Frederick Witton - Portrait of a Young Woman - 1930s- Pastel AP1755

Delicate, elegant and tender: truly lovely.

Measures 7 3/4" x 11 3/4".

We found this entirely surprising article on-line about the artist:

 https://www.pulpartists.com/Witton.html

It turns out that in addition to a VERY colorful life he worked as a pulp magazine artist. It's really worth the read.

We don't get a hint of any of it from this charming portrait.

But this quote from the article does throw some light on it:

'In 1935 he visited his daughter and ex-wife in California. To finance the trip he arranged to spend a week at a department store in Oakland, California, where he drew quick-sketch portraits of customers. Each finished portrait came in a frame and cost one dollar.

One year later in 1936 he arranged a similar deal with a department store in Los Angeles, CA.

Newspaper accounts document a similar trip in 1938 to San Antonio, Texas, where he again traveled to perform a quick-sketch novelty service at a department store. He drove to these locations with a mobile home trailer hitched to his car.

According to a 1938 newspaper account, "Frederick Witton, New York artist, began his sketching in a serious way while a soldier during the World War. He has traveled through every state in the Union, painting more than 90,000 portraits, using the wax crayon sketch as a medium."

"It is his belief that wax crayon sketch is the closest approach to the oil painting that is possible in sketching. He works with colors and masses, in addition to lines, and feels he can save as much in 15 minutes through this medium as he can in an oil painting."'