Eliza with a gold hat

A world between dream and memory

In "Eliza with the Gold Hat," Prof. Ri Meuser von Eschmar condenses lived and dreamed life into a single atmospheric moment. Five figures inhabit a nebulous, violet-gold limbo – some clearly defined, others barely tangible, like thoughts forgotten the moment one wakes. At the center of the scene floats a butterfly: the ancient symbol of transformation and transience, of the soul freeing itself from its shell.

Fish glide through the pictorial space – an unmistakable leitmotif in the work of Ri Meuser von Eschmar. Since her study trips to deep-sea fishing grounds off Iceland and Greenland, the fish as a symbol of purity, bliss, and immortality has run through her entire body of work. In "Eliza with the Gold Hat," it appears as a silent companion to the figures, embedded between a crescent moon and golden halos – as if the icy expanses of the North Atlantic had been translated into a fairytale inner world.

The gold hat worn by the titular Eliza is no mere accessory: gold – the "non-color" that represents splendor and life – permeates the entire image as a warm counterpoint to the cool violet and gray. Influences of archaic and Etruscan art, which Ri Meuser von Eschmar experienced firsthand during archaeological excavations of Etruscan burial sites, can be felt in the timeless, almost ritualistic dignity of the figures depicted.

The technique: Mono Sgraffito

What makes this work a unique collector's item begins long before the first visible stroke. Ri Meuser von Eschmar developed Mono Sgraffito as her very own visual language: high-quality pigments – including genuine gold dusts from petrochemistry – are applied to a wafer-thin carrier film, then scraped off, layered, and re-glazed in several work steps. Layer by layer, up to 16 times, a painterly depth is created that no classic painting can achieve.

In "Eliza with the Gold Hat," this process is particularly palpable: the butterfly wings seem to break through from beneath the surface, and the faces of the figures glow with an inner transparency, as if light were stored within the pigments themselves. This is no coincidence – in every Mono Sgraffito work, light is an integral part of the artwork. Depending on the incidence of light, the image changes its character, revealing ever new details.

About the artist

Prof. Ri Meuser von Eschmar, born in Darmstadt, studied stage design in Darmstadt and art in Aachen. As a freelance artist with a studio near Bonn, she has held over 350 solo exhibitions worldwide – including at the Harrods Gallery in London, the Kunstmuseum Bonn, and the Galleria del Arte in Florence. She is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Rubens Medal and the Golden Oscar (France). Her study trips have taken her to all continents – from Mongolia to Greenland, from the Seychelles to Etruscan excavation sites in Italy.

With "Eliza with the Gold Hat," you are not just acquiring a picture. You are acquiring a piece of lived artist biography.