A 1935 Young Girl’s Portrait in Pastels on Paper, Signed

Details

Description

This artwork is a mid-century, mixed-media portrait on paper, executed primarily in colored pastels, charcoal and white chalk highlighting. It … Read more This artwork is a mid-century, mixed-media portrait on paper, executed primarily in colored pastels, charcoal and white chalk highlighting. It showcases a striking, classically structured portrait of a young girl with wide blue eyes and stylized bangs.

MATERIALS: The piece is drawn on a heavyweight, tan or "buff-colored" toned paperboard. The thin thickness measurement (0.06" d) is characteristic of a standard heavy illustration paper or a dense artist mat board.
The artist heavily utilizes opaque white chalk or pastel cross-hatching to simulate direct, bright lighting on the right side of the sitter's face, neck and shoulders. This technique makes the portrait pop dramatically off the flat, neutral background.
While the piece reads primarily as a tonal sketch, deliberate hints of color have been woven in, specifically the golden-yellow tones defining the crown of the hair and the pinkish-red pigment used to structure the lips and ears.

THE ARTIST & THE ERA: The bottom right corner features a distinct handwritten signature applied in red pencil. While the name is basically indecipherable, this work appears to have been done by a high-quality regional or independent portraitist. The confidence and consistency of the sharp red pencil/pastel line show that the artist signed their name with zero hesitation, a hallmark of an individual who routinely signed illustration work or design boards during this period.
During the Great Depression, thousands of incredibly skilled artists worked locally without ever breaking into the major New York or Chicago gallery circuits. The superb handling of the white-chalk chiaroscuro highlighting and delicate pastel blending proves this individual was highly trained, potentially as a regional illustrator, high school art instructor, or independent portraitist taking local commissions.
Directly beneath the signature, the artist has inscribed "-35", identifying the work as having been created in 1935. This places the piece's creation firmly within the American Interwar or Depression-era portraiture style.
Abbreviating the full year to a two-digit decimal trailing a dash was standard practice across WPA artist logs, architecture blueprint blocks and art academy inventory lists in 1935. It ensures that the piece was officially completed, cataloged, and signed off in a formal studio setting.

Signature/Maker’s Mark: Indecipherable (photo #06). See less