The present artwork is an unusual example of the paintings of Fritzi Brod. It is painted on both sides: on one side, an image of three Native Americans on horseback in a desert landscape, on the other a view of a New Mexico village at the foot of a mountain range. Both are painted in an impressionist style, with thick impasto and resplendent color. Signed "Fritzi" en verso, lower right of reverse image. Framed to museum standards in a gilded and toned moulding with a linen liner.

Artwork Size: 16" x 20"
Frame Size: 26 1/2" x 30 5/8"

Artist Bio:

A Chicago painter, printmaker and pattern designer, Fritzi Brod was a member of the Chicago Society of Artists, the Chicago Art Club and the Chicago Women's Salon. She also exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Los Angeles Museum of Art. She was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and met her husband, Oswald Brod, when he was in Europe on a buying trip for Brentano's, a New York book store. On his return, he was asked to head Brentano's in Chicago, and committed to modern art, he made sure the book store was stocked with publications on the subject, many at discount prices. Contemporary artists often gathered at the book store, and when Fritz married Oswald, she became a part of the group.

She had been a recognized pattern designer in Prague, and became one of the early promoters of dress patterns in the modern style, something that was relatively shocking to conservative customers at Marshall Fields.  However, a Chicago Tribune critic praised her work, which brought some positive reactions, something that increased in the early 1950s with wider acceptance of abstract art. But Fritzi Brod did not stay alive long enough to enjoy many accolades.  She died of cancer in 1952.

Source:
 

Jean S. Hunt, "Fritzi Schermer Brod", Walking with Women Through Chicago History II, p. 30