Oil on canvas dated 1949. Girl with apple. 36 x 30 in. (canvas), 42 x 36 in. (framed).She was born on the Lower East Side of New York City to Russian immigrant parents, Rudolph (Joseph) and Sarah Elkan. Her father was employed in a dry goods store shortly after her birth, and was described as being employed in "real estate" in 1920. Meltzer's mother directed her to academics and music, but a high school teacher encouraged Meltzer's art work. Meltzer wrote, "I lost no time trying to enroll in the Cooper Union Art School. Miss Reynolds, the principal, informed me that I was under age for admission requirements. With some persuasion she promised to show my drawings to the dean. He passed on them favorable and an exception was made. I was admitted and within three months I was appointed pupil-teacher in drawing from cast class."[2] Meltzer was unable to afford oil paints until she married her childhood sweetheart, Sam Meltzer, photographer and teacher. Meltzer studied at the Art Student League for a time and won a number of awards, including First Prize from the Audubon Artists group in 1942. Her first one-person show was at the Vendome Gallery in New York in 1940. She had numerous other one-person shows through 1967. Meltzer founded the Anna E. Meltzer School of Art in 1940, and in 1959 her students founded the Anna E. Meltzer Art Society. She also taught art at the Extension Division of CCNY from 1951-1960.Meltzer's paintings were praised by some of the leading art critics. Helen Boswell of Art Digest wrote in 1944, "Anna MeltzerÂ… goes below the surface in her characterizations and gives an inner vision which lifts any artist up to higher spiritual levels. Not too often encountered, this is a special giftÂ… An amazing draughtsman with a strong touch and good solid color, Mrs. Meltzer has started on what looks like an unusual and highly artistic career of fine figure painting."[2] Emily Genauer, critic for the New York World Telegram, wrote, "Her work is full of a robust, healthy flavorÂ… extremely well drawn and modeled. Her color has a certain vibrant strength. She uses it with richly expressive effect."[2]In reviewing her one-person show in 1946, New York Times art critic, Howard Devree, wrote, "Warmth and light permeate the paintings of Ann E. Meltzer at the Newhouse Gallery. The sometimes soft, sometimes pebbly surfaces glow with diffused color."[4]Meltzer's later work shifted from realism to more abstract styles - first "spectralism" then "prismatism". Her work can be found in the collections of many museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, Georgia Museum of Fine Arts, and Phoenix Museum of Fine Arts. "Although [Meltzer] had many one-person shows and was well regarded by contemporary artists, critics, and collector … her contributions to American Art are about to be erased by the passage of time." A Virtual Museum of Art for Anna Meltzer has been established on-line (www.aemmuseum.org) to forestall that outcome. She died in Copake, New York in 1974, survived by sons Raymond and Herbert.Sources:(1) www.ancestry.com(2) Art Digest, Marge Webb, "Introducing Anna E. Meltzer," March 1, 1944.(3) www.aemmuseum.org(4) The New York Times, Howard Devree, November 17, 1946.(5) The New York Times, "Anna E. Meltzer is Dead; Painter and Teacher," April 25, 1974.

Good condition, minor crackle