Robert Kennicott Gouache Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Mabel Alvarez, Framed

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An original gouache portrait by Los Angeles painter Robert Kennicott, signed at left. A dark-haired woman with a red headband … Read more An original gouache portrait by Los Angeles painter Robert Kennicott, signed at left. A dark-haired woman with a red headband looks just past the viewer, her face built from quick strokes of olive, blue, rose and white against a gray textured ground, with a slash of cobalt behind her. The painting is in excellent condition and lies flat with no rippling, under plexi.

Robert Helm Kennicott (1892-1983) was a Beverly Hills physician who turned to painting in the early 1930s and quickly became part of the Los Angeles art scene. He exhibited at the Los Angeles Museum in 1934 and belonged to the California Watercolor Society, the California Art Club, the Painters and Sculptors of Los Angeles and the Laguna Beach Art Association. He showed at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition and with the Courvoisier Gallery in San Francisco.

For about a decade Kennicott was the close companion and painting partner of Mabel Alvarez, one of the key figures in Southern California modernism. The sitter here may be Alvarez. That is not documented, but the connection between the two artists is.

The piece sits in a wide distressed cream frame over warm wood, with a toned linen mat. The verso carries the artist's name and a Los Angeles street address in pencil. See less