An elderly African American woman leans past lace curtains out of window with open pine green wooden shutters in an old building made with work red bricks. She wears a casual off white shirt and has her arms crossed resting on bright yellow and deep orange drapery hanging of the edge of the window frame. Her short greying hair reveals her age as much as the knowing no-nonsense expression of experience on her face. This painting is a departure from the subjects for which Frances Tipton Hunter is best known: puppies and smiling, rosy-cheeked children that appeared in advertisements, picture books, calendars, and covers of the Saturday Evening Post. It is not known if this painting was produced as an illustration. Hunter rose to fame and recognition in the art world as one of the most prominent female illustrators of the 20th century. Her early work captured depictions of children and pets, popular subjects of the 1920s and ’30s. Prior to her first commission for The Saturday Evening Post, for which she is most famous, Hunter’s work lined the covers and pages of periodicals such as Women’s Home Companion, Collier’s, Liberty, Good Housekeeping, and Ladies’ Home Journal. A wide variety of her work was published as advertisements, puzzles, paper dolls, and calendar art.

Woman in a Window by Frances Tipton Hunter (American) - Oil on canvas / Mid 1900s - Delaware Art Musem (Wilmington, DE) #womeninart #womanartist #art #oilpainting #womanpainter #delawareartmuseum #femaleartist #FrancesTiptonHunter #womensart #portraitofawoman #americanartist #fineart #blackwoman