Mabel Dwight American (1876-1955) "Old House", Taos, New Mexico, 1929 lithograph pencil signed and dated lower right. Biography from William R Talbot Fine Art: A very important print maker of the Depression Era, Mabel Dwight is known primarily for her Social Realist images of New York City—often satirical depictions crowded with comic and tragic figures. Mabel Dwight (1876-1955) was born in Cincinnati and raised in New Orleans and San Francisco where she attended the Mark Hopkins School of Fine Art. Born Mabel Jacque Williamson, she was married to the artist Eugene Higgins for some time after moving to Greenwich Village in 1903. Following their separation, she assumed the name Dwight, and became a founding member of the influential Whitney Studio Club. It was not until 1926, at the age of 52, that Dwight found her medium in lithography when she went to Paris to study with the print maker Cuchatel. Her work was soon recognized with reproductions in Vanity Fair, a national touring exhibition, and prominence among artists represented by the Weyhe Gallery in New York City. Howard Cook, who was also represented by Weyhe Gallery, likely influenced other artists such as Dwight to visit New Mexico at the time (Adams). During the Great Depression, Dwight also participated in the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Dwight's artworks are found in a number of important collections, including the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Harvard University Art Museums, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., the Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Library of Congress. Another copy of the present print forms part of the collection of the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque. Refs.: Adams, Printmaking in New Mexico 1880-1990, p. 36, pl. 30; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, An American Collection, p. 230; Georgia Museum of Art, The American Scene on Paper, p. 85-91; National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Permanent Collection, nmwa.org; Wolff, AngloModern, p. 31. 10"H x 14"W (image), 17 1/4"H x 21 1/4"W (frame)