Much to my surprise, I found this charcoal sketch at the flea market last weekend.  The artist, Edward C. Caswell, frequently sketched Village subjects.  Edwards is seen here as a sidewalk sketch artist at an outdoor art show.  A note accompanied it: “This was drawn in Macdougal Alley and Macdougal St.  Bobby had just told me to get back a little as I might be in the way of possible sitters.  When I remarked that he could raise the price, he replied that he would rather make portraits at 85c than none for 1.00!”

The sketch is undated, but my uneducated guess is that it’s from sometime in the ’30s.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)