American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists

Provenance:

The Artist.

Estate of the Artist.

Acquired directly from the above.

Private Collection, New Jersey.

Lot Note:

Following her 1935 marriage to abstract painter Lee Gatch and the subsequent birth of their daughter, Merriman, Elsie Driggs underwent an artistic and lifestyle shift during the 1940s in Lambertville, New Jersey. Subordinating her career as a pioneering female Precisionist to nurture her family and support her husband's professional life, Driggs found herself working amid reduced circumstances in a house that initially lacked running water. Despite domestic pressures and a primitive setting, the stark, industrial oil paintings of her youth gave way to intimate watercolors and an exploration of the collage technique. In her "cut and paste" approach, arguably employed to its greatest effect in Lambertville (and in the present lot), Driggs utilized mixed-media overlays to piece together whimsical, texturally complex forms. This innovative work not only mirrored the fractured, resource-strained realities of wartime domesticity but also established an artistic dialogue with Gatch's developing abstraction, marking a significant turning point in her career.

Framed: 28 1/2 x 40 1/2 x 1 in.

Two sheets of paper mounted to board with seam visible at center. Scattered scratches with associated loss to paper at top center, left center edge and lower left along bottom edge. Tear measuring approx. 1 inch at top center. Intermittent abrasions along extreme edges under frame. Additional images available upon request.

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