Woman in a Red Jacket by Elmer Plummer, Oil on Canvas, Original Frame P3560

This confident, closely observed portrait comes from Elmer Plummer circa 1938, a Redlands-born artist who trained at the Chouinard Art Institute under Millard Sheets and went on to a long career as a Disney artist, contributing to Fantasia, Dumbo, and the studio's golden-age features. Plummer is best remembered today for his California Regionalist watercolors of the 1930s, so an oil portrait from this same period offers a rarer look at his work in a different medium.

The sitter is shown three-quarter length in a wide, dark-brimmed hat and a red jacket worn over a white blouse tied at the collar, seated against a plain interior wall with a cane-backed chair behind her. Plummer's brushwork is loose and assured, especially in the sweep of the hat and the folds of the red jacket, while the face is handled with more restraint, giving the sitter a direct, steady gaze that anchors the composition. The palette — warm cream walls, deep red, soft grey-greens — has held up nicely, and there's a nice tension between the painterly looseness of the clothing and the careful modeling of the features.

The painting remains in its original frame, a distressed and stenciled softwood surround that suits the period of the work well, though buyers should note the expected wear consistent with its age. Signed lower left, "E. Plummer," with a date.

Measures 20" x 24", in frame 25" x 29"