Whitteker, Lillian American (1895-1978) COTTAGE pencil on paper signed & dated: lower right, 1958 paper size: H25.5in W19.75in *Note: Interested in painting from childhood, she designed a Broadway dramatization of Alice in Wonderland early in this century, starred in an operetta just before World War I, moved in the 1920's to the ruined Chateau de Montbazon in the Loire Valley, which she restored over the years. Taken prisoner by the Germans in World War II, she twice escaped, fearful for the safety of her cats, goats, and fowl at the Chateau. A friend of Calder and Jo Davidson, it was they who organized her first European exhibitions. Eugene Walter introduced her to Italy, with shows in Rome and Positano. The City of Tours emptied the civic museum in 1975 to stage a retrospective of her life work.