of her son Michael, with her continuing artistic success; she continued to show at the New English Art Club in London and became a member in 1933. In 1935, her painting ‘The Girl in the Green Sari’ became the first work by a female artist to enter Ben Uri’s permanent collection, and was exhibitedinthegallerythatsameyear.

The Old Troubadour was painted on Klinghoffer’s honeymoon in the South of France. The pair were near enough the Italian border to stroll into Italy, where they met a musician named Torquato Simoncelli, and convinced him to sit for a painting. This was done at his home in five or six sittings; true to her habit never to show a sitter what she was doing before her study was completed, Klinghoffer had kept it out of Torquato’s sight.

On seeing the painting, he said, ‘Signora, allow me to say… it is a masterly painting. You are a great artist. This picture should be hung in a museum.’ Indeed, in the following year the painting was exhibited throughout England to high acclaim. Finally, it was displayed in the Royal Academy's 1933 Summer Exhibition, and shortly after purchased by the Tate under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest.