The Flowered Gown – a portrait by Edna Crompton
This is a beautiful oil on canvas painting by noted female artist and illustrator Edna Crompton. A glamorous portrait of a flapper girl wearing a flowered gown with a red shawl and green feathered hand fan, we believe this piece to be one of the paintings that was exhibited in Crompton’s one woman show “Girls of America” at Beard Art Galleries in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
We have not taken the paper off the back of the painting to inspect for notations, but this piece is done in the same style as other paintings known to have been exhibited.
This has been signed by the artist in the upper right corner of the painting. In fine condition the canvas currently is a little loose on the original pine stretcher bars, housed in a gold painted wood frame that beautifully enhances the deep golden tones and muted colors of the canvas.
This illustration comes from the collection of esteemed illustration art collector Norman Platnick.
About the artist: Edna Crompton
Crompton was a prolific cover illustrator for American mainstream publications including The Saturday Evening Post and Redbook magazine. She also worked creating calendar art for the Osborne Calendar Company conceiving modernist flapper girl series of images with skillfully composed portraits that were marked with snappy titles such as “Girls You Can’t Forget” and “Girls of Today”.
The Legacy of Norman Platnick
In his New York Times obituary, Norman Platnick’s son Will said that his father had three passions in life, his wife Nancy, spiders, and collecting.
Few individuals have the chance to leave a mark like Norm’s in even one field, let alone two. But Norm managed to be both a celebrated scientist, and one of the most influential lay historians of illustration art.
Under his imprint Enchantment Ink, Norm researched, wrote, and published collectors guides to artists like Rolf Armstrong and Earl Christy. We at Grapefruit Moon Gallery rely on these books in our work, and they are now all freely available as PDFs through the Enchantment Ink website.
Norm’s expertise was a gift, his friendship was a treasure, and his legacy is immeasurable. He is missed.
