"Sunday Best" by Ida Binney

Here's a WPA-era gem from the Met's collection. The Met has a few works by Ida Binney, but I couldn't find any other information about her as a fine artist. I did find a couple of children's books, Boppet Please Stop It and This Is the Way the Animals Walk. The illustrations are not woodcuts, but I'm fairly certain they are illustrated by the same artist since they are from the same era and the gestural way the figures are drawn reminds me of the style used in her woodcut The Wheel, also from the Met's collection.

The girl could barely keep her bottom half still in that chair, legs squiggling, thighs itchy against layers of cloth, waiting for the rest of the grownups to Be Ready. Left in a chair on a round rug in the corner of the room, as if being punished. Pretty as a blooming flower in her coral-colored dress with the ruffled-collar, head topped with her yellow straw hat. Her upper top half remained as still as the piece of furniture she sat on, hands gripping the bouquet, eyes fixed on the ceiling. Or rather, something small (ignored by bigger folks) crawling on the ceiling almost directly above her head.