Lilian Westcott Hale: Black Eyed Susans

Screenshot_2018-11-23 2008_NYR_02058_0046_000() jpg (JPEG Image, 1997 × 1805 pixels) - Scaled (54%) — Lilian Westcott Hale (1881-1963), *Black Eyed Susans,* signed ‘Lilian Westcott Hale’ (upper right), charcoal and colored pencil on paper, 22½ x 25½ in. (57.2 x 64.8 cm.), Source: Christie’s

Charcoal Portraiture “Without Rival”

A gifted draftsman, Lilian Westcott Hale was widely admired for her charcoal style, characterized by the use of fine, vertical strokes.

Hale was a consummate portraitist, particularly in the medium of charcoal, with a contemporary critic writing, “in her drawing it is safe to say that she is without a rival…Mrs. Hale’s drawings disclose a sensitive beauty…Her shading is obtained by an exquisite mingling of the dark and light masses, this neutrality serving to emphasize the forced high-lights and the depths of the blackness which take on richness.” As demonstrated by the present work, “In her black and white portraiture, Mrs. Hale is most successful.” (R.V.S. Berry, “Lillian Westcott Hale–Her Art,” The American Magazine of Art, vol. XVIII, no. 2, February 1927, pp. 67-68)

Click for Enlarged Detail:

Lilian Westcott Hale (1881-1963), Black Eyed Susans, signed ‘Lilian Westcott Hale’ (upper right), charcoal and colored pencil on paper, 22½ x 25½ in. (57.2 x 64.8 cm.), Source: Christie’s, (detail)

Lilian Westcott Hale (1881-1963), Black Eyed Susans, signed ‘Lilian Westcott Hale’ (upper right), charcoal and colored pencil on paper, 22½ x 25½ in. (57.2 x 64.8 cm.), Source: Christie’s

Lilian Westcott Hale (1881-1963), Black Eyed Susans, signed ‘Lilian Westcott Hale’ (upper right), charcoal and colored pencil on paper, 22½ x 25½ in. (57.2 x 64.8 cm.), Source: Christie’s