BELL, MARY

Happy Drunk. Colored pencil on cream wove paper, picturing an infantile looking gentleman sitting on the grass with a couple of bottles at his side and a glass in his hand, with several birds and some strange little animals looking on, 20 1/2 x 15 1/4 inches, Initialed in the left portion of the image; Autograph title and note on a slip of paper tipped to the top of the image (as was usual with Bell's works); matted. Boston, circa 1935-40 Mary Bell was a gifted "outsider" artist working mainly in the 1930s and 1940s. She was a domestic in the Boston household of Gaston Lachaise's sister-in-law. The Beinecke Library at yale University has a large holding of her work, and from the available correspondence it appears that Bell was a popular artist. Amongst her admirers was Gertrude Stein, who owned at least one and possibly several of Bell's works.