Ant Eater

Tice was an eccentric illustrator and artist who became known as the "Queen of Greenwich Village" in the early decades of the twentieth century. She was a staff artist at Vanity Fair and a contributor to many other publications, as well as a stage and costume designer. Tice was known for her clever and erotic drawings and prints. This sheet, showing a large anteater and a diminutive nude female, was part of a group of works she exhibited at the Anderson Galleries in New York in 1922, entitled "Animals and Nudes." In the catalogue's introductory essay, a contemporary wrote of Tice, "unlike most American artists, she not only paints life, but feels it; feels it intensely and poignantly; especially its happiness, its humor, and its fantastic gaiety." This was one of the first twentieth-century works to enter the Morgan's collection. It belonged to the Morgan's first director, Belle da Costa Greene.
Watermark: Serpent in shield over CIATI. Watermark, beta radiograph. Shield, serpent. 353923wm_1950_35_Tice_WM_beta.tiff