The Rival Ragmen BY PEGGY BACON
ALEXANDER BROOK was probably being too severe on his gifted wife when
he said that her work completely lacked “any ingratiating traits.”
The Rival is most certainly a delightful composition,
and it does have a spark which, however, is kept under strict control.
It remains a veritable Bacon. The minuscule cat (definitely not man’s friend)
is drawn with an archly sympathetic pen that becomes somewhat derisive,
even if just, when engaged on the dog (man’s friend).
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The theme of The Rival Ragmen is self-evident, even if the specific cause of their quarrel be forever a thing of mystery.
(About the year 2039, it will be a fine subject for a learned monograph from the Berenson of that age.)
The etching is hearty in tone, and there is a fruity humor mingled with its still acrid wit.
While this scene could have taken place almost anywhere in a large American town,
the artist assures us that the actual locale was Twelfth Street, New York, between Second and Third Avenues.
The human elements, however, were assembled from sketches made in various places.
