Elsa Falk Escherich (1888-1977) American, Still Life Oil on Board. Signed lower middle. Depicts grapes on the vine with a bumblebee flying past. 

Condition: Good. 

Overall: 11 1/4 X 14 1/2 in. 

Sight: 8 1/4 X 11 1/4 in. 

#3899 . 

Elsa Falk Escherich was born in Davenport, Iowa on March 20th, 1888. She went to Chicago in the mid 1900s to study at the Art Institute under Harry Mills Walcott. Walcott encouraged her and introduced her to fellow teacher John Vanderpoel, who gave her private lessons. She traveled to New York to take further lessons at the Art Students League, where she met and was heavily influenced by the famed portrait artist Charles Webster Hawthorne. He connected her with a publisher, who invited her to Los Angeles to submit her art and story ideas for children’s books. After settling in California in 1911 she crafted four books with both illustrations and words, and illustrated works for three other authors. One of the non-children’s works she did was graphic designs for the Escherich Brothers Construction Company, which is how she met and fell in love with her husband of sixty years, Carl Escherich. They moved to Pasadena, where they had two sons and a daughter. Her first solo exhibition was at the California Art Club in 1917, where she was invited back the next two years to present new works. Her pieces at the group exhibitions of the Freelance Art League in 1925 and West Coast Arts in 1927 were both well received, but her experiments with abstract imagery and new materials at the Artists Fiesta in 1931 were less so. She exhibited infrequently after that, often gifting pieces to friends of the family and local charities. She continued to paint for most of her life, but began to lose her eyesight in the 1960s. Her husband passed away in January of 1977, and she died six months later on July 29th, 1977. Her work is appreciated for its place in the history of California art, bringing East Coast post-impressionism to the West and, and can be found in many private collections and museums around California, particularly in the Los Angeles area.

Good.