Drawn to Purpose by Martha H. Kennedy

Author:Martha H. Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2018-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Fig. 6.1. Peggy Bacon. Djuna Barnes, ca. 1935. Conté crayon pencil.

Peggy Bacon (1895–1987), one of the few women in this field to receive recognition during her lifetime, initially had a career in painting in mind when she began her fine arts training. While studying at the Art Students League in New York, she began producing satirical drawings and in 1918 several appeared in Bad News, the school’s humor magazine. The following year she published her first book, The True Philosopher and Other Cat Tales. Bacon both wrote and illustrated this collection of whimsical stories about the bonds between cats and their humans and the positive qualities of these animals that she adored. During the late 1920s and 1930s, Bacon produced biting, well-drawn caricatures of notable New York personalities, and exhibitions of these drawings drew critical, appreciative attention. Undoubtedly such notice of her work contributed to her receiving, in 1933, a Guggenheim Fellowship, which she used to create and publish a collection of caricatures of art world figures, entitled Off with Their Heads! (1934).7 This highly successful work paired her visually stunning drawings and insightful commentaries and ensured her a lasting place as an important American caricaturist. Art historian Wendy Wick Reaves notes that by the time Bacon published these drawings, she “had honed her skills into a delicate balance between satiric distortion and affectionate mockery … [and the accompanying words] reveal the keenness of her observations and explain the meaning of her visual exaggerations.”8 This point is well taken in Bacon’s original drawing of the lesbian writer Djuna Barnes (ca. 1934) (fig. 6.1), and the closely related caricature published in Off with Their Heads! Both show Barnes wearing a mannish jacket, beret-like hat, and exaggerated features.9 The original drawing has a softer, more portrait-like quality than the version published in Bacon’s book. The upswept hair and simplified, more boldly outlined lapels strengthen the impression of a dynamic, sharp personality. Bacon’s accompanying published caption reinforces this impression: “An elegant head lifted on a slender neck and long aristocratic body. Peach-blond hair with ripples in it, sharply tilted, scornful nose. Light eyes in shadowy hollows with a firm, bare gaze like a Siamese cat. Mouth forms an immobile ellipse, a trifle Hapsburg. Gives the effect of a solitary wading-bird, indifferent, poised and insulated, arrested in a long pause.”10

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