Lot 569: [Mardi Gras], Louis Elizabeth Andrews Fischer

[Mardi Gras], Louis Elizabeth Andrews Fischer (Alabama/Louisiana, 1901-1974, active Newcomb College, 1917-1921), a group of nine New Orleans Krewe of Proteus parade float designs from "Tales of the Tiny Folk", 1970, including "Ariel", Tinkerbell", "Blue Munchkins of Oz", "Robin Goodfellow", "Leprechaun", "Lilliputians", "Rumpelstilskin", "Prince of the Peri", and "Billy Goat Gruff", watercolor and mixed media on paper, all bearing artist's label lower right, all pencil-titled upper right, 14 in. x 16 3/4, unframed.

Note: Named after her father, Louis Andrews Fischer was a talented twentieth-century designer of New Orleans Mardi Gras floats, tableau sets and costumes. After her parents divorced, Fischer's mother relocated her children from Mobile, Alabama to New Orleans, where they resided in the Pontalba Apartments on Jackson Square in the French Quarter. Upon her graduation from Newcomb College, Louis designed floats for the Mardi Gras krewes of Rex, Proteus and Momus during the 20s and 30s. he, and her husband, Lawrence Fischer, continued to live in the Pontalba Apartments, where the young couple frequently hosted lively soirées that attracted the many artists, writers and actors that populated the French Quarter in the mid twentieth century. In 1964 Fischer resumed designing floats for the krewes of Proteus, Momus and Comus. Her colorful and beautifully rendered float designs frequently incorporated literary themes. The 1974 Proteus float "Living Jewels" was the last design she created before her death later that year. Reference: Schindler, Henri, Mardi Gras Treasure: Float Designs of the Golden Age, Pelican Publishing Company 2001, pp. 138-139.