Elena Olmos (1897-1971) reflected the dazzling personality of Herminia R. Borrell Feijóo (1897-1971) in a magnificent portrait that is part of the funds of the Museo de Belas Artes da Coruña, which is integrated, due to its conditions, opportunely in the exhibition Dressing eras, 1860-1960, The González -Moro Collection, which walks through and dialogues with the works in the museum’s permanent collection.
The painter has defiantly and confidently portrayed this different woman, who, due to her identity, joins the cast of outstanding and advanced ladies who stood out in the twenties for their way of living, free and without prejudice. Herminia Borrell is shown in the portrait confident, defiant, proud and displaying all her personal power, faced with determination to those who contemplate her.
Owner of a natural elegance, it can be seen in her upright pose, in her customary hairstyle, in her dress, adorned by a long jade necklace; accompanied by one of her beloved dogs who share the limelight in the scene, because her love for animals was inherent to her, as was life in the countryside and even a taste for peasant work, a fact that at the time was shocking and puzzled those who knew her. He used to milk cows and goats, adopted stray dogs and cats and integrated them into his environment.
Her position in the high European social circles, where she had captivated by her beauty, special way of being and education (the people who knew her highlighted her slow conversation and Galician accent reminiscent of English, a language that she dominated and had learned during her training in London), was not an impediment to later embrace a simple country existence in Galicia that satisfied her so much, and this would not be incompatible with her eccentric tastes, way of dressing, love of driving alone or riding a bicycle.
The adventurous and extravagant spirit that he wasted was missed in the Galician society of his time, the admiration for his personality would endure in some social sectors over the years. Herminia Elena Josefa Rodríguez Borrell Feijóo, was born in A Coruña and her family had its origins in Camariñas and Catalonia.
With the painter Elena Olmos, a student of Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor, republican and close to the Casares Quiroga circle, he had friendship for a time that we suppose was short and that corresponds to the years in which the two coincided in A Coruña and, although Their lives passed by totally opposite directions, the portrait suggests that there was a great harmony between them, something that is palpable in the way the painter approaches this work and in the confidence and tranquility that the portrayed expresses.
The work was painted before the departure of the painter and her family to Buenos Aires. As for Herminia Borrell, her legend had begun in 1922 when she married Nubar Gulbenkian in London, son of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, a powerful oil magnate, born in Armenia, who managed to assemble one of the largest private collections of the 20th century.
It was made up of around six thousand works, which include objects, tapestries, porcelain, sculptures, furniture, paintings, and decorative arts. A unique legacy that encompasses ancient Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Islamic and European art; all periods of history until well into the twenties and that includes paintings by Rembrandt, Houdon or Turner and the valuable collection of jewelery by René Lalique. A treasure that in the early fifties passed to the Portuguese state, at the wish of its owner and that has been the germ of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
Marriage Between Herminia Borrell and Nubar Gulbenkian it was brief and stormy, he only resisted six years, and after the divorce in 1928 he proudly recovered his surname, and returned to Galicia settling in A Coruña.
The journalist Victoria Armesto wrote about her, pointing out in her detailed descriptions aspects of her temperament and history, of her hectic existence in Paris and London. He lived independently, oblivious to provincial conventions and kept his personality intact throughout the years, surprising locals and strangers.
The proximity to the arts and the naturalness of living with them will give reins to his love for the world of antiques, a rare taste in those years and less in a woman. That passion led her to gather a significant amount of artistic objects that she would accumulate in the Pazo de Sigrás, where she lived in her own way without longing for the tinsel of the past.
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