Art + Design

We are grateful for the research conducted by Susan Weininger, Professor Emerita, Roosevelt University.

Provenance:

The Artist

Wendell & Esther Wilcox, Chicago, gifted by the Artist

Collection of Tom Ray, gift from the above

Exhibited:

New York, Karma, Gertrude Abercrombie, August 9 - September 23, 2018, p. 128, illus.

Lot Essay:

Like many artists in the beginning stages of their careers, Gertrude Abercrombie’s early work includes many portraits, both of herself and of new friends and colleagues, who were willing subjects and offered her the opportunity to hone her skills. In 1934, Abercrombie was employed the Public Works of Art Project [PWAP], (forerunner of the Illinois Art Project [IAP]), which allowed her income to move into her first independent residence in the Weinstein Building, located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. It was here that she met more artists and writers who became lifelong friends, including Tud Kempf, Charles Sebree, Thornton Wilder, and Cati Mount. This not only attests to the varied and noteworthy social connections Abercrombie established in the first decade of her career, but from the beginning her portraits were distinctive, penetrating and often idiosyncratic, offering an extremely intimate image of the sitter.

Esther Wilcox, 1936, depicts the wife of Wendell Wilcox, whose portrait is also included in this auction, and who was friends with Abercrombie. The present painting concentrates on the sitter’s head, as well as her shoulders and a bit of upper torso. What is most interesting about the portrait is the almost expressionist brush work and color sense, a kind of experiment that Abercrombie did not engage in frequently. Dependent on visible brush strokes of unmixed color, the face, hair, clothing and background vibrate with energy and movement, all of which seem to be in motion around Esther’s eyes, which form the stable center of the image. The sitter seems to have an abundance of energy. This kind of experimentation with different styles can be seen at many points in Abercrombie’s career and represents a fascinating opportunity to see the artist incorporate modernist modes into her world view.

Also of note, on the reverse of the portrait there is the remnant of another painting. As it is a partial image, it is impossible to know what the larger painting might have been, but there is enough of it to see it was an abstracted Cubist work. Abercrombie was famously frugal, and her early work was created during the Depression, leading her to often reuse supports. Like all of Abercrombie’s portraits, Esther Wilcox conveys not only the sitter’s physical likeness, but a depiction of a woman of enormous energy and vitality, as well as the artist’s youthful explorations.