My mother, Angela, was, quite frankly, a very attractive blonde woman, who got a great deal of attention wherever she went. Although she was quite a dresser, she didn’t believe in investing in costly jewelry. She thought that synthetic stones would eventually destroy the diamond market over time (so diamonds were certainly NOT her best friend!). Instead, mom focused most of her investing into American art, especially regional artists from where she lived. Her favorite American artists were John Sloan and Thomas Hart Benton (sold by now) and she loved American bronze sculpture. As an art historian, I did much work on the Pennsylvania Impressionists and she collected a number of them, like Charles Rosen, William Lathrop, Walter Baum, and Mary Elizabeth Price. She also liked New Hope and Lambertville Modernists, like Elsie Driggs (whom we knew personally) and her husband, Lee Gatch, Charles F. Ramsey, Louis Stone, and Charles Evans. Living in New Jersey, she collected Newark School artists, including Henry Gasser, Bernard Gussow, James Carlin, and Frank C. Herbst. She purchased the Gussow many years ago from the Rabin and Krueger Gallery in Newark (long since gone, but the picture retains its gallery label on the reverse). Rabin and Krueger had probably been New Jersey’s leading art gallery. She bought the Herbst paintings in a 1970s auction from the artist's estate sale, which was held at the Mayflower Auction in Orange, New Jersey; Herbst had lived in nearby South Orange. My mother cherished art, and these paintings, all her life. I hope that they bring as much excitement and enjoyment to their new owners as they brought to her and her family over the years.
