Above: Framed view in beautiful period ornate gesso frame

Above: Detail

This is a most unusual screen printed serigraph created with the pochoir technique. This original mixed media work features a severe high art deco scene and is pencil signed by the very well listed Vogue magazine cover artist Helen Dryden. Beautifully framed in a handsome gesso period original 1930s art deco frame.

Above: The artists signature

Some additional info on Helen Dryden

Remembered primarily for her cover art for Vogue magazine in the early 1900s, Helen Dryden reflected various styles including Art Nouveau and Art Deco. She also created Japanese-style prints, primitive Italian painters and children’s books.

Her subjects “were rich and sensuous in color, witty and lighthearted, but also with a haughty air of elegance”. (Reed 139) One of the reasons her illustrations were popular was that they reflected popular trends and changing fashions. She started with “Vogue” in 1911, almost from its founding, and stayed until 1923. Vogue publisher Conde Nast gave her much artistic freedom.

Helen Dryden was born in Baltimore and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She first did artwork for the Strathmore papers and then took jobs in fashion advertising and costume design. After leaving “Vogue”, she had numerous advertising clients including Knox Hats, Kayser stockings, “McCalls” and “The Delineator” magazines. She also was involved in the 1937 re-design of the Studebaker automobile.

Above: Detail