Lady Artist

1925

Lady Artist, 1925. Peggy Bacon (American, 1895–1987). Drypoint; platemark: 15.2 x 10.1 cm (6 x 4 in.); sheet: 29.7 x 23.4 cm (11 11/16 x 9 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride 1930.537 Having studied with both George Bellows and John Sloan, Peggy Bacon was one of a growing number of women who sought independence and professional success in America’s cities. In this self-portrait, she portrayed herself with her etching needle poised on a copperplate. The crowded domestic setting invites her audience to see what it means to be an artist and a woman, with curious neighbors peering in and an inquisitive spider, like an omnipresent observer, above. While the easel and floor display drawings of a nude and a portrait—traditional art subjects—the copperplate reveals a more ordinary subject: the bare outline of a cat. The artist in this print is using an etching needle to draw a composition onto a copperplate.