This signed watercolor of fly fishermen was painted by William Steig (1907 – 2003), most likely in the 1930s-40s. Steig, perhaps best-known today as the author and illustrator of the 1990 picture book Shrek, was one of the most successful American cartoonists and children’s book authors of the 20th century. During the 1930s he drew 2000 cartoons and 117 covers for the New Yorker magazine alone. Whether Steig painted this watercolor for his own pleasure, something he was known to do, or whether it was intended as a gift is not recorded. Steig enjoyed a long life filled with marriages, personal losses and professional success. He died of natural causes seven months before the release of the DreamWorks Animation production of Shrek2. It was a fitting epitaph by any measure that the film was dedicated to him. Condition: Excellent. Dimensions: Image, 4.4" x 6.25", Frame, 9.5" x 11.5"