Towhead by Josef Presser (Poland/United States, 1907-1967), gouache and pastel on artist paper, signed, circa mid 20th century, framed - 14 1/2" x 17 1/4" 
 
Presser was born in Lublin, Poland. He emigrated to the United States at the age of 12 and studied at the Boston School of the Museum of Fine Arts. His teacher, Philip L. Hale, said of Presser, "I have a genius in my class and I don't know what to say to him." After studying in Europe, Presser returned to the US and settled in Philadelphia, producing American Scene paintings, many of them circus performers. His work expressed his empathy with the working man and the down-trodden. In the 1930s, Presser painted murals as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program. He settled in New York City where he worked as a painter and teacher. He married fellow artist Agnes Hart in 1941. The couple had a studio in Woodstock, New York. Presser was a manic depressive and the inherent symptoms of the cycle, extreme highs and lows, seemed to enhance the richness, variety and depth of his work. In the 40s and 50s, Presser met and worked with the luminaries of Abstract Expressionism: De Kooning, Rothko and Pollock. Yet, his work never moved completely to abstraction. Presser died in Paris in 1967. His work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.