Title: Dancer.
Artist: Eleanor Modrakowska (1879-1956)
Etching, 1937.
Signed in pencil. Dated within the plate.
Image size 11 7/8 x 8 13/16" (301 x 224 mm).

Eleanor Modrakowska was born in College Point, New York in 1879. She was a painter and etcher who painted mainly portraits, landscapes, and florals with some ventures into modernism. At a young age she went to Europe where she immediately developed a love for art and frequently visited museums in Florence and Munich. At age 14 she had her first teacher, the Czechoslovakian artist Anton Azbe. She was also at least partially influenced by the emerging modernism in both Germany and France, as some of her work indicates. Upon her return to the US, she studied in New York at the Art Students League. Modrakowska became well-known for bold, vital brush strokes and her use of brilliant colors. She was mainly a realist, but she had productive excursions into modernism. She was a member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, the Society of American Etchers, and the Chicago Society of Etchers. She lived for unspecified times in Colorado, Wisconsin and Lake Placid, N.Y. besides her apparently longest residence in Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y. She also spent some time, perhaps years, in both Paris and Munich. From dates on some of her artwork, she was in Munich in 1908 and 1914, with questionable time periods in between visits/stays. Among other venues and exhibitions, she exhibited at the Kraushaar Gallery in New York. Her dry point self-portrait (Reflection) dating from 1936 is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It was a gift from the Chicago Society of Etchers. As with many a worthy artist, much of her history has been lost.

Condition: Very good condition, no tears, stains, or matte lines.