Edith Halpert

Edith Halpert or Edith Gregor Halpert was a pioneering New York City dealer of Modern art. She brought recognition and market success to many avantgarde American artists over her fortyyear career from 1926 through the 1960s. Her establishment, The Downtown Gallery, one of the first in Greenwich Village, introduced or showcased such modern art luminaries as Stuart Davis, Georgia OKeeffe, Arthur Dove, Jacob Lawrence, Charles Sheeler, David Fredenthal, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Ben Shahn, Jack Levine, Marguerite and William Zorach, and many others.

Halpert was born Edith Gregoryevna Fivoosiovitch to Gregor and Frances Lucom Fivoosiovitch, Odessa, Ukraine, April 25, 1900. She had a sister, Sonia, ten years older. She emigrated in 1906 with her mother and sister, but without her father as he had died around her fourth birthday of tuberculosis. At this time the family name changed to Fivisovitch. They initially settled on the west side of Harlem. At 16, Halpert worked at Bloomingdales department store as a comptometer operator. She also studied drawing under Leon Kroll and Ivan Olinsky at the National Academy of Design and life drawing with George Bridgeman at the Art Students League.

Source: Wikipedia