Afternoon Train

Title

Afternoon Train

Creator

Doris Lee
American, 1905–1983

Date

1944

Description

After graduating with an art degree in 1927 from Rockford College (today Rockford University, located just west of Chicago), Doris Lee went on to further her training at the Kansas City Art Institute and then the California School of Fine Arts, in San Francisco. In 1931, she opened a studio in New York City, but at the same time she began to summer in Woodstock, New York, where her future husband, Arnold Blanch, played a central role in the area’s vibrant art community. By the end of the decade, Lee had settled permanently in the town.

At the start of her career, Lee’s preference for capturing every day life placed her comfortably within the regionalist camp. By the later 1930s, though, her interest in the folk art she and Blanch collected began to influence her painting. Simplified forms and diminished perspective, clearly evident in Afternoon Train, imbued her work with a greater sense of naiveté. Although Lee and Blanch were annually summering in Florida by the time she drew this lithograph, it’s likely the scene reflects a winter day along the Ulster & Delaware Railroad, which included a stop in West Hurley, just a few miles south of Woodstock.

Contributor

Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, Bequest of George O. Bird

Identifier

91.5

Rights

This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.

Format

Lithograph; 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)