Peggy Bacon
American, 1895-1987
A prolific artist and author of children's books, Bacon was also known
for her satirical and sometimes devastating sketches of figures
in the New York art world of the 1920s and 1930s. In Off With Their
Heads! Bacon provided both visual
and verbal caricatures, not omitting to skewer herself. Her notes,
which accompany the self portrait shown here, read: “Pin-head,
parsimoniously covered with thin dark hair . . . prominent nose, chipmunk
teeth and no chin . . . . Personality lifeless, retiring, snippy, quietly
egotistical.”
Bacon’s witty self-portrait, Lady Artist, includes
a cat who seems as oblivious of the mouse as Bacon is of all the women
peering
at her from the windows opposite her studio. Perhaps the viewers
are considering the ironic juxtaposition of Bacon herself -- with her
hair in a bun, and wearing glasses, a demure white collar, and saddle
shoes -- and the voluptuous female nude pinned to her drawing board.
Lady Artist, 1925
Drypoint
Graphic Arts Division, Elmer Adler Collection of American Artist's
Portraits
Off With Their Heads!
Self Portrait of Peggy Bacon
New York: Robert M. McBride, 1934.
Graphic Arts Division, Gift of Frank
Jewett Mather Jr.
