Enrique Dorda was the last of the Court Painters of Spain. He did this pastel portrait of Thalia in 1938 after Dorda had left the Spanish Court, emigrated to America and settled in Greenwich Village, NYC . An interesting aside to note regarding this portrait: Dorda also did the pastel portrait of the famed Spanish Opera Diva, Lucrecia Bori that hangs in the Gallery of the Metropolitan Opera House, NYC.

When Thalia was a teenager growing up in Chicago, she performed as a dancer with the Ruth Page Co. in a production of “La Vida Breve” by the famed Spanish composer, Emanual DeFalla and Lucrecia Bori was the principle singer.

Romance was originally choreographed in 1915 by Michel Fokine as a concert piece for Olga Preobrajenska (Thalia’s teacher in Paris)
In the late 1930’s, he staged Thalia in the piece while she was a member of New York’s Fokine Ballet.