Title
Vahdah Gara
Artist
Year
c. 1928
Technique
etching & color aquatint, printed a la poupée
Image Size
15 5/8 x 15 5/8" platemark
Signature
pencil, lower right
Edition Size
39/150 (likely fewer than 40 printed)
Annotations
pencil titled and editioned
Reference
Paper
ivory simile vellum paper
State
published
Publisher
artist
Inventory ID
23989
Price
$750.00
Description
The subject of this portrait, Vahdah Gara, was born Vahdah Gara Smith on April 11, 1889. She later became Vahdah Gara Low after marrying into the Low family, weathly utilities- and land-owners, in 1923. Her husband was Abbot Augustus Low, Jr., president of the Old Forge Electric Co. and later executive vice president of Consolidated Edison Company of New York. Vadah Gara Low died in New York in May of 1982. As Pollak was often commissioned to do portraits of well-to-do figures in the various cities he visited or lived in, it’s very likely he created this when he first came to the U.S. in the late 1920s. Pollak's subject is fashionable and daring in her attire, wearing richly hued fabrics that cling and drape like silk, and her expression is bright and engaging, making it all the more disappointing that we can’t find more about her.