Framed: 22 3/4 x 36 1/2 inches
artist
Elsie Driggswas an American modernist painter whose work spanned a range of styles over a long and evolving career. Born in Pittsburgh and trained at the Art Students League in New York, she also studied abroad in Italy and was deeply influenced by European modernism.
Though often associated with the Precisionist movement early in her career, Driggs explored diverse subjects—from industrial landscapes to figurative compositions and, later, more expressive and imaginative works. Her practice reflected a persistent curiosity and willingness to shift direction, resisting easy categorization.
Driggs was one of the few women to gain recognition in the male-dominated art world of the 1920s and 1930s. Her work received renewed attention in her later years, and she is now recognized as a significant voice in 20th-century American art.
Description
Falcon's Flight is considered a significant piece in Elsie Driggs' career because it exemplifies her artistic transformation and mature style. This marvelous work has the footprints of her looming past as a precisionist as she still uses sharp lines and demarcations. By the 1950s, Driggs had shifted far from her iconic industrial scenes to a more personal, expressive mode, using watercolor and collage to explore layered, organic forms rather than architectural or representational subjects. Here we feel she wishes to suggest and play with forms and parts stimulate the viewer and create intrigue. Her early works were masterful but not expressive. We see this work as an invite to understand her body of work further as she was an independent and strong minded female artist. She fearlessly moved away from the Daniel Gallery and the Immaculate Group to continue her own growth as an artist.
This artwork reflects Driggs’ willingness to evolve and innovate, incorporating collage techniques influenced by observing her daughter’s artmaking. Such works are valued for their vibrancy, integration of color and texture, and emphasis on movement and energy—a stark contrast to her earlier mechanical precision. Falcon's Flight thus stands out as a testament to Driggs’ versatility and her continued relevance as an artist exploring the expressive possibilities of abstraction during the mid-century American art movement.
Falcon’s Flight was part of Sidney Rothberg’s collection, a commodities trader by profession, who became a lifelong student of art after he first encountered impressionist painting in Paris as a soldier during World War II. Sidney Rothberg collected across media, yet he had a deep appreciation for works on paper—a broad and dynamic category that encompasses everything from drawings and watercolors to collages, photographs, etchings, and prints
provenance
Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Philadelphia, 1983 - 2025
Freeman's Auction Philadelphia, June 2025