SOLD William L'Engle (1884-1957) Large Graphite Sketch of Martha Graham Dancer, c. 1930

It's not all that often I purchase works by known artists, especially from the "fine arts" world, but today a few, for me embodying the beauty of a sensitive, confident, gestural line.  This, as with the drawings of cats by C. Bertram Hartman, I purchased from a dealer in Cambridge, MA, and this one, though unsigned, I know is by William L'Engle (American, 1884-1957), c. 1930, its subject a Martha Graham dancer. (Timely, as the Martha Graham company is celebrating its 100th year this year, and notable, as dancers were a very frequent subject in L'Engle's work of the 20s and 30s, with the L’Engles spending their winters at the Park Avenue apartment of Lucy’s father, a few blocks from the Martha Graham dance studio--in addition to a lot of time in jazz clubs in Harlem!) What a time and place to be and to be immersed in, and what a beauty of a drawing here I think, with the double rendering of this dancer's feet lending an added sense of movement to it all. 

There is a ton out there on both William and Lucy L'Engle, significant early American Modernists and disciples of Cubism, were part of the New York City, Paris, Provincetown art movements and a generation of artists working abroad in the years immediately following the public debut of Cubism in Paris. They contributed to the introduction of early Modernism to the Provincetown art colony and its history. Throughout their lives, they both painted constantly and produced a large volume of artwork in the summer season in Truro, with winters in New York City, St. Augustine, Florida, Cuba, and beyond, that are held in major museums and collections. Here is a link to a wonderful pdf biography of William and his artist wife Lucy from the L'Engle estate.) And here is a link to a graphite drawing from around the same time as this one, same scale, that one of dancers in Harlem, held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. 

16 3/4" x 13 3/4". Good condition. There are a few very small holes in the paper, visible if holding to light but which mostly disappear when laid against a mat--documented. I have photographed it in two different lighting situations--the second group of photos in florescent light giving a heightened sense of the paper itself, including those small holes and some light toning spots/stains along the bottom edge of the paper.