An early and exceptional motor car gouache on illustration board painting by noted New York artist and illustrator Malcolm A. Strauss who specialized in genre works of early motor carriages creating posters for The Automobile Club of America showing early car race scenes from the infancy of The Motor-Age.

Above: 1908 Automobile Club of America poster by Malcom Strauss

This dates from the early 1900s and has the added attraction of a lovely Edwardian lass daringly and confidently navigating the then brand new domain of the horse-less carriage/tin-lizzie motorcar.

Painting has some print usage notations on the verso indicating it was indeed a published illustration that could have appeared as a color supplement in a newspaper of the early 1900s. The artist maintained a New York City studio were he painted portraits of the high society and was a member of The Society of Independent Artists and had several one man shows in the city.

Strauss was engaged to the popular Vaudeville Theater star Lotta Faust when she suddenly died in 1910, the artist painted a posthumous portrait of Faust. It was sold and the proceeds given to Faust’s parents at a benefit.