Victor Joseph Gatto (American, 1893–1965)At the RacesSigned bottom right, oil on Masonite.Executed mid-1950s.12 3/8 x 31 in. (31.4 x 78.7cm)together with:The LighthouseSigned bottom right, oil on canvas.Executed 1940s.14 x 16 in. (35.6 x 40.6cm)together with:Nude BuildersSigned bottom center, oil on paperboard.Executed 1950s.9 x 11 3/4 in. (22.9 x 29.9cm)together with:Jonah and the WhaleSigned bottom left and bottom right, titled bottom center, oil on artist's board.Executed 1940s.8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4cm)Unframedtogether with:Horse and FoalSigned bottom left, oil on artist's board.Executed 1950s.8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4cm)(5)PROVENANCE:The Artist.The Collection of Sterling and Dorothy Strauser.Private Collection, Princeton, New Jersey (by descent in family).note:"Sterling told the story that Gatto always said he 'wasn't no set-up painter like Strauser.' He said everything he painted came directly from his imagination." - the Artist's granddaughter."The primitive, like Gatto, goes without any rules at all. He draws it all from himself. The intensity of it is what it depends upon...We think he was the best example of a twentieth-century primitive that we ever saw." - Sterling Strauser in an interview with Lynda Hartigan of the National Museum of American Art, August 10, 1989.