Bacon, Peggy (American, 1895-1987). ICE CREAM. Flint 6. Drypoint, 1918. Edition size not known, but likely very small. Titled "Ice Cream," dated "Nov. 1918," and signed in pencil. 3 15/16 x 5 inches. Printed by the artist, with her smudges in the margins. In very good condition, but with traces of adhesive, verso. Rare. 1918 was the first year that Bacon made prints, producing drypoints using a heavy steel needle on zinc plates, which she printed on an unused press which she found in the corner of Kenneth Hays Miller's life drawing studio at the Art Students League. Working with fellow student Anne Rector, she became so interested in drypoint that it supplanted painting as her main artistic medium. "The abstraction of design, the physical distortion of the figures, and the large flat areas of light and dark found in Peggy Bacon's earrly drypoints...dated November, 1918, were a result of her confrontation with the avant-garde forces active in New York at the time." (Roberta K. Tarbell, "Peggy Bacon - Personalities and Places," Smithsonian Press, DC, 1975, pp. 9-10).
