Sophy Pollak Regensburg (1885 – April 6, 1974) was an American naïve painter. Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Regensburg was a member of a prominent family; her brother,

Walter Pollak Walter Pollak (1887–1940) was a 20th-century American civil liberties lawyer, who established important precedents while working with other leading radical lawyers in the 1920s and 1930s. His best known cases involved the defense before the Unit ...

, sat on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

. She was married to cigar maker Melville E. Regensburg, with whom she had three children, until his death. Active during her marriage as a volunteer, she took up painting in widowhood, when her physician suggested she needed to slow down. She had studied under

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later became the Parsons School of Design. ...

and

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

at the

New York School of Art The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

. In 1952, the first year in which she was involved in the hobby, she won a gold medal in the National Amateur Painters Competition. She continued to paint and was able to present her work in thirteen one-woman shows and fifteen group exhibits before her death. Her artwork is characterized mainly by

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s. The collections of her art was at the

American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, at 2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creativ ...

, the

Miami University Art Museum The Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum (formerly Miami University Art Museum) is the art museum of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Building Completed in 1978, the museum was designed by architect Walter Netsch of the firm Skidmore, Owings and ...

, and

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

References

1885 births 1974 deaths Naïve painters 20th-century American painters American still life painters 20th-century American women painters Painters from New York City Parsons School of Design alumni Students of William Merritt Chase Students of Robert Henri {{US-painter-1880s-stub