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Frederick Frary Fursman (1874-1943) painted and taught in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Michigan and made notable contributions to the development of impressionism. He is especially remembered for founding the Saugatuck Summer School of Painting which for more than 30 years was an important influence on generations of regional artists. As an instructor at the UW-Milwaukee Art Department, he formed a lifelong friendship with Elsa Ulbricht who would succeed him as director of the Saugatuck Summer School of Painting. This work was purchased for the Milwaukee Public Library in honor of both Fursman and Ulbricht, who is displayed nearby in the Historical Rotunda Gallery.
On the advice of Elsa Ulbricht, the Charles Allis Art Library, then part of the Milwaukee Public Library System, held an important exhibition of Fursman’s work in Milwaukee in 1969. This work was also exhibited as part of a wide-ranging retrospective exhibit featuring more than one hundred paintings by the artist at the UWM Art Museum in 1991. The artist is represented in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
This work is a notable contribution to the Historical Rotunda Gallery, both as an expressive character study and as an important depiction of a working-class woman in the 1920s. Fursman also innovates with the depiction of light and color, reflecting his career-spanning embrace of impressionism.