Ritratto di Joella Levy

Joella Haweis (1907-2004) was married to the New York gallerist Julien Levy from 1927 to 1942. In 1931, Levy staged Campigli's first American exhibition and commissioned the Italian artist to paint his Italian-born wife's likeness. In his memoirs, Levy recalled the symbiosis that resulted from the portrait: "An apotheosis for Joella, and an insight for me into the interplay of artist and subject, was offered when Joella sat for her Campigli portrait. His concept molded her future bearing, the carriage of her head, and embellished the directness of her gaze; while the impact of her Praxitelean features invaded his archaisms so that for a time the women in his canvases wore a resemblance to Joella, and Joella made her entrances a living Campigli." (J. Levy, op. cit.) Joella—whose mother Mina Loy was a poet and muse to Dada artists—later divorced Levy and married the artist and architect Herbert Bayer.