Sublime and contemplative Study of Female Nude in Pastel by the noted female American artist, Lena Gurr. Lena Gurr (1897 - 1992), a noted one of the few female NYC artists of the early 20th C, produced paintings, prints and drawings deliberately focused on "the joys and sorrows of everyday life". While much of her work evolved to a semi-abstract cubist style, she stood fast to her depiction of figurative and still life compositions that expressed a compelling emotional resonance. Signed in the lower left-hand corner. She participated in numerous New York shows with solo exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and the A.C.A. Gallery, and as part of an annual exhibition of the New York Society of Women Artists. She also showed at the Metropolitan Museum in 1942 and the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1944). Gurr began studying art in high school and won a scholarship to the New York Art Students League where she took classes with John Sloan and Maurice Sterne, of whose influence penetrated all her works including this nude study in the neo-classical style.