Berry Pickers, 1938

Provenance

The artist

Celia Katz Mendelsohn, New York, New York, gift from above

Private collection, New York, New York, by descent from above

Sale, Christie’s, New York, New York, March 2, 2006, lot 130, from above

Jay I. Kislak, Florida, acquired from above

Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, New York, November 22, 2021, lot 31, from above (sold to benefit the Kislak Family Foundation)

Note

This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work by Betsy James Wyeth.

In the 1920s, Celia Katz Mendelsohn founded American Artists, located at 67 West 44th Street in New York, a firm which promoted artists and illustrators like Wyeth, Harold Anderson (1894–1973), and Andrew Loomis (1892–1959), among others.

Jay I. Kislak was the founder of one of the country’s largest private mortgage banks, a philanthropist, and collector of over 4,000 books, manuscripts, maps, and artifacts pertaining to the history and cultures of Mesoamerica, Florida, the Caribbean, now in the Library of Congress. His art collection included examples by important impressionist, modern, and contemporary artists.