Florence Ballin (Mrs. Konrad Cramer)

John Baker writes of the present work, "The soft 'puffs' of light in Portrait of Florence Ballin are rhythmically arranged in such a way that a sense of abstract order is conferred on the painting, despite the additional presence of a strong natural light source. This natural light from the window raises the value and diminishes the intensity of the background colors with results that call to mind the pale, coloristically reduced palettes of some Analytic Cubist pictures. Yet despite these effects the picture is no more modernist than Tonalist-Impressionist in its final impact. Portrait of Florence Ballin is thus an early example of McFee's tendency to synthesize differing aesthetic purposes accumulated from styles which inspired him." (Henry Lee McFee and Formalist Realism in American Still Life, 1923-1936, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 1987, p. 25)