One of two watercolor sketches by American artist Samuel Wood Gaylor (1883-1957) today, found at Brimfield this summer; the dealer I bought them from had purchased a body of work by Gaylor and his wife Adelaide Lawson from a one time neighbor of the couple on Long Island. This portrait is unsigned, but a very similar larger portrait of the same subject was sold by Swann Galleries in 2021; I presume this was done as a sketch in advance of that one (Link to auction record here.) Emblematic of his watercolors of the period; there is lots out there about Gaylor and his work (which was included in the 1913 Armory Show, critical in establishing American Modernism), including a wonderful, expansive 2021 review by Roberta Smith for the NY Times about a solo exhibition of his large scale paintings at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington NY.

8 3/4" x 5 1/8". Watercolor on bond paper. Some creases and a small tear to lower right, as documented.