Another gift of Gag art

West St. Paul

woman donates

Gag sketch

to BCHS

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- One good turn deserves another.

After reading a recent newspaper story about the donation of a Wanda Gag watercolor to the Brown County Historical Society, a West St. Paul woman e-mailed the BCHS to see if it wanted more.

Earlier this week, Sue Kratsch donated Philodendron, a 9 inches by 13 inches, matted, black and white lithograph created by Gag in 1944. Kratsch did not know the value of the lithograph.

New Ulm's George L. Glotzbach, a BCHS trustee who donated a Gag watercolor drawn on a piece of sandpaper to the BCHS in December, said the latest donation came about because of the newspaper stories.

The lithograph with its shadows and shading was very characteristic of Wanda Gag's work.

"It was rather Bohemian and old world," Glotzbach said.

The lithograph is one of 60 impressions printed after Gag's death by Cuno of Philadelphia in 1947. Gag died in 1946 at age 53.

The BCHS collection of Gag art includes dozens of prints, lithographs, wood cuts and sketches by Wanda Gag, paintings by her father Anton Gag and watercolor sketches by her sister Flavia.

Wanda Gag was an author, artist and illustrator of children's books. She expressed herself in verse and prose, paints, crayons, watercolors and anything else that would produce beauty, according to her obituary to the July 4, 1946 New Ulm Review.

Gag found fame with "Millions of Cats," which is considered to be the first picture book written for children. The book won the Caldecott Medal for excellence in illustrations in 1929.

Her art works have been exhibited in art museums in America and Europe.

Wanda Gag was the daughter of Anton Gag, a New Ulm artist at the turn of the 20th century. She never forgot her father's dying admonition. "Wanda," he said. "What I have left undone, you will have to do."