Elise Grilli

Traunstein was born in Austria, and raised in the New Jersey, the daughter of Herman Traunstein.^[2] She graduated from Barnard College in 1929,^[3] and completed a master's degree at Columbia University in 1932. In college she was assistant editor of the Barnard Bulletin, and won an essay contest sponsored by the College Art Association.^[4] She also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.^[5]

Grilli moved to Japan with her family after World War II, when her husband worked with the Allied Occupation Forces in Tokyo.^[6][7] She was a professor of art at Sophia University, and wrote art reviews for The Japan Times, an English-language daily newspaper.^[8][9] She lectured and organized lectures on art for the International Art Society in Tokyo.^[5]

In 1964 Grilli was a visiting lecturer in East Asian art at Earlham College in Indiana,^[10] and organized an exhibit of her own collection of Japanese art at the campus.^[11] In 1965 and 1966 she made a lecture tour in Europe and the Middle East.^[12] She lectured about art in Hawaii in 1966.^[13] She also taught at UCLA.^[7][13]

John Canaday of The New York Times Book Review called Grilli's The Art of the Japanese Screen "the best art book to have come my way in 1970".^[14]

• Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea (1956, foreword and biographical sketch)^[15]
• "Saburo Hasegawa as a Leader of Modern Art in Japan" (1957)^[16]
• Japanese Picture Scrolls (1959)^[17]
• Sharaku (1959)^[18]
• "Art Exhibitions in Tokyo" (1959)^[19]
• "Gloomy Show by Kodo, Nika" (1959)^[20]
• "New Trends in Japanese Painting" (1960)^[21]
• Golden Screen Paintings of Japan (1961)^[22]
• "Hidai: Ancient Ink in a New Guise" (1965)^[23]
• The Art of the Japanese Screen (1970)^[24]

Traunstein married Italian-born music critic Marcel F. Grilli. They had two children, Peter^[25] and Diana.^[26] She died from a liver disease in Los Angeles, in 1969, at the age of 63.^[7][27]