Werner Wildner (Nashville, TN, 1925-2004) drawing of a gnome, depicted wearing a hat with arrow through it, holding a walking stick, and standing with his back to the viewer. Pencil and wash on card stock or paper. Signed “W” lower right. Framed under non glare glass in a giltwood molded frame with beaded rabbet edge and beige mat. 8-1/4″ x 9-1/4″ sight, 19-1/2″ x 17″ framed. Biography (courtesy Askart: The Artists’ Bluebook): Wildner was born in Germany but moved to Detroit with his family as a child and, as a teenager, to Nashville. He served in the Army in 1944 and went on to study art briefly at the Mienzinger Art School in Detroit. He returned to Nashville to practice commercial art, but by the mid-1950s had decided to pursue his own art career. Whimsical animals and fantastical, often grotesque creatures were a recurring theme of his work. Wildner met with critical and commercial success after a 1962 exhibit of his art (at what is now known as Cheekwood). However, the death of his parents and collapse of his marriage in the 1970s led him to become reclusive in the last two decades of his life. Provenance: the estate of Helen B. Patterson, Gallatin, Tennessee. Condition: Excellent condition.