Gertrude Woodcock Simpson

Periodca. 1940

MediumOil on masonite

Dimensions24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineGift of the Friends of Marshall and Gertrude Simpson, 1980

Object number1980.15.111

DescriptionThree-quarter length portrait in an Impressionistic style of an attractive female facing left, with a lean face, high cheek bones, dark eyes, and a full head of very dark brown hair. She wears a white dress with a red collar, a dark brown ascot, and red lipstick. The background is a mottled gray, cream and white.
Curatorial RemarksThis portrait was commissioned ca. 1940 by Marshall Simpson, the subject's husband, as a Christmas present for his wife. It was based on a photograph of Gertrude that Simpson lent to William Percy Couse, whose art studio was located in Interlaken, Monmouth County. The two artists were close friends and sketching partners, traveling together as far afield as Pennsylvania. Couse's widow recalled in a 1981 interview that her husband "did not always sign his work, according to Mrs. Couse, who couldn't understand why." Two additional portraits by Percy Couse received critical acclaim in the late 1930s, one of which was chosen to hang in the New Jersey State Building at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.NotesGertrude Woodcock Simpson (1901 - 1979), a daughter of James Bentley and Caroline Woodcock, was the wife of Middletown artist Marshall Simpson (1900 - 1958). She graduated from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, where she served a term as an alumnae trustee. Simpson also attended the Columbia University School of Journalism. A former newspaper reporter and free lance writer, she held a variety of public relations positions, among them with the Monmouth Memorial Hospital in Long Branch and the national Girl Scout organization. The Simpsons resided in a house designed by John T. Simpson that they built about 1935 on Kings Highway in Middletown village.

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