Minnie Holsinger, The Farmer's Wife 29, Pauline Krueztfeldt

This is image #29 of my on-going series sharing the pages of the scrap book of Minnie Holsinger, which she collected in the 30s and 40s while she and my Grandfather Charlie Holsinger were saving to buy a farm.

https://picclick.co.uk sez:

“Pauline Kruetzfeldt -Artist

Birth place: Holstein, Germany Date unknown. 

Died Oct 29, 1960 Saratoga Springs NY

Lived in Fort Plain, NY and New York City, and Near Saratoga Springs NY

Profession: Painter, designer, illustrator

Studied: at New York City Art Students League with George Bridgman, Ben Foster.

Exhibited: Horticultural Soc. NY, 1930 (prize); S. Indp. A., 1931-32; Salons of Am., 1934; NGA; Carnegie Inst., 

1943; Albany Inst. Hist. & A., 1946; Munson-Williams-Proctor Inst.,Utica NY 1946; Nicola Squillaci Art Galleries , Schenectady Ny 1962.

 Illustrator, American Home, Better Homes & Gardens, Woman's Home Companion, 1936, Country Gentleman, 1937, other magazines.”

Today’s post is quite different than yesterdays floral arrangement by Nelson Grofe. 

Grofe’s painting, to my unsubtle eyes, could have been painted in the 17th or 18th century. I’m thinking Zubaran, or (new find while image hunting for this blog) Adriaen Coorte, a Danish 17th/18th still-life artist .

Ms. Kruetzfeldt is on a completely different trip, at least as far as this painting is concerned. The artist is going for a poster-like effect, almost as if designing for a quilt (made especially overt by placing a subtle grid over the red/orange background. One commonality with the earlier artists: the butterfly. Insects were a common symbol in old European still-lifes, referring to decay and the impermanence of all this in this profane world.

Just for laughs, here’s the only other work by Kruetzfeld that I was able to find on the web.