This is one of several just in drawings by Helen Wagner Malta (1912-1975), which I am completely taken with--gentle and sweet without being saccharine, delicate but decisive, and always subtly surprising. This is the most exuberantly colorful of the lot, and what a fantastic use of line--I find the combination of those waves of blue and green hair with those striped dresses just wonderful, and zoom in especially for the profiles of the two figures in the foreground. So good.
This and the rest from what I understand came from a sketchbook of drawings Malta did in the 1930s or so, while teaching at the Harlem Art Center and working at the New York branch of the WPA graphics division. Malta's work, which also included paintings and prints, is found in collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery.
9" x 12". Signed lower left. Excellent condition.