Lot 40: Drayton, Grace. Original watercolor, ink & gouache

Drayton, Grace. Original watercolor, ink & gouache drawing of two paper dolls for the opera Carmen and two additional outfits. 26x18, archivally matted and framed under Plexiglas. c.1920 Original watercolor design for paper dolls, one as Carmen in the opera of the same name, with two additional outfits, the other of toreador in full regalia. The dolls share many features, both are chubby-cheeked an very reminiscent of Drayton's Campbell Soup Kids, from which she gained her most enduring fame. Grace Drayton, at times, through marriages, Grace Gebbie and Grace Wiederseim, 1877-1935, was one of the first and most successful female cartoonists. Among her creations were the series 'Bobby Blake' and 'Dolly Drake' for the Philadelphia Press; 'The Terrible Tales of Captain Kiddo', in collaboration with her sister, Margaret G. Hays; 'The Pussycat Princess,' and of course the much-loved advertisements for Campbell Soup, for which she never received credit. The present example is unsigned. Some tiny holes in the board, still fine or nearly so.