This
masterfully designed and rendered illustration is by under-the-radar
female illustrator Colista Dowling. She had classical art training at
the Art Students League, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the
Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, and it shows in the present work. She
tells the story of two baby bears hiding from a group of hunters with
shotguns on their shoulders.
We see bears watching the hunters from
behind as the hunters pass into the distance. The bears' body language
explains the dangerous narrative, and that tension is conveyed to the
viewer.
Her composition depicts the two bears as two black shapes
dominating the left quadrant of the picture. Done in pen and ink, the
Dowling emphasizes the bears as solid masses, so they stand out against
the foliage and forest. In this regard, the work is as abstract as it is
representational. In pencil, centered at the bottom, the caption reads
"Baby bears quite easy caught." Signed Colista Dowling, lower left.
Likely
for "The Mascot Bears by Clara Cogswell Ingham, published by
Metropolitan Press, 1933 and again The League of Western Writers, 1937
Provenance: Fred Taraba
Illustration work by this artist is very rare and seldom comes on the market

Born in Waverly, Kansas, in 1881, Dowling was classically trained at
the Art Students League in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts, and the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. When she moved to Oregon
in 1890, she continued her art training at the University of Oregon,
Oregon State University, and the Museum Art School in Portland. In 1914,
she won the prize for best poster in the Rose Festival contest among
fifty-one competitors. Her poster featured "a woman, symbolic of the
festive spirit, standing on Portland and scattering roses over the
Pacific Northwest."

“Dowling was an illustrator for The Pacific Monthly(which later
became Sunset magazine), and she contributed to the caricature book As
We See 'Em (1906), published under her maiden name, Murray. Her work can
also be seen in the illustrations reproduced from her pen drawings for
Ox Bows and Bare Feet (1952), by John Leach, and in several children's
books and bookplates.”

“Dowling was a charter member of the short-lived Society of Oregon
Artists in 1912. She then joined the Oregon Society of Artists, where
she participated in exhibitions and won awards; she served as an officer
for the Society in 1929 and 1940. She also belonged to the Attic Club,
originally established by newspaper and commercial artists, and was
president of the Women's Press Club. Her work was exhibited at both the
Portland Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum.”