Portrait of a beautiful young woman. Oil on canvas, inscribed on verso "By Albert Pels, NYC...(on reverse)...Given to Clyde Singer...1955", framed in a newer ornate frame with a linen liner, canvas size approx. 22" x 16", with framing overall approx. 30-3/4" x 24-3/4". Additionally, there is a small color sketch on the reverse, upside down, of a black person. The back of the canvas is covered with an acetate sheet so the inscription and the sketch are visible. This is one of the prettiest examples of Pels' work to come on the auction market in recent years, exhibiting a delicacy and sensitivity in its depiction of the young sitter.
Pels was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and studied at the Cincinnati Academy of Art and the University of Cincinnati. He also studied at the Art Students League in New York under Thomas Hart Benton, and pursued the direction of painting in the "Social Realism" mode. He worked as a WPA artist in the 1930s, painting murals, and exhibited extensively across the country from the 1930s-60s. Pels lived in New York for a great deal of his career. He founded the Albert Pels School of Art and held the position of Director into the late 1980's when the school was sold to the Fashion Institute of New York.
1,500/2,500
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