Biography

Known as a pioneer of early American surrealism, Anna Elkan Meltzer was born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to parents who had immigrated from Russia. She became a photographer and Art teacher after studying at the Art Student League where she won numerous awards including First Prize from the Audubon Artists group in 1942. However, her passion for oil painting wasn’t realized until she married her childhood sweatheart Sam Meltzer and could afford the proper supplies. For many years she kept a studio on Lake Mahopac in New York State’s Hudson Valley where She produced her largest volume of works. Although few survive today, the large drawings and paintings of this period captured fine qualities of rural and domestic life. Often her canvases for oil painting were so large that she required a ladder to reach the top.