Esther Pressoir, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate who traveled across Europe by bicycle in 1927, is emerging as a significant figure in modernist art. Recently highlighted by researchers, her work—ranging from expressionistic paintings to illustrations for The New Yorker—challenges traditional narratives of the mid-20th-century art world.
A 1927 Grand Tour on Two Wheels
In the summer of 1927, 24-year-old Esther Estelle Pressoir—known to peers as “Stella”—undertook an unconventional artistic pilgrimage. A 1923 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), she set out from the west coast of France toward Italy by bicycle. Her goal, according to art historian Suzanne M. Scanlan, was to prove she could ‘do’ the Grand Tour on a not-so-grand budget.
The journey was physically demanding and logistically complex. Pressoir carried 30 lbs of paper, drawings & pencils
on her bike, documenting the landscape and her experiences in handwritten journals. This trip resulted in 600 pencil and ink drawings, many of which she later translated into paintings and prints.
Recovering a Lost Modernist Legacy
For decades, Pressoir’s contributions remained largely outside the public eye. Her resurgence began when Scanlan, a professor at RISD, discovered a newspaper clipping about the artist’s bicycling adventure in the school’s archives. This chance find led to the discovery that Pressoir’s nephew, Leon Dulac, had preserved nearly the entire contents of her studio following her death in 1986.
This archive allowed for a comprehensive reconstruction of her career, which spanned the interwar years and included decades of contributions to The New Yorker. Her portfolio reveals a versatile artist who worked across ceramics, prints, and oil painting, developing a distinct style influenced by Expressionism.
Identity and Intimacy in Portraiture
Pressoir’s work is marked by an unapologetic exploration of modern womanhood and queer identity. She frequently turned the lens on herself and her circle, creating intimate nudes of models and lovers. One of her recurring subjects was a Harlem-based dancer named Florita.
These depictions were noteworthy for their time, as White artists rarely captured Black subjects with such personal intimacy. Before concluding her time in Europe, Pressoir marked a personal milestone by selling her bicycle to purchase a perfectly irresistible tiny silver cigarette case … as a gesture of feminism.
This spirit of independence is captured in her painting Self-Portrait, Smoking
(c. 1935), where she renders herself in a womb-like space, framed by the curling smoke of her cigarette.
Shifting Perspectives on 20th-Century Art
The rediscovery of artists like Pressoir highlights the broader, ongoing effort to re-examine the landscape of 20th-century art, which has often been dominated by a select few figures. While podcasts and series such as Death of an Artist have interrogated the power dynamics and legacies surrounding famous figures like Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, the case of Pressoir offers a different entry point: the value of the archive in reclaiming the work of artists who existed outside the mainstream canon.
As researchers continue to process the materials saved by her family, the extent of Pressoir’s influence remains an open question. While her bicycling adventure serves as a compelling narrative anchor, the sheer volume of her output—spanning prints, ceramics, and professional illustrations—suggests that her role in the broader history of modernism is only beginning to be fully understood.
