:::Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts::: Artists

Edith Dimock ( 1876-1955 )

	Sweat Shop Girls in the Country - c. 1913 Watercolor, gouache and charcoal on paper 8 x 9 ¼ inches Print Click image for detailed view Contact the Gallery for more information
	< Prev \| Next >

Exhibited:

International Exhibition of Modern Art: American Painters and Sculptors, 69th Infantry Regiment Armory, New York, February 17-March 15, 1913.

Born in 1876 in West Hartford, Connecticut, Edith Dimock was the daughter of a wealthy New England textile manufacturer. She began her artistic career at the New York Art Students League where she studied for four years before working with William Merritt Chase at his New York School of Art. Most likely introduced by a mutual friend in the Robert Henri circle, she married fellow artist William Glackens in 1904. Dimock’s work, similar to the artistic and social concerns of The Eight, expresses spontaneity and an interest in the gritty realism of life.

This work was completed for and exhibited with seven others in the influential Armory Show of 1913. All eight were sold at the exhibition, two of which were purchased by the pioneer collector John Quinn. Preserved on the reverse of the watercolor, gouache and charcoal compositions are the original exhibition labels, which bear the inscriptions of the artist. Watercolors by the artist are also owned by the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia.

Sweat Shop Girls in the Country depicts seven school-age girls as they stroll along a country road, picking flowers and enjoying a light-hearted afternoon. The title of the piece, however, brings an acknowledgement of reality to an otherwise playful and charming composition. Dimock’s swift, broad strokes endow the picture with a high degree of immediacy and vigor, while her use of bright colors produces a sense of cheerfulness. For this one moment, the bleakness of the exploited girls’ lives is forgotten, swept away by the beauty and renewal of spring and its flowers.

As a group, the six works convey Dimock’s interest in depicting intimate moments in the lives of women. Completed with spontaneous brushstrokes and in a palette of light, cheery colors, they are a group of delightful and lively pictures, in which the subjects are treated with dignity and compassion.