NELIA GARDNER WHITE ARCHIVE OF ORIGINAL ARTWORK, PORTRAITS, LANDSCAPES, AND LITERARY SKETCHBOOKS
Item #135
An extensive archive of more than 100 original drawings and paintings by American author Nelia Gardner White (1894–1957) of New Hartford, Connecticut. The collection includes pencil and ink drawings, chalk pastels, watercolors, gouaches, and oil paintings, together with several bound sketchbooks and drawing pads. The works are housed in a contemporary portfolio measuring approximately 19" × 24.5"; individual artworks range from approximately 6.5" × 6.5" to 15" × 18".
Portraiture forms a substantial part of the archive. White depicted children, men and women, family or acquaintances, and herself—or women who closely resemble one another and may represent a sequence of self-portraits. Several of the strongest works are boldly colored portraits of women, including a striking sitter in a vivid red garment, paired profile studies against contrasting green and brown backgrounds, and expressive studies employing fields of yellow, blue, and black.
One sketchbook is devoted largely to portrait studies of prominent contemporary writers and cultural figures. Individual drawings are identified in White’s hand and include W. H. Auden, Ivan Bunin, Walter Mehring, W. Somerset Maugham, Vilhelm Moberg, and Oscar Levant. These portraits provide particularly interesting evidence of White’s engagement with the international literary world beyond her own published work.
The archive also includes landscapes and architectural subjects: rolling hills, snow-covered roads and country houses, Colonial-style domestic interiors, and an atmospheric nocturnal harvest scene with sheaves of grain beneath a full moon. Also present is a painted preliminary design for the cover of one of White’s own books.
A number of the works are signed or initialed “Nelia Gardner White.” The remaining pieces are consistent in style, materials, and provenance. Her explorations of color, shadow, viewpoint, and facial expression are often quite arresting, and the collection documents a sustained private art practice rather than an incidental group of occasional sketches.
White began publishing regularly during the 1920s and wrote fiction for children, young adults, and adult readers. Her work appeared in such widely circulated periodicals as McCall’s, Pictorial Review, Good Housekeeping, and Ladies’ Home Journal. Her 1948 novel No Trumpet Before Him, a work addressing ministry, race, and social injustice, received the $8,000 Westminster Fiction Award and was favorably reviewed at the time. The novel remains in print in modern editions. Ohio University’s contemporary newspaper archive confirms the Westminster award, while Kirkus Reviews records its contemporary critical reception.
An unusually personal and substantial archive illuminating the visual imagination of a successful twentieth-century woman writer. Its combination of signed artwork, possible self-portraits, identified portraits of international literary figures, landscapes, domestic interiors, and book-related design work offers substantial research potential in women’s studies, American literary history, visual culture, and the relationship between private artistic practice and professional authorship.
The works are housed in a later portfolio and include both loose sheets and bound sketchbooks and pads. Condition varies, with expected toning, handling wear, occasional edge tears and losses, detached sheets, and other evidence of studio use. Several sketchbooks show wear at their bindings and edges. Overall, the archive has remained together and retains a strong sense of its original working context.
Price: $1,750.00