PDF version - The Cooley Gallery
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PDF version - The Cooley Gallery
Fine American Paintings THE COOLEY GALLERY 25 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT 06371 (860) 434-8807 • [email protected] www.cooleygallery.com The present moment is a remarkable time to be collecting. As ever, selectivity and mindfulness need to rule, but both economically and psychologically, fine American art is a compelling focus for these uncertain times. The last few months have brought us wonderful opportunities to expand our inventory and we are proud to present this new catalogue. The paintings offer especially good quality at attractive price levels. The truth is in the details and I invite you to examine these works carefully. There are passages of genius in each one. Beauty, intrigue, whimsy, abstraction – it’s all here. The delight is in the art itself, but there are fascinating stories behind all of these painters. I recommend to you the essays by Joseph Newman, our gallery director, and Caitlin Murphy, our new gallery associate. Caitlin hails from the art history program at Fairfield University and we are excited to have her join us. I would also like to thank Lorre Broom, our business manager, for all her varied and essential efforts, and Nancy Pinney, our website manager, who deserves much credit for the tremendous photography. The coming months are certain to bring uncertainty. But as always, art endures. We encourage you to enjoy the best of American painting along with us. Sincerely, Jeffrey W. Cooley ii William Gerrit Van Zandt (19th–20th century) Gentleman’s Ride, Outside Albany, 1858 signed “Van Zandt” and dated lower right oil on canvas 39" x 55 ½" Wealth in Antebellum America T he scale, ambitiousness, and painterly skill of Gentleman’s Ride, Outside Albany combine to make it Van Zandt’s masterpiece. Primarily known for his near-folk horse portraits and carriage profiles, Van Zandt here offers the viewer several pictures in one—a finely executed portrait of two horses, folk portraits of two men, a comment on social conditions in the pre-Civil War era, and a Hudson River School landscape of admirable quality. Little is known about the artist other than he was descended from an established Albany family of Dutch ancestry and that his father, Thomas Kirby Van Zandt (1814-1886), also painted horse and carriage pictures. Comprehensively, Gentleman’s Ride, Outside Albany presents a view of the industrious American character. The nation’s manufacturing infrastructure is implied by the carriage, the workmanship of the reins and harnesses, and the fine clothing worn by the gentleman and his driver. Both characters comport themselves with a brand of dignity that suggests stable wealth. And in the background, the ships on river and the farmer herding his stock hint at the mercantile and agrarian antecedents to America’s manufacturing power. The Civil War would presently interrupt the country’s peacetime march toward the industrial age, but for the moment, Van Zandt has captured on a grand scale the ambitiousness of the American disposition. —JFN 4 Provenance From a private Connecticut collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 6” period gilt cove frame with ornate floral detail and beaded liner. Expertly cleaned, with some minor in-painting to old stretcher bar marks. 5 John Williamson (1826–1885) Cave of the Winds, 1859 signed lower right signed again, titled and dated verso oil on canvas 13¼" x 111 8 " Falling Water B orn outside Glasgow, Scotland, John Williamson emigrated to Brooklyn and lived there during the peak of the representational style known later as the Hudson River School. Williamson’s landscapes of New York and New England are most often direct and pleasing interpretations of established views in the Adirondacks, Lake George, the Berkshires, the Catskills, and the Connecticut countryside. On occasion, the artist could be compositionally dramatic, as evidenced by Cave of the Winds. Showing the gushing force of Niagara’s Bridal Veil Falls in profile, Williamson has created a picture full of movement and with a translucent effect that betrays his genius. A gathering of small, delicate branches jutting from a rocky outcropping stands in sharp relief to the violent water, tempering the mood of the painting. The subject itself no longer exists as painted here. The original cave tucked behind the falls was blocked by a rock collapse in 1920 and was later destroyed by a second collapse in 1954. Williamson first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1859, the same year as he painted Cave of the Winds, and was made an associate two years later.1 His antebellum pictures are extremely rare and it appears the Civil War dramatically suppressed his output. The majority of his post-war paintings date to the 1870s and tend to reflect an emphasis on pastoral harmony. Cave of the Winds is thus an early and vigorous effort by the artist. Williamson died in Glenwood-on-the-Hudson in 1885. –JFN 1C onnecticut Masters: The Fine Arts and Antiques Collection of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (New Haven: Eastern Press, 1991), 199. 6 Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 4" period American Barbizon gilt frame with rich corner detail and arched liner. Expertly cleaned. 7 Albert Fitch Bellows (1829–1883) Picnic by the Brook, circa 1865 signed lower right oil on canvas 10" x 18" A Pastoral Sojourn A lbert Fitch Bellows was born to an old New England family in 1829 and grew up in Milford, Massachusetts. After serving as principal of the New England School of Design, Bellows went abroad to the Royal Academy in Antwerp to study genre painting. Upon his return to New York in 1859, Bellows was made an associate of the National Academy of Design and an Academician in 1861. Bellows developed a keen interest in watercolors and was a founder of the American Society of Painters in Watercolor, which published his famous treatise, Water Color Painting: Some Facts and Authorities in Relation to its Durability. He also went abroad to England to expose himself to leading watercolor talents and in Antwerp was admitted as an honorary member of the Royal Belgian Society of Painters in Water Color. After the artist returned from Europe, many of his works were burnt in a fire that destroyed his Boston studio in 1872. He then moved his studio to New York and continued to exhibit at the National Academy, Brooklyn Art Association, Boston Art Club, Boston Athenaeum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His works are now held in the collections of Brooklyn Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, and the New York Historical Society. Frederick Baekeland refers favorably to Bellows’ landscapes: Will He Reach It? signed lower left oil on panel with arched top 8 ½" x 6 ¼" From the mid-1860’s, Bellows concentrated on landscapes rather than genre paintings with children that had previously dominated his output. His landscapes, however, typically contain figures and often have genre features. Like all of his work, they show high finish, concern for detail, and a sound instinct for composition. They are generally quiet, harmonious scenes of rural life . . .1 1 Baekeland, Frederick, Images of America: The Painter’s Eye (The Birmingham Museum of Art, 1991) 48. 8 Picnic by the Brook belongs to this group of lush, pastoral landscapes. At the composition’s center is a charming picnic party between two young women at the edge of the stream. The animation brought by the well-articulated figures, bright atmosphere, and luxuriant vegetation provide an open, idyllic view of the countryside. Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 4" period fluted cove gilt frame. Expertly cleaned and lined. —CRM/JFN 9 Charles Herbert Moore (1840–1940) View Near Dorset, Vermont, circa 1865 unsigned oil on canvas 16" x 24" A Pre-Raphaelite in Vermont T he mountain ranges and landscapes of northern New England and upstate New York became increasingly attractive to landscape painters from New York City during the nineteenth century, especially during the summer and autumn months.1 As early as 1859, Charles Herbert Moore, a trained draftsman and established artist from the city, began summering in Catskill, New York and was a permanent resident by 1861. He spent the next decade painting the majestic valleys and rolling hills of New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont. View Near Dorset, Vermont presents an early example of Moore’s interest in the Pre-Raphaelite technique, a mode which became more prominent in his work over the course of his career. This style is especially visible in the minute specificity of the vegetation in the foreground. Moore’s fidelity to nature is consistent throughout the composition in the use of color and sense of space. The detailing in the foreground creates a sense of tangible proximity for the viewer, while the atmospheric perspective and hazy beauty of the panoramic scenery extends in every possible direction beyond the confines of the frame. In 1871, Moore left his professional career to become an instructor of watercolor and drawing at Harvard University. He departed for Europe for the first time in 1876, and made a number of return trips, spending a significant amount of time in Italy and France. He pursued his interest in the Pre-Raphaelite movement and medieval architecture at Harvard, and moved to England following his retirement in 1909. —CRM 1 William Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 1 (New York: Abbeville, 1990), 160. 10 Provenance From a private collection in Connecticut to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 3” fluted cove reproduction gilt frame with leaf and berry surround. 11 James Brade Sword (1839–1915) New England Scenery, 1871 signed “J.B. Sword” and dated lower left oil on canvas 30" x 50" Elements of Our Character O f all the artists who would contribute to the development of the Hudson River School style, James Brade Sword had by comparison an unusual route toward becoming an artist. Born in Philadelphia in 1839, Sword was raised in Macao before returning to the United States as a young boy. He abandoned high school to become a civil engineer on several urban improvement projects in the Philadelphia area and in Louisiana. At age twenty-two, motivated by his natural ability as a draftsman, he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.1 Like his predecessors in the landscape tradition, Sword traveled north into upstate New York, to the shores of Lake George, and across into Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. In New England Scenery, Sword fills his canvas with the characteristics that made the region so popular with his colleagues—high mountains, a lush valley, an ambling waterway, autumnal trees, a resplendent sky, and two figures that suggest the pastoral innocence of the local character. The narrow-gauge train puffing along the leftmost hillside is perhaps a personal touch inspired by his civil engineering background. Sword, who made his living painting portraits, stayed current with art trends and was known to occasionally emulate the work of past artists such as Henry Inman (1801-1846).2 He experimented with genre scenes and animal portraits, but he is at his strongest here, answering the challenge of a complex and expansive landscape. —JFN 1 www.askart.com 2 William H. Gerdts, “Henry Inman: Genre Painter” in American Art Journal, vol. 9, no. 1 (May, 1977), 42. 12 Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 5" reproduction fluted cove gilt frame with leaf and berry surround. 13 Hendrik-Dirk Kruseman Van Elten (1829–1904) Field Point, Greenwich, Connecticut, circa 1875 signed “K. Van Elten” lower right and inscribed with title on stretcher oil on canvas 15 ½" x 23" The Dutchman in America H endrik-Dirk Kruseman Van Elten was already an established landscapist in his native Holland before debuting on the American scene at the National Academy of Design in 1866. Having helped organize at least one exhibition among European artists eager to enter the American market, Van Elten parlayed his influence into a successful career from the moment he arrived in New York.1 He rented a studio in the famed 10th Street Studio Building for thirty-one years, during which time he continued to exhibit extensively at the National Academy and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. He gradually shed his identity as a European artist come to market foreign pictures to Americans in favor of being identified as a wholly American artist preoccupied by the varied splendors of the northeast.2 Working in the 10th Street Studio Building gave Van Elten access to native-born artists more familiar with the regional landscape and he counted among his friends Jervis McEntee (1828-1891) and James D. Smillie (1833-1909). Van Elten followed his colleagues into upstate New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Litchfield Hills, and along the Long Island Sound shoreline. His detailed landscapes frequently carried much of the Pre-Raphaelite tradition and he was celebrated specifically for his leaf detail, as evidenced in the present picture. Field Point, Greenwich, Connecticut demonstrates Van Elten’s dedication to realism, his mastery of varied geological forms, and his ability to create perspective, even with less than half the canvas remaining open to him. The viewer understands that Van Elten’s primary objective was to offer a visual respite; even so, one of the young fishermen stands and gestures toward the bedlam of New York City. Though he complained to McEntee that sales were difficult in America and suffered a failed return to Holland in 1873, Van Elten participated in two of the great American exhibitions of the late 19th century—the 1876 Universal Exhibition in Philadelphia and the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago.3 He was a member of the Royal Academies in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and was also a member of the American Society of Painters in Water Colors. In addition to his oil paintings, he achieved great fame as an etcher. After his death in 1904, the American Art Guild in New York held a landmark auction of his work in 1905. —JFN 1 Dieuwetje Dekkers, “‘Where Are the Dutchmen?’ Promoting The Hague School in America, 1875-1900” in Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, vol. 24, no. 1 (1996), 56. 2 Robert Michael Austin, Artists of the Litchfield Hills (Waterbury: Mattatuck Museum, 2003), 17. 3 Jervis McEntee, “Jervis McEntee’s Diary” in Archives of American Art Journal, vol. 8, no. 3/4 (1968), 14. 14 Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 4" reproduction fluted cove gilt frame with leaf and berry surround. 15 Richard William Hubbard (1816–1888) Picnic in the Meadows, 1880 signed “R. W. Hubbard” and dated lower left oil on canvas 40" x 29" An American Respite A s the country suffered from lingering physical and sociological damage resulting from the Civil War, paintings like Picnic in the Meadows by Richard William Hubbard reminded Americans of the country’s inherent greatness. Hubbard traveled extensively along the Hudson River Valley, in Vermont, and in Connecticut, in search of humble landscapes to use as the subject of his paintings. Picnic in the Meadows showcases some of the preeminent characteristics of a typical Hudson River School landscape: a meticulous, factual representation of scenery, the acute observation of vegetation and rocks, and the careful rendering of light to achieve a harmonious and romantic composition. Hubbard frequently worked on a smaller scale, though here he is able to convey a vivid appreciation for color, space, and tone in extraordinary detail, despite the canvas’ ambitious size.1 Hubbard moved to New York after graduation from Yale in 1837 and enrolled in the National Academy’s antiques class. After briefly studying with Samuel B. Morse (1791-1872), he left to study abroad in 1980. He spent most of the next decade in England and France, and moved to New York City upon his return to the United States. He remained in the city for the rest of his life, and was actively involved in the National Academy as an exhibitor and councilman, the Artist Fund’s Society as a founding member, and the Brooklyn Art Association as the president from 1873 to 1882. —CRM 1 John Driscoll, All That is Glorious Around Us: Paintings from the Hudson River School (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1997), 94. 16 Provenance From a private New York collection to the gallery. Presentation notes In a 5" period reproduction fluted cove gilt frame with leaf and berry surround. Expertly cleaned. 17 Eastman Johnson (1824–1906) To Your Health, Sir, circa 1875 signed “Johnson” lower left oil on canvas 10½" x 8 ½" A Nantucket Legend B orn in Lovell, Maine, Eastman Johnson began his art training in a Boston lithography shop in 1840. He moved back to Maine two years later and concentrated on portraiture, both in charcoal and pencil. He worked and studied in numerous American locales such as Washington, DC, Cincinnati, and Nantucket, as well as in Europe with Thomas Couture (1815-1879) in Paris and Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868) in Dusseldorf. It was in Amsterdam that Johnson studied the work of 17th century Dutch and Flemish masters Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn (1606-1669) and Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641). Their paintings inspired him to develop a freer handling of paint, a richer palette, and a penchant for picturesque subjects. He returned permanently to the United States in 1858. Johnson’s subject matter included portraits of the wealthy and influential, from John Quincy Adams, to literary figures, to portraits of unnamed individuals, but he is best known for his genre work. He typically utilized old master techniques, many of which were Rembrandtian, to depict contemporary and quintessentially American subjects. For example, To Your Health, Sir presents a tight and fairly detailed interior view, faint sunlight from an unseen window as the light source, and a dark tonality. The older man with the top hat and raised glass in the painting is portrayed in strict profile, as though the viewer were seated at the bar beside him witnessing his heartfelt toast. Nantucket, Massachusetts, to which Johnson took annual sojourns after 1870, is most likely the locale which inspired To Your Health, Sir. It was there that Johnson found inspiration for a set of portraits that were evocative of a lingering and slowly declining past; his muses became the aging male population on the island. “In those compelling works he recorded the physical decline and psychological isolation that paralleled the waning of a regional way of life”.1 Nantucket had since become “a little town whose ships have sailed away to other ports” marking the end of a golden era for the island.2 Johnson found of interest the insular inhabitants of the New England seacoast, among them Captain Nathan H. Manter, one of the artist’s earliest studies of local sea captains. Identified by his “respectable old silk high hat” and beard, the man who served as the pilot of the ferry Island Home before his retirement in 1891 is the most conceivable sitter for To Your Health, Sir and can be identified in a number of other paintings from Johnson’s time on Nantucket.3 To Your Health, Sir is an example of a small study which Johnson intended to turn into a larger masterpiece once a commission was secured. Records show a 30½" x 23½" painting from 1880 by Johnson entitled A Study for A Glass with the Squire, which portrays two older gentlemen standing adjacent to a sideboard, facing each 1 Teresa A. Carbone, “Eastman Johnson’s Portrait of Aging New England,” in Magazine Antiques (November 1999), 700. 2 “Nantucket,” in Atlantic Monthly, vol. 17, no. 101 (March 1866), 297. 3 William Walton, “Eastman Johnson, painter,” in Scribner’s Magazine, vol. 40, no. 3 (September 1906), 271. 18 other with their glasses raised. On top of the sideboard is an open wooden cellaret, whose top rests against the wall and exposes a peacock-blue lining and decanters. The man on the left shares a number of physical traits with the subject of To Your Health, Sir including the tall hat and winter coat. Both men stand in profile and raise their glass with their right hands, while their left hand rests on the surface of the sideboard. The smaller study shows a glimpse of the wooden cellaret that appears in full detail in the larger painting. Johnson played a lively role in the New York Art milieu, holding memberships at the Century Association and the Union League Club and exhibiting with the Society of American Artists. He was also one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870 and served as a trustee until 1871. He died in New York in 1906. —CRM Provenance From a private collection in New Jersey to the gallery. Presentation Notes In its original 4" Barbizon gilt frame. Expertly cleaned. 19 Edward Willis Redfield (1869–1965) A Winter’s Eve, circa 1895 Signed “E. W. Redfield” lower right oil on canvas 21" x 28" Redfield as Tonalist M ost observers equate Edward Redfield’s snow scenes with the Pennsylvania countryside, but in fact he developed both his interest in landscape and the winter season while studying at the Ácademie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in France. He had gone to Paris to paint portraits, but “[h]e became fascinated with the anatomy of the land, the seasonal rhythms of nature, and the dynamic vital forces that shaped the environment.”1 He created his first snow painting, Canal en Hiver, in 1891 while lodging at the Hotel Deligant in Brolles, later exhibiting the work at the 1891 Paris Salon.2 His stay in Brolles was also productive on a second count. While there, he fell in love with the innkeeper’s daughter, Elisa Deligant, and the couple married two years later. Like many American impressionists, Redfield’s early work was often tonal. A Winter’s Eve is one of at least two known paintings to show a lightening-bolt stream flashing through a snowy field, with hints of twilight above the horizon. The brush strokes are smoother and lighter than his later, more fractured and heavier style. In addition to the tonal mood, the circa 1895 date is supported by the stretcher size. Redfield did very few paintings measuring 21" x 28", the majority of which are dated between 1895 and 1896.3 During those years, Redfield lived with his young family in Glenside, Pennsylvania, the likely location of the present scene. The style and subject represent a curious moment for the artist. In later years, he would paint numerous and frequently very large paintings of streams in winter, and his reputation would come to stand on their ambitiousness. But A Winter’s Eve is the artist at his most anonymous and his quietest, familiarizing himself with a favorite subject, unaware of the heights to which it would take him. —JFN 1 Constance Kimmerle, “Edward Redfield (1869-1965)” in Pennsylvania Impressionism, Brian H. Peterson, ed. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 202. 2 Kimmerle, 202. 3 J.M.W. Fletcher, Edward Willis Redfield: 1869-1965 (Lahaska, PA: JMWF Publishing, 1996), 153-197. 20 Provenance From a private Connecticut collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 4½" period reproduction gilt cove frame. 21 Leon Dabo (1868–1960) Still Life, Flowers, circa 1901 monogram lower left oil on canvas 25” x 20” Tonalist Flowers F or a painter of serene landscapes and still-lifes, Leon Dabo’s life was peppered with upheaval and controversy. His father, Ignace Scott Dabo, a professor, was forced to flee the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, and he escaped with Leon and his two younger brothers, Theodore Scott and Louis, to Detroit, Michigan. Once settled, the elder Dabo worked as a decorator and sometime artist and the brothers grew up immersed in the visual arts.1 After Ignace Dabo’s death in 1883, the family held on in Detroit for two years before seeking better opportunities in New York. Dabo initially worked as an “architectural designer,” which provided enough income that he was able to both support his brothers and encourage Theodore Scott’s artistic inclinations.2 Whether through his own experiments in art or his work as a designer, Leon Dabo soon made the acquaintance of John LaFarge (1835-1910), who would prove to be the most significant early promoter of Dabo’s work. When Dabo decided to pursue his own artistic education in France, LaFarge wrote numerous letters of introduction that allowed Dabo access to several influential ateliers, most significantly the École des Beaux-Arts. Dabo was drawn to the tonalist movement and his earliest landscapes demonstrate a mastery of the ethereal. This aesthetic is also present in Still-Life, Flowers, one of very few known still-lifes from Dabo’s early tonal period. Decades later, in the 1930s, bright still-lifes would become a staple of his output. These paintings are almost invariably dated, strengthening the argument that the present picture was created about 1901, the same time Dabo exhibited a work at the National Academy identified only as Still-Life. Controversy between the Dabo brothers erupted in 1907. Parallel to Leon, Theodore Scott Dabo had also achieved some success as a painter in both Paris and New York, though critics on both shores generally preferred his brother’s work. With Theodore Scott living in Paris and Leon in New York, the two had an arrangement to act as each other’s sole agent. Whether jealous of Leon’s success or simply goaded by the youngest brother, Louis, Theodore publicly withdrew from the arrangement and declared Louis his new representative. The decision spurred rumors that Leon plagiarized Theodore’s compositions while Theodore was overseas and that Leon failed to honestly promote his brother’s work. There is some evidence that Louis was behind these accusations. When approached by The New York Times, Leon stated plainly: My brother Louis is not now and never was a painter. My brother Theodore is an artist of great power with whose work I do not wish my own compared. But as we have exhibited together, I suppose it was inevitable that people did make comparisons and express them. If some were more favorable to me than to Theodore, that is not 1 D. Wigmore Fine Art, Leon Dabo: 1865-1960 (New York: D.Wigmore Fine Art, 1999), 2. 2 James William Pattison, “Leon Dabo—A Painter of Space” in The World To-Day: A Monthly Record of Human Progress, vol. XII (Chicago: The World To-Day Company, 1907), 82. 22 my fault. Nor can I help it if more of my pictures are sold . . . It’s a bad business when brothers quarrel, for many people do not discriminate . . . They just lump the whole family together and vote them a bad lot.3 Dabo’s career survived the controversy and he went on to become one the country’s most celebrated artists. In 1913, he helped organize the landmark Armory Show and in 1944 was elected a full academician of the National Academy of Design. He died in New York in 1960. —JFN Provenance From a private Washington, DC collection to the gallery. Presentation notes In a 4½" period reproduction gilt frame with corner detail. Expertly cleaned. 3B rothers in Art at Loggerheads: Scott Dabo Resents Brother Leon’s Success in Vending his Own Color Poems in The New York Times, March 24, 1907. 23 Jules Turcas (1854–1917) View to the River, 1902 signed “J. Turcas” and dated lower right oil on canvas 25 ½" x 39 ½" A Barbizon Moment J ules Turcas belonged to the first wave of artists at the Old Lyme Art Colony, a group that produced paintings in a style that has been referred to as the American Barbizon. He was born in Cuba and is first listed as a resident of New York City in 1893. In 1894, William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) produced a portrait of Turcas in Chase’s well-known 10th Street Studio. The finished painting depicts the young artist as a handsome and enigmatic figure, who’s dark and nearly indistinct features are echoed by the brown and black tonalities of the composition. This representation from over a century ago seems appropriate in present day, as both details of his life and examples of his artwork are surprisingly scarce. Turcas was rediscovered to some extent in 1982 when the Lyme Historical Society and the Florence Griswold Museum published the exhibition catalogue, Old Lyme, The American Barbizon. It is known that he arrived in Old Lyme in 1902, and spent summers with his wife in Florence Griswold’s home until the couple purchased their own on top of Grassy Hill in 1907. He exhibited with the colony for twelve consecutive seasons, and consistently received praise from reviewers of the annual Lyme exhibition.1 He exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Century Association, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Design, while retaining memberships in a number of notable clubs. The deep influence of the Barbizon tradition and Turcas’ colleagues, such as Henry Ward Ranger (18581916) and Allen Butler Talcott (1867-1908), is distinct. With a personal sensitivity to the nuances of evening light, sun dappled woodlands, and the atmosphere of the landscapes of Lyme, Turcas distinguished himself through his art. View to the River is a melancholy and poetic work, subdued by a palette of earth tones and amber typical of American Barbizon painters. The loose brushwork and spontaneity of application creates an extraordinary sense of movement, and the pastoral scene is bathed in a golden luminosity, details which encourage an emotional response in the viewer. –CRM 1 Barbara J. MacAdam, “Biographies of the Artiststs” in Old Lyme: The American Barbizon (Old Lyme: Lyme Historical Society, 1982), 48. 24 Provenance From a private New York collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 4½" reproduction American Barbizon gilt cove frame. Expertly cleaned and lined. 25 Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921) View to Monadnock, circa 1910 signed “Abbott Thayer” lower right oil on canvas 23¼" x 19½" An Artist Finds a Home Happy, I said, whose home is here, Fair fortunes to the mountaineer! —Ralph Waldo Emerson, excerpt from Monadnoc (1846) A bbott Handerson Thayer spent his youth in Keene, New Hampshire, surrounded by the verdurous woods and majestic mountains to which he was emotionally attached. His earliest paintings were wildlife subjects, and he was encouraged by animal painter Henry Morse (1826-1888) to pursue a career in art while at boarding school in Boston. After graduation, he moved to New York City to do so. He attended classes at the Brooklyn Art School and National Academy of Design, but in 1875 he settled in Paris, studying under Henri Lehmann (1814-1882) and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) at the École des Beaux-Arts. While abroad he produced landscapes and genre scenes in the Barbizon style, and on his return to New York in 1879 he established himself as a painter of figures and portraits. Thayer’s early success coincided with personal tragedy. Two sons died in infancey followed by the loss of his wife. The death of his first son caused Thayer to seek solace in the transcendental writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose poem Threnody, “a moving meditation on the loss of a child, assured him of the eternal laws governing nature and man.”1 Thayer began spending summers in Dublin, New Hampshire in 1888, marking the beginning of the Dublin Art Colony as it came to be known. Dublin and the nearby town of Cornish lured painters who were in search of tamer, more intimate landscapes which were unaffected by the Civil War and industrialization. In 1901, Thayer, his second wife, and his surviving children settled in Dublin, and their summer home became a permanent residence. From his house he had an aweinspiring view of Mount Monadnock, whose snowy peak became a motif in Thayer’s paintings for nearly two decades. “Much influenced by the writings of Emerson, who wrote a poem about the peak, Thayer regarded Monadnock as both a visual synecdoche of earthly experience and an emblem of earthly transcendence.”2 The rugged terrain of Dublin dominated by the view of the mountain provided endless inspiration for Thayer’s art, as well as a constant reminder of nature as both a product of and path to a higher power. View to Monadnock concentrates on subtle tones and the quiet sensitivity of nature, which are distinctive characteristics of paintings by Dublin and Cornish Art Colony members. The shimmering pattern of soft 1 Susan Hobbs, “Nature into Art: The Landscapes of Abbott Handerson Thayer” in American Art Journal, vol. 14, no. 3 (Summer 1982), 18. 2 Ross C. Anderson. “Thayer, Abbott Handerson.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/ T084338>. 26 tonalities is accented by abbreviated brushstrokes of bright color. The slender birch trees in the foreground frame the peak of Mount Monadnock, a fixture delineated by broad avenues of paint. This technique links the artist to contemporary impressionist trends, yet references the tonal inclinations of his associates. —CRM Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 5" reproduction Stanford White gilt frame. Expertly cleaned. 27 J(ames) Carroll Beckwith (1852–1917) Lady with a Fringed Shawl, circa 1885 unsigned oil on canvas 17" x 13" A Woman’s Gaze J ames Carroll Beckwith is an artist traditionally celebrated for his mural painting and his iconic portrait of fellow Hannibal, Missouri native, Samuel Clemens. Three years after the close of the Civil War, Beckwith traveled north to Chicago to study with Walter Sherlaw (1838-1909). In 1871, he headed east to New York to attend the National Academy of Design and, despite frequent trips and residencies overseas, he would retain ties to the city for the rest of his life. While in Manhattan, financial necessity drove Beckwith to portrait painting. As Pepi Marchetti Franchi has noted, Beckwith’s portraits of women during this period took on a specific agency, and perhaps it is for these powerful and frequently sensual images that he ought to be best remembered.1 His subjects included Minnie Clark, the “Original Gibson Girl,” and Evelyn Nesbitt, the scandalhaunted wife of Harry K. Thaw and former lover of Stanford White. Sensuality and sexuality were themes that Beckwith explored frequently, especially in his paintings of women. Lady with a Fringed Shawl is a visual interpretation of female sensuality and its ability to arrest the spectator’s attention. The woman’s face shines with a revealing and confident gaze. She possesses an intimidating beauty, and the seductive plunging neckline and subtle gentleness in the shadowy regions of her expression lure the viewer in closer. The overall effect is remarkable—the painting is a force of sexual power accomplished entirely by projecting the internal character of the subject outward, without relying on devices such as overt nudity, visual drama, or symbolic color. Beckwith retained a patriarchal attitude toward his female subjects. Weber quotes these remarks: “The successful model . . . is the girl who first of all takes care of her health, as nothing is so conducive to firm and paintable flesh as a healthy body . . . The winning model . . . is the girl who approaches a studio in modest Portrait of a Man signed upper left oil on canvas 24" x 20" 1 Pepi Marchetti Franchi and Bruce Weber, Intimate Revelations: The Art of Carroll Beckwith (1852-1917) (New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, 2000), 26. 2 Franchi and Weber, 53-54. 28 and ladylike manner. Artists also like girls who take care of their hair. Nothing is more important, and the girls are far more attractive in simple, neat clothes, than in gowns of fashionable cut and cheap material. But most successful of all . . . is the sympathetic girl. The model who takes an intelligent interest in her work, whether she is beautiful or not, is a treasure to an artist.”2 The last line above offers up the real key to understanding Beckwith’s portrayal of women. Intellect is never subordinate to sexuality. Beckwith’s portraits of women reflect an emerging sea-change in the American female identity, one that would reverberate throughout the 20th century. Beckwith exhibited his work at the 1889 Paris Exposition and he won the Gold Medal at the 1895 Atlanta Exposition. After suffering two years of poor health during which he continued to paint, he died at his home in Onteora in 1917. –JFN/CRM Provenance From a private Connecticut collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 4" reproduction Stanford White gilt frame. Expertly cleaned. 29 Walter Griffin (1861–1935) Early May, Old Lyme, 1907 signed “Walter Griffin” and dated lower right signed, inscribed, and dated verso oil on canvas 12" x 16" Through a Frosted Window A s a boy, Walter Griffin watched his craftsman father plane and scroll wood into decorative objects, which were much sought after by the residents of Portland, Maine. Griffin began sketching his father’s associates and, by his early teens, displayed enough talent for drawing that his father sent him down to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where Griffin studied under Emil Otto Grundman (18441890) in the same class as Edmund Tarbell (18621938), Frank W. Benson (1862-1951), and Dennis Miller Bunker (1861-1890). His education continued at the Academie Julian in Paris, where he was first exposed to the Barbizon style that would form the foundation for his shift toward impressionism. In 1897, Griffin returned to New England to accept a position as the director of the School of the Society of Art in Hartford, a lofty post in the Connecticut art community previously held by Dawson DawsonWatson (1864-1939), among other notable artists. Griffin remained in Hartford while the art colony at Old Lyme solidified between 1899 and Childe Hassam’s (1859-1935) arrival in 1903. In 1905, he finally headed south and took up permanent residence in Old Lyme. Griffin’s close friendship with Hassam had a significant impact on his style. His previous work had been marked by relatively long lines in muted tones. After meeting Hassam, his technique became “a sketchy application of small mosaic-like brushstrokes,” as evidenced by his innovative work, Early May, Old Lyme, 1907.1 The landscape is quiet and incandescent, tempered by the atmospheric poetry of tonalism. In rendering the effects of sunlight with painterly brushwork, Griffin pays homage to his study of the Barbizon method in Paris. The surface is composed of jewel-like fragments of paint in which the artist’s hand is visible, and reminds the viewer of the canvas’ two-dimensionality. The scene, however, has incredible depth and an expansive quality, as if the viewer was looking over the lush Old Lyme farmland through a frosted window. —CRM 1 Vose Galleries, Walter Griffin, exhibition catalogue (Boston: Vose Galleries, undated), 1. 30 Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation notes In a 3" period reproduction American impressionist gilt frame. Expertly cleaned. 31 Lawrence Mazzanovich (1871–1959) Harmony, circa 1910 signed “Mazzanovich” lower left oil on canvas 26” x 32” Rhapsody in Blue L awrence Mazzanovich spent his early years of study at the Art Institute of Chicago, simultaneously working as an apprentice to a sign painter, and later at the Art Student’s League in New York. He completed his artistic education in France, where he met James Adams Thayer, a prominent American publisher. Thayer invited Mazzanovich and his first wife, Ann, to join him in Westport, Connecticut, where he maintained a house and where a nascent artists’ community was forming. The Mazzanoviches accepted, and in 1909 they settled into the artistic and social life of the wealthy Gold Coast town. According to Charles Teaze Clark, “a profound change in Mazzanovich’s technique occurred after his move to Connecticut . . . He developed an almost pointillist application of pigment to his canvases, especially when describing ground color and leaves. Trees—which were often the primary elements of his composition appear in decorative or repetitive arrangements. The combination of exaggerated forms, tight brushwork and rich coloration continued a decorative trend throughout his career.”1 Harmony presents strong evidence of the shift in Mazzanovich’s technique, while simultaneously referencing his earlier years of working in a strictly tonal style. The vivid use of color, repetitive stylization, and pointillist composition are all consistent with what became the most successful phase of Mazzanovich’s career. Paintings such as Harmony defined the beginning of an era during which he was placed among the foremost landscape painters of his generation.2 The foreground is defined by several bushes and trees, whose leaves have begun to fall and decorate the green grass below, creating a kaleidoscope of brightly hued colors. The middle ground is absent, and the rolling purple hills beneath a sketchily painted sky provide an impressive backdrop. Although details are sparse, an impression of density is provided by an abundance of spontaneous brushstrokes, with various tones weaved together in a symphonious tapestry. —CRM 1 Charles Teaze Clark, Lawrence Mazzanovich, 1871-1959: Tryon Paintings (exhibition pamphlet issued by the Tryon Fine Arts Center, March 10—March 23, 1991), 1. 2 Clark, 6. 32 Provenance From a private Pennsylvania collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 6" Whistler-style reproduction gilt frame. Expertly cleaned. 33 (Edward) Gregory Smith (1880–1961) An Old Fashioned Winter, circa 1910 signed “Gregory Smith” lower left, signed again and titled verso oil on canvas 24" x 30" A Rare Old Lyme Artist E dward Gregory Smith, at thirty years old, was one of the younger artists who came to Old Lyme, Connecticut while the summer art colony was at its peak. It was his friend and fellow painter, Will Howe Foote (1874-1965), who encouraged Smith to move from his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan to Old Lyme in 1910.1 Smith admired a number of the artists associated with the colony, particularly Childe Hassam (18591935) and Willard Metcalf (1858-1925). Hassam’s influence is especially evident in An Old Fashioned Winter in the vigorous brushwork and uncomplicated subject matter. The light-infused composition consists of bright hues that display the remnants of autumn, as though the snowfall was premature. The decorative arrangement of flattened forms is evocative of Metcalf’s style during his intermittent visits to Old Lyme in the first decade of the twentieth century. Smith was awarded several of the most prestigious exhibition prizes at the Lyme Art Association, including the W.S. Eaton Purchase Prize, the Museum Purchase Brook in Spring signed lower right oil on canvas 16" x 20" Prize, the Mr. and Mrs. William O. Goodwin Prize, and the Woodhull Adams Memorial Prize. Smith’s work is generally among the rarest of the Old Lyme Art Colony. —CRM 1 Gregory Smith Footnote Connecticut and American Impressionism (Storrs: William Benton Museum of Art, 1980), 173. 34 Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In its original 3" gilt cove frame with corner ornaments. Expertly cleaned. 35 Allen Dean Cochran (1888–1971) Ladies by the Lake, 1912 signed “Allen D. Cochran” and dated lower right oil on canvas 39 ½" x 49 ½" A Fantastical Afternoon A llen Cochran was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to New York to study at the Art Student’s League after graduation from high school. When the League moved to Woodstock, New York for summer classes in 1906, Cochran followed. He studied under Birge Harrison (1854-1929), Kenyon Cox (18561919), and Frank Vincent DuMond (1865-1951), all of whom were prominent teachers in the area. With the exception of brief painting trips, particularly to Gloucester, as well as military and civilian duties in the first and second world wars, Cochran rarely left the artist colony which had formed at Woodstock. Unlike most colonies, where artists worked in one prevailing style, Woodstock was notable for diversity among its painters.1 In a true reflection of his environment, Cochran combined aspects of tonalism, impressionism, and classicism in Ladies by the Lake. The subtle and refined tonalism of the artwork recalls the landscapes of Harrison. It also owns a specific color key, which lends a soothing unity to the work and is reminiscent of the palettes utilized by DuMond. We see the influence of his final teacher, Cox, in the imaginative subject matter and reference to classical tradition. The composition centers upon two nude females in an intimate, anonymous setting. The figures and the scene are caressed in a dappled sunlight which shines through the lush vegetation of the trees. A glimpse of the lake and forest on the opposite bank appears through the leaves, but the success of the painting lies in the decorative details of the foreground. The sharp, divisionist brushwork in varying shades of green contrast beautifully with the carefully rendered tree trunks and smooth application of paint which reproduces the idealized figures. Cochran was a life member of the Salmagundi Club, and exhibited at the National Academy, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. He painted well into his sixties and died in Woodstock in 1971. —CRM 1 The Woodstock Art Colony: June 26, 1999 through October 17, 1999 <http://www.tfaoi.com/newsm1/n1m319.htm> 36 Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In its original 3½" gilt Arts & Craft frame with corner detail. Expertly cleaned and lined, new stretcher. 37 Frederick Winthrop Ramsdell (1865–1915) The Old Beech, 1912 signed and dated lower left oil on canvas 25" x 30" In the Forests of Lyme F rederick Winthrop Ramsdell, a native of Michigan, studied with the prominent American impressionist, J. Carroll Beckwith (1852-1917) at New York’s Art Students League. He later studied in Paris and exhibited at the Paris Salon numerous times between the years 1891 and 1898. By 1907, after several years in France and Italy, the artist returned to America and settled in Old Lyme, Connecticut. The aesthetics of The Old Beech are strongly reminiscent of the Barbizon mode that the Old Lyme Art Colony painters had practiced under the leadership of Henry Ward Ranger (1858-1916) from 1900 until 1904. Constructed with discreet units of paint and generous use of palette knife, Ramsdell created a rough and expressive surface. The texture fosters a visual richness that emulates the density of a woodland scene. The abstract concerns of harmony and the twodimensional arrangement of forms take precedence over naturalism, and color is used not only to define the spatial relationships of the scene but also to engage the emotions of the viewer. “The painters of Lyme sought to attain a synthesis of realism, based upon what they saw, with a subjective interpretation of nature, based upon what they felt.”1 Artists such as Ramsdell considered this visual dialogue between artist and viewer their primary mission, an objective which Ranger endorsed during his short time at Miss Florence’s home. The focus of the Old Lyme Art Colony shifted after the arrival of Childe Hassam (1859-1935), “the greatest exponent of Impressionism in America,” in 1903.2 His charm and impassioned method of painting inspired other artists to incorporate qualities of American impressionism into their work. By the time Ramsdell created The Old Beech in 1912, a style had evolved which reflected a synthesis of Barbizon and Giverny. This fusion was demonstrated by artists such as Clark Voorhees (1871-1933), Matilda Browne (1869-1947), and Frank Bicknell (1866-1943). The influence of impressionism on Ramsdell’s creation can be scene in the patterned design of bright autumnal colors. —CRM 1 Barbara J. MacAdam, “Biographies of the Artiststs” in Old Lyme: The American Barbizon (Old Lyme: The Lyme Historical Society, 1982), 11-12. 2 Albert Gallatin, “Childe Hassam: A Note,” in Collector and Art Critic 5 (January 1907), 101-104. 38 Provenance From a private Connecticut collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In its original 7" period American Barbizon frame. Expertly cleaned. 39 Edward F. Rook (1870–1960) Snow, Ice, and Foam (The Bradbury Mill), 1912 signed and titled on PAFA label of 1912, verso oil on canvas 40" x 50" A Favored Old Lyme Motif E dward Rook arrived in Old Lyme in 1903, the year that marks the arrival of Childe Hassam (1859-1935) and the art colony’s conversion from a Barbizon-inspired tonalist aesthetic to American impressionism. Rook had spent the majority of the 1890s studying in Paris and returned to the United States in 1898. He purchased a home in Old Lyme in 1905, and began a career which was exclusively associated with the colony. Rook stands apart from his contemporaries both in style and reputation. Coming from a wealthy family, he remained unmotivated to seek out patrons and New York galleries, or participate extensively in national exhibitions. His dynamic technique, visible in Snow, Ice, and Foam (The Bradbury Mill), makes Rook’s pictures unique among those by painters of Old Lyme. “Since the expression of strength and energy was among the major motivations for his work, rather than the colorful sweetness of much American impressionist painting, he did not enjoy the popularity accorded to many of his contemporaries by patrons and critics.”1 His large and striking artworks have earned him the status as one of the most original Old Lyme Art Colony members. Rook displayed a strong affinity for painting the plentiful bunches of mountain laurel which grew in Old Lyme, as well as the defunct Bradbury Mill. Between 1905 and 1917, there are at least eight paintings which center on the rustic mill. One of his first examples was dedicated to Florence Griswold in place of a panel in the dining room, and the painting earned a coveted spot above the fireplace for many years.2 Snow, Ice, and Foam (The Bradbury Mill) is a prime example of the beloved local landmark in Rook’s signature style. The large canvas is imbued with an incredible sense of space and vivacity. The foreground, middle ground, and background are inventively organized on planes that recede into the distance in a zigzag, which creates an expansive quality in all directions. The shadows of the leafless trees against the fresh snow have a jeweled quality, as different shades of light blue and lavender dance across the surface. These tones are echoed throughout the composition, particularly in the building and the swirling waters which rush from the dam. The calm scene is complimented by a clear blue sky, which offers a promise of respite from the snowfall. —CRM 1 William H. Gerdts, Masterworks of American Impressionism (Einsiedeln: Karl-Ulrich Majer, 1990), 128. 2 Florence Griswold Museum Online Resources, Fox Chase Icons, Edward Rook <http://www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org/learning/foxchase/ html/edward_rook.php>. 40 Provenance From a private Connecticut collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes Original signature lost due to in-painting. In a 4" reproduction gilt cove frame with leaf corner detail. 41 Frederick Milton Grant (1886–1959) Female Bather with Swan, circa 1920 signed lower right oil on canvas 30" x 30" Swan and Sensuality F rederick Milton Grant, an Iowa native who later settled in Chicago, was referred to as “the greatest colorist Chicago has ever had” by a critic for the Tribune in 1952.1 He quickly became known for his dynamic impressionist style and fine design. The teachings of William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) in Venice, inspiration from the art of Claude Monet (1840-1926) in Paris, and a concern for modernist aesthetics proved to be Grant’s most significant influences when producing paintings such as Female Bather with Swan. This large composition presents the hallmark characteristics of Grant’s cumulative style. In Female Bather with Swan, the verdant scenery provides an impressive environment for the romantic subject matter. The surface of the canvas is rich and painterly, with each stroke of the staccato brushwork defined by luminous color. The artwork is dominated by a flourishing landscape, yet the presence of the female nude and the swan offers a meditation on the interplay of imagination and reality. Swans are recurrent in mythology and folklore, usually as traditional symbols of beauty and grace, such as the heroine in Swan Lake, the Swan-Maidens that appear in Norse legend, or as the companions of Aphrodite.2 The tranquility and softness of the white bird is reflected in the composure of the female bather, who rests by the water’s edge. Richness of color, knowledge of structure, and essence of atmosphere distinguished Grant’s artwork for the rest of his life. His compositions received various prizes, most notably from the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to Oakland, California shortly after World War II, and remained artistically active until his death at the age of seventy-two. —CRM 1 America Gone Modern: From the Twenties to the Sixties, exhibition catalogue (New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2000), 2 Jack Tressider, “Swan” in The Complete Dictionary of Symbols (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005), 459. 42 49. Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In its original 5" Stanford White gilt frame. Expertly cleaned. 43 Susan Ricker Knox (1874–1959) In the Push Cart Market, 1922 Signed “Susan Ricker Knox” lower left oil on board 14" x 18" United Colors S usan Ricker Knox excelled at painting portraits and figure works of mothers with children, often commissioned by wealthy American families. She was also known for pen and ink silhouettes, but it was her studies of Ellis Island immigrants that captured the nation’s interest. In 1920, for ninety days she traveled to the island to paint, producing thirty-two studies of recent immigrants from many ethnic backgrounds. A curator for the Clergy Club in New York asked to exhibit the works in 1921, and it was there that the chairman of the Immigration and Naturalization Committee of the House of Representatives saw them. At the time, there was much deliberation regarding immigration quotas among members of Congress, and this man asked to have the works displayed in the Committee Room at the House of Representatives to reiterate his position that quotas were needed.1 Knox, a native of New Hampshire, studied at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia with Howard Pyle (18531911), the Cooper Union Art School in New York City with Douglas Volk (1856-1935) and Clifford Grayson (1857-1951). She then studied in Europe from 1906 to 1907. During summers in York Harbor, Maine she and her mother paid for their lodging with their paintings. She also traveled widely in the Southwest, where until the mid-1930s she painted during the winters. However, she lived primarily in New York City. The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed the transformation of New York City into a teeming and thriving metropolis. In the 1920s, the city was home to nearly six million residents and was a center of manufacturing, commerce, and culture.2 The influx of immigrants through ports, by road, and by rail had a dynamic impact on the city and its ever-growing population. Knox wrote, “I followed immigrants down into the streets of the lower East Side of New York, and found them established in their businesses, and a part of the commercial activities of their adopted land. I think art should concern itself with the conditions of the time in which the artist lives, especially when color is so rampant as in the lives of these foreigners.”3 Created in 1922 with the artist’s unyielding strokes and high-contrast palette, In the Push Cart Market exemplifies the beginning stages of this diverse vibrancy. The artwork epitomizes the vigor and commotion of the crowded city marketplace, both in its subject matter and style. Knox draws on the visible world but also displays the essence of the experience in the composition’s abstract formulations. Knox’s artistic career and residency in New York City coincided with the development of the Ashcan 1 Deborah M. Child and Jane D. Kaufmann, Susan Ricker Knox: Portsmouth and Beyond (American Art Review, Volume X, Number 4, July-August 1998), pp. 134-139. 2 Nancy Foner, From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 2. 3 Paul E. Sternberg, Sr., Centennial Exhibition 1889-1989 by Members Past and Present of the National Association of Women Artists (Gainesville: Brenau College, 1990), 33. 44 School, a group of observational realist painters who worked in the city and whose subjects were from everyday, mostly working-class urban life. While she was not a member of this school, Knox was inspired by the vigorous, painterly freedom and humanist agenda of the Ashcan artists. Though Knox was prolific, few of her works have been seen by the public in the years since her death in Concord, New Hampshire in 1959. Many of her paintings are still in the families for whom she painted them, and have never been sold. In the Push Cart Market is a rare and significant example of not only her life’s work, but her belief that art should be concerned with social conditions in order to raise awareness of them. —CRM Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 5" reproduction gilt modernist frame with slight ogee design. 45 Guy C. Wiggins (1883–1962) Springtime, New Haven, 1930 Signed “Guy Wiggins” lower right, titled and dated on verso oil on canvas 25" x 30" B y the time he established the Guy Wiggins Art School in 1930, Wiggins was already one of the nation’s best known impressionist painters. His views of New York in winter and the Connecticut countryside in the warmer seasons were in increasingly high demand. Once word spread that he had opened his own school, Wiggins quickly registered enough students to offer classes in Old Lyme during the summer and New Haven in the winter. Springtime, New Haven looks down Temple Street and includes the facades of Center Church and the United Congregational Church, two of the three famed “houses of worship” that anchor the town green. Behind them, the green continues to the boundary of Yale College, marked by the silhouette of Phelp’s Gate in the distance. While Wiggins continued his school in Old Lyme for the next seven years and later took it with him when he relocated across the Connecticut River to Essex, evidence suggests that the New Haven branch was only active in 1930. Still, Wiggins was a key figure in Elm City art circles and was a member of the New Haven Paint and Clay Club. Springtime, New Haven is executed with the same broken brushstrokes and bustling composition as Wiggin’s famous winter scenes of New York. Like many of those paintings, the artist’s view here is also elevated. The panorama of architecture, especially the inclusion of the two ancient churches, lends a feeling of timelessness mitigated by the hurry of students and the presence of automobiles. Wiggins himself was notoriously unsentimental about his work and painting in general, but here, with the grandeur of New Haven and Yale by his hand, it is tempting to view the painting as a collision of American treasures. —JFN 46 Provenance From a private Chicago collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In its original 4" Newcomb-Macklin gilt cove frame with period detail. 47 Guy C. Wiggins (1883–1962) Winter, Washington Square, circa 1935 signed “Guy Wiggins NA” lower right oil on canvas 25" x 30" Wiggins Goes to Washington (Square) G uy Wiggins built his fame on impressionist winter scenes of New York. He painted throughout the city, from Central Park down to Wall Street, often seeking out an elevated view from which he could capture a panoramic sense of the urban landscape. But of all his New York subjects, Washington Square was among his most favored. From the late 1930s to the early 1940s, he kept a studio on Washington Square South, and he “painted every angle of the Square from that window, at all hour and in all kinds of weather, as well as at all seasons of the year.”1 Wiggins’ fascination with winter scenes began about 1921, when he painted a small view of Washington Square for an exhibition in Richmond, Virginia. His winter paintings sold rapidly and provided him with a relatively reliable source of income. Winter, Washington Square is a classic Wiggins composition, built on a combination of architecture, bustling crowds, and automobiles or public transportation. These elements reflect the city’s vitality, even in the coldest months, and contribute to his persistent appeal. Wiggins learned to paint by observing his father, Carleton Wiggins (1848-1932), the eminent American Barbizon school and tonalist painter. Carleton exposed his son to a variety of landscapes, from the English Autumn in the Rock Lot signed, Guy Wiggins, lower left oil on canvas 25" x 30" seaside, to New Jersey marshes, to the rolling hillsides of Lyme, where the elder Wiggins was a founding member of the Lyme Art Colony. Lyme would become the younger Wiggins’ home away from New York. While his landscapes of meadows and forest interiors display the same technical mastery as his city scenes, Wiggins in winter is the artist at his most famous. —JFN 1 Anne Cohen DePietro, Wiggins, Wiggins & Wiggins (New York: Joan Whalen Fine Art, 1998), 8. 48 Provenance From a private Connecticut collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 5" Arts & Crafts reproduction gilt frame. Expertly cleaned and lined. 49 Robert Bruce Crane (1857–1937) November, circa 1925 signed “Bruce Crane–NA” lower right oil on canvas 30" x 40" Mist of Memory T owards the end of Robert Bruce Crane’s career, he was less interested in strict representation and more so in discovering and depicting “intimate pockets of nature that held what were for him universal truths.”1 It was with this mindset, typical of tonalist artists, that the poetically refined November was created. Crane’s focus on tonal painting grew out of his training with Alexander Helwig Wyant (1836-1892) and his interest in French Barbizon painting, which he encountered in France at Grez-sur-Loing in 1882. At Grez-sur-Loing, he was introduced to the art of Jean Charles Cazin (1841-1901), a leading French landscape painter of the nineteenth century. Crane praised the artist’s ability in a letter to his father from France, noting that in the work of Cazin “tone is the thing sought for, objects are never modeled, and everything is treated as a flat mass.”2 Cazin also relied more on memory and imagination than sketches and other records when painting, which contributed to Crane’s later tendency to do the same, sacrificing the accuracy of specific details in exchange for the beauty of color, line, feeling, and mood. Although Crane was a leading practitioner of American tonalism, he was also accomplished in impressionist and Barbizon styles of painting. November portrays a skillful balance between these two artistic sensibilities. The patchwork and delicate transitions of gray and mauve betray the inclinations of a tonalist. An overcast sky veils a diffused light. These subtle shifts in color are interspersed with distinctive elements: distant hills, a leafless tree, cart paths, a tree stump, and a fieldstone wall. Furthermore, the broken brushwork in the foreground and rich sense of atmosphere have impressionist qualities. The rich green patches in the field provide the last semblances of summer and bridge the two styles seamlessly. A quiet landscape, November beautifully expresses Crane’s interests as a painter. Here, Crane conveys a mood of tranquility by limiting his palette to monochromatic tones and by creating a horizontal composition of barren simplicity. The composition characteristically combines observation and memory; the forms dissolve into each other as if quickly viewed in a passing glance, saturated in an impenetrable mist. Along with Henry Ward Ranger (1858-1916) and J. Francis Murphy (1853-1921), Crane popularized the tonalist style at the art colony in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where he spent his summers beginning about 1904. He moved to Bronxville, New York in 1914 and resided there for more than two decades until his death in 1937. —CRM 1 Charles Teaze Clark, “The Touch of Man: The Landscapes of Bruce Crane” in Bruce Crane: American Tonalist (Old Lyme: Lyme Historical Society, 1984), 12. 2 Barbara J. MacAdam, “Biographies of the Artists” in Old Lyme: The American Barbizon (Old Lyme: Lyme Historical Society, 1982), 37. 50 Provenance From the trade to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a stunning 4" period Art & Crafts gilt frame with corner detail. Expertly cleaned. 51 Wilson H. Irvine (1869–1936) Winter Brook, circa 1930 signed “Irvine” lower right oil on canvas 25" x 30" Prism of Winter I n 1983, Mongerson Galleries of Chicago held the largest exhibition of Wilson Irvine’s work since his death in 1936.1 The event was a reclaiming of sorts. Irvine had been born in Illinois and had established himself as an artist in Chicago, but his association with the Old Lyme Art Colony and his long residence in nearby Hamburg distanced him from his Midwestern roots. Mongerson’s exhibition recalled the magnificent and numerous solo exhibitions of Irvine’s work held in Chicago in 1914, 1916-17, 1922, and in 1924.2 The effect of such an exhibition in 1983 was to re-establish Irvine as a national artist whose appeal reached beyond the eastern seaboard. Wilson Irvine first came to Old Lyme in either 1905 or 1906, and spent three consecutive summers in the region beginning around 1914. In 1918, he purchased “Brooksound,” an attractive colonial manse just east of Hamburg Cove.3 From then until 1928, Irvine’s career made steady progress and he exhibited throughout the country, including Atlanta, an uncommon venue for a New England artist. In 1928, Irvine left on a painter’s grand tour of Europe, visiting museums from Madrid to Paris. He returned in April of 1929 and the following summer entered a new phase of his career. Winter Brook is a sterling example of Irvine’s “prismatic” style, which he exhibited for the first time in Old Lyme in the summer of 1929, though he may have first experimented with the technique as early as 1926.4 The following March, he exhibited twenty-two prismatic paintings at Grand Central Art Galleries. “Any object viewed through a prism, [Irvine] stated, developed around its edges a halo of refracted light, more greenish against a light background and more reddish against a dark.”5 While some prismatic paintings distort the subject, in Winter Brook Irvine’s revolutionary method amplifies the glint of light off the snow and water, and strengthens the composition. Though Old Lyme remains his primary association, Irvine is celebrated today as a leading American artist of national reputation. He was a member of the Chicago Society of Artists, the Cliff Dwellers, the Salmagundi Club, the National Arts Club, and the Lyme Art Association. The renowned collection of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, now at the Florence Griswold Museum, includes two of his paintings. —JFN 1 Wilson Irvine, exhibition catalogue (Chicago: Mongerson Galleries, 1983), i-iii. 2 Harold Spencer, Wilson Henry Irvine and the Poetry of Light (Old Lyme: Florence Griswold Museum, 1998), 58. 3 Spencer, 24. 4 Harold Spencer, “Wilson Henry Irvine” in American Art Review, vol. x, no. 4 (1998), 131. 5 Spencer, “Wilson Henry Irvine”, 132. 52 Provenance From a private New Jersey collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In an ornate 5" period Barbizon gilt frame with pineapple corners. Expertly cleaned. 53 Ogden Minton Pleissner (1905–1983) Vezin, 1933 signed “Pleissner” lower right oil on canvas 29½" x 273 8 " A Master Paints His Mentor V ezin is a poignant tribute to Ogden Pleissner’s mentor, the artist Charles Vezin (18581942). A rare and brilliant example of Pleissner’s draftsmanship and sensitivity to the figure—Vezin’s hunched concentration, the scattering of canvases, the Manhattan harbor visible through the window painted more in Vezin’s style than Pleissner’s own—all transcend the details of representation to capture the soul of the subject. Executed alongside Pleissner’s other Brooklyn scenes from this period, most notably Brooklyn Heights, Vezin stands out as a true masterpiece of American art. Born into an upper middle class German-American family from Brooklyn, New York, Pleissner’s parents encouraged him to attend Williams College, but instead he enrolled in classes at the Art Students League in Manhattan.1 It was there he likely first met Vezin, himself an alumnus of the school and a close friend of the legendary art instructor Frank Vincent DuMond (1865-1951). Both Vezin and DuMond embraced Pleissner for his talent and his inclination to carry on the representational tradition in the face of modernism’s growing popularity. Pleissner maintained a close friendship with Vezin. The two men had much in common. Vezin prided himself on his German heritage and maintained a studio near Pleissner’s family on the Brooklyn waterfront, the same studio where Pleissner painted his portrait. Pleissner’s father and Vezin worked in similar industries, importing different types of cloth from Europe.2 And perhaps most significantly, both Vezin and Pleissner credited DuMond with having a profound impact on their artistic development. During the 1933 Lyme Art Exhibition, then a nationally significant event, the portrait hung alongside several works by Vezin featuring his beloved subjects— the New York skyline and the harbors of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The painting itself was nearly destroyed shortly after its completion. In late June of 1933, Vezin arranged with Pleissner’s wife, Mary, to ship the painting to Boxwood, a boarding house in Old Lyme where Vezin occasionally rented rooms. On July 3, Vezin wrote to Mary: Vezin by Ogden M. Pleissner arrived yesterday morning, in a very large box because it was packed with three of my frames. It was so large and heavy that I had it laid flat on the piazza below the outside studio at Boxwood. It has a big imprint across the front “Keep Dry”, which was hardly appropriate as Connecticut has just gone wet!3 I left the box there, for a visit to Popsky’s Roost [his Grassy Hill studio] with the sky a beautiful clear blue and no indication of trouble. While I was gone there came a veritable cloudburst and tornado, which broke down a lot of fine trees in this section. I was caught in this storm in my car, coming 1 Peter Bergh, The Art of Ogden M. Pleissner (Boston: David R. Godine, 1984), 3. 2 Bergh, 3. 3 This comment is likely a reference to Connecticut’s passage of the 21st Amendment which ended Prohibition. Vezin was accustomed to enjoying a moderate glass of beer a day. 54 down the back road from Grassy Hill to Popsky’s Roost. The woods were black as night, and I had to drive very slowly for fear of running into fallen trees. My first thought was of that box containing Vezin. I immediately rushed to look at it and found Ah Yow, that Chinese servant you have seen, had spread a lot of Chinese umbrellas all over that box. Bless her Oriental heart! I opened the box with trembling and found the layers of wrapping paper forming depressions filled with water. But, thank heaven, the paper was tough enough to hold the water and there was no damage whatsoever.4 The portrait did not sell during the exhibition and has remained in the Vezin family until the present offering. In 1932, the Metropolitan Museum of American Art purchased Pleissner’s Backyards, Brooklyn, making him at 27 the youngest artist in the museum’s collection at the time. Vezin exceeds that effort, and is unquestionably the most significant Pleissner to be offered in recent memory. —JFN Provenance From a private collection in Connecticut to the gallery. Presentation Notes In its original 4" gilt cove frame. 4 Charles Vezin, letter to Mary Pleissner, July 3, 1933, Old Lyme, CT. Vezin family archive. 55 Winfield Scott Clime (1881–1958) Pleasant Valley, circa 1935 signed “Winfield Scott Clime” lower right, signed again, titled, and inscribed “Old Lyme, Conn” on verso. oil on canvas 30" x 36" The Artist’s Masterpiece B orn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1881, Winfield Scott Clime trained at both the Corcoran Art School and the Art Students League in New York.1 While primarily identified with the Old Lyme Art Colony, Clime built the early stages of his career in Washington, DC where he, along with Charles Seaton (1865-1926), co-founded a group originally known as “The Ramblers” in 1916, though in 1919 they took on the more formal name, the Landscape Club of Washington.2 After a brief stop in Jersey City, New Jersey, Clime eventually came to Connecticut and it was while he was living in Old Lyme that Clime reached the peak of his career, evidenced by three consecutive showings at the National Academy of Design from 1931 to 1933.3 In Old Lyme, Clime was best known for his graphically strong compositions that reflected the New England lifestyle made popular during the previous century by printmakers such as Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888). Pleasant Valley presents an Old Lyme hillside divided vertically by bold trees and horizontally by a high-keyed waterway, likely the Eight Mile River. Small homes dot the landscape, hinting at the quaintness that is usually more prominent in Clime’s work. Here the architecture blends into the landscape and allows the painting to stand on its considerable merit. The light falling on the swale, the course of the river, the distant vista, and the cool shadow where the artist has placed the viewer, all combine to create Clime’s most ambitious and successful effort. —JFN 1 Jane Hayward and William Ashby McCloy, eds. The Art Colony at Old Lyme: 1900-1935 (New London: Connecticut College, 1966), 59. 2 www.askart.com. 3 Peter Falk, ed. The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design: 1901-1950 (Madison: Sound View Press, 1990), 134. 56 Provenance From the trade to the gallery, to a private Connecticut collection, to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 5" contemporary gilt frame with corner and side ornaments, gilt liner also with corner detail. Original stretcher attached to new stretcher. Expertly cleaned and lined. 57 Carl J. Lawless (1894–1964) Snow in the Washoe Valley, circa 1940 signed lower right oil on canvas 30" x 30" The Sierra Nevadas in Sharp Relief C arl Lawless, a native of Illinois, studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts prior to World War I. As a recipient of the Cresson traveling scholarship from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he studied in Europe after the war’s end. Upon his return he relocated to Pennsylvania. He became enchanted by the shore town of Mystic, Connecticut when visiting a married couple with whom he had studied in Europe. He later purchased a home in Mystic in 1925 and immediately became an active member in the budding local art association.1 The most notable aspect of Lawless’ approach to landscape painting is his ability to incorporate certain “patterns into an overall design that [is] authentic to nature.”2 Snow in the Washoe Valley is a cool, crisp snowscape that focuses on the serene geometry of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Lawless occasionally visited this barn in the Washoe Valley at the invitation of George Leonard (1869-?), owner of the ranch and a fellow member of the Mystic Art Association. His bold and vigorous style in depicting the scene is characterized by highly structured forms which represent the underlying design of nature. The spatial relationships of the panoramic scene are defined by the details, such as the vegetation scattered along the mountainside appropriately rendered in accordance with linear perspective. Fresh Snow in the Village signed “Carl Lawless” lower right oil on canvas 18" x 18" Light and shadow also have a prominent role in the composition’s definition of space, a quality which Lawless most likely adopted from a fellow Mystic resident and member of the art association, Charles Harold Davis (1856-1933). Davis, too, is well known for his richly hued scenes with an emphasis on the effects of natural light. Davis used subtle shifts in color to fill the air with depth, just as Lawless does in Snow in the Washoe Valley. The clearly defined angles of the 1 Priscilla W. Pratt and Lois H. Constantine, “Carl Lawless” in News and Views (1998), 7. 2 Pratt and Constantine, 7. 58 buildings, as well as the path leading over the land in the foreground, create the proscenium for the majestic scene beyond. These aesthetic elements, when paired with the artist’s dazzling palette, produce a striking and exceptional work of art. —CRM Provenance A private collection in Mystic, Connecticut to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 4½" period reproduction gilt cove frame with modernist corner detail. 59 Priscilla Warren Roberts (1916–2001) Tulips, circa 1950 unsigned oil on board 24" x 18" Magical Realist? P riscilla Roberts described herself as a realist painter, not the “magic realist” critics and curators labeled her. Implied in the difference between the terms is that Roberts’ method of viewing the world was, to her, straightforward, while others saw in her still-lifes and portraits the uncovered magic of everyday things.1 In the United States, the magic realist movement can be traced to the seminal 1943 exhibition American Realists and Magic Realists at the Museum of Modern Art. The title of the exhibition suggests that the struggle to define what separated the two styles existed as long as the magic realist movement itself. Alfred H. Barr, the inaugural director of MOMA, attempted to clarify magic realism as: “a term sometimes applied to work of painters who by means of an exact realist technique try to make plausible and convincing their improbable, dreamlike or fantastic visions.”2 In its highly stylized composition and moderately skewed palette, Tulips is a fine cross-section of realism and fantastic vision. The arrangement hints at animation, as if the flowers bent themselves over for an improved view of their environment. The almost eerie greens and purples are further evidence of altered perception, and the scattered leaves and petals confirm that, like all things alive, the subject is also in decay, a fact that anchors the composition in the “real” world. Roberts was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey and was determined from a young age to be an artist. She Self Portrait with Books unsigned oil on canvas 19 ¾" x 24" studied briefly at Radcliffe College and the Yale School of Art, but received her primary art instruction at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. She lived the majority of her life in Wilton, Connecticut and her artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, and other institutions. She exhibited extensively at the National Academy of Design, winning both the Hallgarten Prize in 1947 and the Proctor Portrait Prize in 1969.3 1 www.askart.com. 2 Dorothy C. Miller, “Forward and Acknowledgement” in American Realists and Magic Realists, exhibition catalogue (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1943), 5. 3 Peter Falk, ed. Who Was Who in American Art, vol. III (Madison: Soundview Press, 1999), 2788. 60 —JFN Provenance From the artist, to a private Connecticut collection, to the gallery. Presentation Notes In a 4" contemporary Whistler-style gilt frame. 61 Ralph Eugene Cahoon, Jr. (1910–1982) The Goose Hunt, circa 1955 signed “R. Cahon” lower right oil on masonite 19" x 24" Surprise in the Water I n her exceptional article, “Mermaids and More: The Whimsical Primitives of Ralph Cahoon,” Madelia Hickman identifies three types of Cahoon paintings: satires of historical events, satires of everyday events set against the backdrop of specific geographical locations, and fantastical scenes.1 The Goose Hunt is a sterling example of the latter. A father and son have gone out to hunt geese by boat, only to have a mermaid, both hunter and hunted in the fairy tales, deliver the prey. To a degree, the narrative is symbolically American—a journey into the wilderness in search of one thing yields the discovery of something wholly different. As Hickman notes, the innate “American-ness” of Cahoon’s paintings explain their popular appeal. Cahoon’s coterie of symbols—mermaids, hot air balloons, and other anachronistic collisions of technology, history, and legend—reinforce the idea of America as myth. Simply put, in this country, anything is possible. Ralph Cahoon was born in Chatham, Massachusetts and studied at the School of Practical Art in Boston. He worked part-time as an antiques dealer and kept a shop in Osterville on Cape Cod. Cahoon and his wife, fellow artist Martha Farham, later moved to Cotuit, where they established a permanent home and studio. Cahoon first experimented with what has become his trademark style in 1953. After his death in 1982, his home was converted to a museum.2 The Cahoon Museum of American Art remains open today. —JFN 1 Madelia Hickman, “Mermaids and More: The Whimsical Primitives of Ralph Cahoon,” in Antiques and Fine Art magazine < http://antiquesandfineart.com/articles/article.cfm?request=459>, 2008. 2 Hickman. 62 Provenance From a private Connecticut collection to the gallery. Presentation Notes In its original 3" walnut cove frame with gilt liner. 63 www.cooleygallery.com