Sybil Gibson (American, 1908-1995), Portrait of a Red Haired Woman

Watercolor and tempera on brown grocery bag, 1993, signed and dated at lower right, matted and framed below glass.

Sight size 21 3/4 x 17 in.; Frame dimensions 28 x 23 in.

From the Estate of the late Susan C. Frankenberg, Hillsborough, North Carolina

Sybil Gibson was an American self-taught folk artist from Alabama known for her delicate, dreamlike paintings created with on brown paper bags. Beginning her artistic career in her fifties after working as a teacher, she produced images of faces, figures, and nature scenes that often conveyed deep a sense of fleeting memory. Despite personal hardships, including periods of homelessness, Gibson’s work gained national recognition and is now held in major collections like the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She is remembered as a key figure in 20th-century outsider art for her spontaneous, expressive style.

Creasing to the bag, likely from its prior use, slightly loose in frame.