John Thomas Nolf, “The Last Leaf,” Oil on Canvas, c. First Half of 20th Century

This is a profile figure. The subject, an elderly woman, sits in a wooden rocking chair, facing the right of the canvas. Her arms rest on the chair arms, and she is holding a pink knitted or crocheted fabric in her right hand. She is looking down, past her lap. She is possibly knitting or crocheting on whatever is in her hand, but no hooks or needles are visible. She sits before a window; there is a plant on the sill. Some sort of round-lidded hamper sits between her and the window on the floor, and could be a basket of yarn. The subject is wearing a long-sleeved blue dress and has a short, light-colored, fringed, cape-style shawl wrapped around her shoulders. The background is dark–painted mostly in blues and greens, with blocks of pink and lighter blue as accents where the light shines through the curtains and window. The subject of this painting was almost certainly from Illinois; Nolf believed that it was pointless for artists to go abroad looking for subjects to paint with “such a wealth of material right here at home.”