Description

Description: Almost a year (Dec 18th, 1946) after the Haitian government overthrow, the artist Elizabeth O’Neill Verner wakes up at 3 a. m. to catch a plane for San Domingo to spend Christmas with her children and writes “a little line” to a friend (Mrs. Dwight Robinson) about the “precious package,” the “exquisite” “little work of art” she has received: “Of course it deserves [sic] almost demands a poem . . .  I simply love it and know I don’t deserve it which makes it that much more wonderful!” She adds that her daughter, Beth, has written to her “frank[ly] for the first time in months,” that “anti aircraft guns were in the Gov’s palace, a gunboat in the harbor dressed up like a yacht and that rumors of a revolution were flying.” Verner wants to get there “before anything [sic] broke.” Signed “Gratefully yours / Elizabeth O’Neill Verner / Dec. 18th 1946”

Two-page autograph letter signed is written on a sheet of 8” x  5” ivory paper. Included is the stamped transmittal envelope addressed to: “Mrs. Dwight Robinson, Wings Neck, Pocasset, Mass.”

Elizabeth O’Neill Verner (1883-1979) studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts with Thomas Anschutz. She is often considered the matriarch of the Charleston Renaissance, which flourished during the first half of the 20th century. Her work is in the collection of many noted art institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Condition: In very good condition.