Lotus de Païni
Baroness Lotus de Païni was an Italian painter, sculptor, writer, and occultist. She also used the names L. E. De Paini, Lotus 'Gazzotti, and Lotus Péralté'.
Early life, family, and education
Lotus de Païni was born on 28 November 1862, in Copparo in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and raised in Vallauris in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. Her mother Thérèse Guignon was French from Vallauris, and her father Giuseppe Gazzotti was Swiss-born Italian.She married Baron Nicolas de Païni in c. 1890, and they divorced nine years later. Her second marriage was c. 1900 to Paul Péralté, a surgeon, however the date was complicated by the French courts over her divorce not finalized.
Career
De Païni was a self-taught artist, who liked to make her artwork while traveling. In 1894 she was working in Bucharest, Romania; where she painted the noted, Portrait of Queen Carmen Sylva.She exhibited at Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in 1897, 1898 and 1899.
Around 1904, De Païni accompanied Paul Péralté on a trip to Ceylon, India and Tibet, which inspired a number of paintings. Followed by a trip years later to Egypt, and Palestine.
After her marriage to Péralté, they were both member of the Theosophical Society. She started following Rudolf Steiner around 1913. Under the name Lotus Péralté, starting from 1914 she published writings on painting and then on Western esotericism. Her writings and artwork were admired by André Breton,, and.
Her artwork is in museum collections, including at the Guimet Museum in Paris.