Ludmilla Welch Bucolic Afternoon

1867-1925 Ludmilla Pilat was born in Ossing, New York on April 1, 1867 into a large family. Her father was a member of the Austrian army who decamped to the U.S. for political reasons. Located in the Hudson River area, the Pilat home was an artistic milieu where the young Ludmilla was exposed to art, music, and literature. A romance between her and Thaddeus Welch, a boarder in their home, and at age 16 she married the 39 year old landscape painter. After a few years in New York, Boston, and a visit to the Worlds Fair in Chicago, she came with her husband to California in 1893. Pasadena was their home for a year until moving north to Marin County. The couple lived in a rustic cabin in the San Geronimo Hills where, under the tutelage of her husband, Ludmilla became a highly competent painter. Ludmilla and Thaddeus were known to paint together and in a style so similar, their unsigned canvases were difficult to distinguish. Due to her husbands poor health, they moved to Santa Barbara . In 1925 Ludmilla died on a train while she was heading back east to join her remaining family.