A pair of botanicals, both watercolor and ink on paper, including: "Whorled Milkweed" (1948) and "False Dragonshead Lion's Heart" (1947). Both matted and framed under glass.

DOA 28 x 19.25 in.

A colorful character, Elsie Sterling was born in Chicago to Yugoslavian immigrants. She received formal artistic training at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Vogue Commercial Art School. In 1928, Elsie married Dr. Richard Arthur Sterling, a questionable vaudevillian performer and reputed Johns Hopkins trained physician, who was 31 years her senior. In 1929, Richard and Elsie packed up their worldly possessions and spent the next 14 years traveling throughout the South. Elsie supported the couple with her portraits of children and pets, along with photograph tinting, painting restoration, and WPA projects (including a group of over 30 pen and ink drawings of historic places for the State Conservation Commission of Virginia.). Throughout their long travels, Elsie's main passion was documenting the many wildflowers she saw along the roadside and countryside. Her hope was to publish her drawings for the general public to enjoy and learn from. With the help of Dr. Dwight M. Moore, a botany professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, she was able to properly classify each life-size drawing. Elsie also made helpful notations on each drawing, indicating where and when each drawing was made, returning to a drawing to make additions as she traveled. Elsie died at 52 years of age in 1960. Her sister, Lottie, who had spent years traveling with Elsie, Richard, and their other sister, Pauline, retained possession of the botanicals. She attempted to have them published, as according to Elsie's wishes, but again found no takers for the project. In 1974 Lottie, and the botanicals, joined a religious commune under the leadership of Joseph Jeffers. While fleeing the police after allegations that he conspired to murder his wife, the group left Elsie's botanicals at the public library in Harlingen, Texas. They then went through several public and private collections, with many being donated to the Rogers Historical Museum in 1984. (Biographical information courtesy of Rogers Historical Museum, www.rogersarkansas.com)

$200 - 400