Traub presents an encounter between a youthful nude and a yearling cow. Silhouetted against a deep, black sky, they stand on a giant, portentous table or platform that Traub describes as "our own precarious station onto which we are both inseparably connected.” The figure, who we interpret as the “agriculturalist” of the title stares past the yearling, and he seems detached. At the same time, his feet and hands are darker than the rest of his body, as if tanned from working in the sun. We may wonder if he is as innocent as the animal before him.
Traub’s paintings explore the human and animal conditions, ecological conservation, the biosphere, and animal activism. For inspiration, she looks to old and modern masters such as Veronese, Titian, Artemisia Gentileschi, Rembrandt, Rosa Bonheur, and the animal painter Edwin Landseer. Traub is a graduate of the York Academy of Arts, the Atelier La Grande Chaumière in Paris, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), where she has taught since 1988. Her interest in animal painting and conservation has also led to studies in zoology and taxonomy at the University of Pennsylvania and ornithology at Cornell, as well as work on an orangutan project with primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas at Camp Leakey, Indonesia. Traub has received Leeway Foundation grants (1998-2004) and numerous awards from PAFA, including the Henry Schiedt Memorial Scholarship. Her work has been exhibited at the Palazzo Cini, Venice; Pasinger Fabrik, Munich; Galleri Ericson, Norway; and many Pennsylvania galleries and museums. She is represented by Gallery Henoch, New York.
