Born in 1898 in Hartford, CT, Elsie Driggs went on to be one of the most renowned female Precisionist painters.  With the support of her family, Elsie spent her childhood growing up in New Rochelle immersing herself in the arts, and by the time she was twenty, she enrolled in the Arts Students League of New York to pursue a career in painting. Under the teachings of experienced artists, George Luks and Maurice Sterne inspired her to expand her artistic vision and venture abroad to Europe where she connected with influential art critic Leo Stein who introduced her to a plethora of works of Cezanne and Piero della Francesca. By 1924, Driggs tuned her style as a female precisionist painter and settled in New York City where she found her first success and representation at the Charles Daniels Gallery. Cautioned of Charles Daniel bias towards female artists, Elsie simply signed her paintings “Driggs” to keep her female identity unknown until she was finally able to meet him in person where Daniel then displayed his enthusiasm to include her work in his gallery. By 1929, Charles admiration for Elsie’s work became clear when he gave her the opportunity to exhibit her art in a one-woman show.

Driggs’ noticeable themes of industrialism and geometrics represented in her art are a product of the influence her father’s engineering work had on her in her upbringing. Her 1927 piece Pittsburgh, is noted as her most known painting, which currently resides in The Whitney Museum in New York. Reflecting the state of the Industrial movement in the United states during her childhood, Pittsburgh captures the essence of the rapidly changing landscape of the early 20th century. While this painting uses oil to capture the eerie mood of the Industrial movement from a child’s eye, Driggs typically adopted watercolor as her primary medium because of its natural fluidity, which she admired in art. Her 1927 Cabbage painting, exhibited alongside notable male colleagues Preston Dickenson, Andrew Dasburg, and Thomas Hart Benton, received praise from art critic Forbes Watson who recognized the painting as, “one of the most sensitive pieces of painting in the entire exhibition.” Along with this exhibition, Driggs’ work also showcased throughout her career at the Whitney Club, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Chicago Institute of Art. By 1935, Driggs met the next biggest influence on her art, her husband and renowned painting, Lee Gatch. It was after she met Gatch that her art transitioned primarily to watercolor and likewise, Elsie took inspiration from their daughter, Merriman’s, collage and watercolor art. Driggs continued experimenting and developing her art until her passing in 1992 securing the title as one of the best female precisionist painters of her time.