Snow in Irwindell — 1940
Snow day in Irwindell…
by Paula Bosse
We have snow in Dallas! It’s always exciting for those of us who have grown up here and haven’t really experienced snow that many times in our lives. It’s pretty and magical and, unless you have to drive or walk in it, a welcome treat.
I came across this artwork back in 2018 and have been meaning to post it on a snow day. We’ve had snow since then, but I never got around to it until now. Better late than never.
“My Dallas Home, 1940” (pastel on paper) is by Dallas artist Inez Staub Elder (1894-1991). It shows a snowy scene, with children playing, one of them on a sled. A house is in the background. One would assume from the title that the house was Inez’s house. Her address in 1940 — and for years before and after — was 3339 Gibsondell, in the Irwindell neighborhood of Oak Cliff. Looking at the house on Google Street View, it is apparent that 3339 is not the house seen in the drawing. I figured that if Inez was sketching a winter scene of her neighborhood, she might have done it inside, looking out a window. So I reversed the view from her home, and the house seen in the drawing is one across the street, at 3334 Gibsondell. The brick house has been painted gray, but the image below shows what it looked like when I was originally researching this, back in 2018 — still red brick.
The pictured house is here (Google Street View image from May 2018).
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Inez Staub Elder, born in Ohio, lived in Dallas for decades. She regularly exhibited and also taught art. Below is an application she filled out for a show at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in 1943.
From a 1957 publication:
The geranium in color:
The only image I’ve been able to find of Inez Staub Elder, taken around the time of “My Dallas Home, 1940” is below.
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Sources & Notes
Top image of painting by Inez Staub Elder titled “My Dallas Home, 1940” (pastel on paper) is from the David Dike Gallery catalog of the October 27, 2018 auction — this was lot 323.
The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts 1943 “Application for One-Man Exhibit” is from the Dallas Museum of Art Exhibition Records, Portal to Texas History, here.
The black-and-white image of the geranium is from the catalog “La Fiesta of Art, 1957,” Bill and Mary Cheek Collection, Portal to Texas History, here.
Color image of the geranium still life is from AskArt.
Read more about Irwindell/The Dells District at the Heritage Oak Cliff website.
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Copyright © 2025 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
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