Dame Laura Knight, pastel on paper, Dame Laura Knight (British, 1877-1970), Portrait of show girls at makeup table, signed lower right, sheet mounted to mat, framed under glass, 15.5"h x 10"w (sight), 23"h x 17"w (frame)

Provenance: Property from the Collection of Linn Howard Selby

Notes/Literature: Linn Howard Selby, building on the collection begun in 1925 by her mother, Loretta Hines Howard, continued the tradition of presenting the elaborate Nativity scene at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art each Christmas. Beginning in 1957, more than two hundred 18th-century Neapolitan creche figures have been given to the Museum by the family. The families collection has also been displayed at the White House during both the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations, with President Kennedy participating in arranging the Bethlehem scene.
Loretta Hines Howard was an American artist (1904-1982) who studied at the Ashcan School of Robert Henri. Her paintings are included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art and her papers are held by the Smithsonian. Her home at 36 East 74th St was a 6-level double brownstone that had an extensive collection of art and collectibles.

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