Daniel Garber 1880-1958
Elsa, 1915
Charcoal on paper
14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Framed dimensions: 28 x 24 inches
Framed dimensions: 28 x 24 inches
Signed and dated lower left: Daniel Garber / 1915
Excerpted from Lance Humphries, Catalogue Raisonné: Oil paintings comprise most of Garber's known oeuvre, but over the course of his career the artist also created many works on paper, including...
Excerpted from Lance Humphries, Catalogue Raisonné:
Oil paintings comprise most of Garber's known oeuvre, but over the course of his career the artist also created many works on paper, including drawings, etchings, and pastels. In addition to being beautiful objects in their own right, these works allow us to better understand Garber's paintings. Not only were many of these pieces created using similar developmental methods, they also speak to Garber's interest in form and the careful constructions of images–in particular in regard to the drawings and etchings–as well as his appetite for exploring all the various media available to him. It is significant that the artist placed all of these types of works on paper before the public. Less formally, Garber explored the creation of decorative art objects and sculpture, largely for his own personal use, and to present as gifts to his family.
This drawing was exhibited under the present title many times during the artist's lifetime and depicts Elsa Laubach (1889–1974), who is also portrayed in cat. D 168. Laubach, a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, became an illustrator and muralist and was known after her marriage to architect Magnus Jemne as Elsa Jemne. The sitter is shown seated on the bench used in the oils The Studio Wall and Portrait of Tanis (cats. P 322, P 324). This sheet was said to date to 1913 when it was exhibited at PAFA in 1945, but it is more likely that the date reads 1915.
Oil paintings comprise most of Garber's known oeuvre, but over the course of his career the artist also created many works on paper, including drawings, etchings, and pastels. In addition to being beautiful objects in their own right, these works allow us to better understand Garber's paintings. Not only were many of these pieces created using similar developmental methods, they also speak to Garber's interest in form and the careful constructions of images–in particular in regard to the drawings and etchings–as well as his appetite for exploring all the various media available to him. It is significant that the artist placed all of these types of works on paper before the public. Less formally, Garber explored the creation of decorative art objects and sculpture, largely for his own personal use, and to present as gifts to his family.
This drawing was exhibited under the present title many times during the artist's lifetime and depicts Elsa Laubach (1889–1974), who is also portrayed in cat. D 168. Laubach, a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, became an illustrator and muralist and was known after her marriage to architect Magnus Jemne as Elsa Jemne. The sitter is shown seated on the bench used in the oils The Studio Wall and Portrait of Tanis (cats. P 322, P 324). This sheet was said to date to 1913 when it was exhibited at PAFA in 1945, but it is more likely that the date reads 1915.
Provenance
The artist;Estate of the artist, 1958;
Tanis Garber Page, by 1978;
By descent to a private collection, before 1990;
Bianco Gallery, Buckingham, Pennsylvania, January 2000;
Jim's of Lambertville;
The Collection of Bud and Judy Newman, New Hope, Pennsylvania
Exhibitions
Drawings by Daniel Garber, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., March 23–April 17, 1920, cat. 12The Twenty-seventh Annual Exhibition of American Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, May 29–July 31, 1920, cat. 29
The Eighteenth Annual Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, November 7–December 12, 1920, cat. 654
Daniel Garber: Drawings and Paintings, Tricker Galleries, New York, January 17–February 10, 1938, cat. 16
Special Exhibition of Drawings and Etchings by Daniel Garber, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., October 2–31, 1940, cat. 16; Exhibition traveled to Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, Norfolk, Virginia, c. December 1940–January 5, 1941
Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by Daniel Garber, N.A., Woodmere Art Gallery, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, November 1–22, 1942, cat. 42
Daniel Garber, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Etchings, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, April 3–29, 1945, cat. 47