Watercolor an guache on paper, 1942, signed at lower right, watermark to paper at upper left corner, inscribed en verso, unframed.

Sheet size 15 3/4 x 23 in.

From a Private Collection, Eastern North Carolina

Lee Hansley Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Mary Alice Leath Thomas was born in Hazelhurst, Georgia. In the early 1930s, she had graduated from Georgia State College for Women and was working towards her master's degree at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She was appointed assistant professor of art at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and also served as president of the North Carolina Art Teacher’s Association.

In 1940, Thomas enrolled in summer classes at the University of Chicago. Here she met Howard Thomas, who would become her second husband. The new couple moved to Athens, Georgia, where Howard Thomas was appointed professor of art at the University of Georgia. Mary Leath also taught at the university, and served as consultant for the Atlanta school system and the South Carolina Department of Education.

Mary Leath Thomas' early work were lyrical and atmospheric depictions of the southern landscape. In 1941, after viewing a retrospective of Paul Klee's work at the Museum of Modern Art, she began working a more modern style. Her work was well received and has been exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, High Museum, Georgia Museum of Art and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

This work has been exhibited in the Howard and Mary Thomas Traveling Exhibit at the Women's College (UNCG) Greensboro, North Carolina; and the Mary Leath Thomas Memorial Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1962.

Overall toning, some tape from prior mounting to edges and verso, minor creasing and wear to corners.