Tag: Art History

Mary Evelyn Wrinch

Mary Evelyn Wrinch

“…I have always been a person with one idea.  I had no other ambition than to become an artist.  It was the only thing I ever wanted to do...”

Mary E. Wrinch A.R.C.A.

Mary Evelyn Wrinch, an English-born Canadian, was born in 1877 in the Northeast Essex village of Kirby-le-Soken.  Her parents were Leonard and Elizabeth Cooper Wrinch.  When Mary was eight years old her father died and she and her mother emigrated to Bronte, Ontario, and after a return trip  to England, in 1889, they relocated permanently to Canada and went to live in Toronto.

Blossom Time by Mary E Wrinch

Whilst living in Toronto, Mary attended Bishop Strachan School, a private school in the Forest Hill area and Canada’s oldest independent day and boarding school.  In 1889, Mary Wrinch enrolled at the Central Ontario School of Art where she studied with George Agnew Reid along with Impressionist painter, Laura Adeline Muntz and naturalist painter, Robert Holmes.  It was a four-year course during which she studied both printmaking and painting.

Wakefield Garden by Mary E Wrinch (1917)

After achieving a number of awards, she began graduate studies at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London and remained there until 1899 under the direction of Walter Donne. After this, Mary Wrinch returned to Toronto where she again studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design with Lyall, Holmes and Reid.  She later enrolled for two private art classes, one in London, England with Alyn Williams, a Welsh artist born in Wrexham,  who later became president of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters.  The other private classes she attended was in New York, run by Alice Beckington, an American artist who was a founder member of the American Society of Miniature Painters, an organization she served as president for a number of years, from 1905 to 1916.  She also taught miniature painting at the Art Students League.

Poppies by Mary E Wrinch (1917)

When Mary was in her early twenties she opened her own studio in the Arcade Building on Toronto’s Yonge Street.  Her former tutors, George Agnew Reid and Laura Muntz also had studios in the building. Around this time Mary began to concentrate her art with specialized miniature portraits.  In 1906, she travelled to France and was strongly influenced by the works of Monet, Pissarro and Sisley and when she returned to Canada, she brought back a large number of small, beautifully crafted Impressionist sketches.  Her time in France also converted her to plein air landscape painting and she recalled that time saying:

“… It was such a revelation being in France at that time.   Coming into contact with Impressionism was like being let loose with a box of coloured candy…”

Falling Leaves by Mary E Winch

In 1912 she returned to Europe for a second time and travelled around France and Italy, continuously sketching and painting.  Although pleased with her work there were many detractors in the press who claimed her northern Ontario landscape paintings were too modernist.  She was undeterred and carried on painting until 1928 when she stopped and concentrated on colour woodcuts.

Class at Bishop Strachan School, Toronto (1915)

Mary Wrinch, apart from dedicating her life to her art, was still a single woman and had also to support herself financially and so taught art at the Bishop Strachan School, Toronto, her alma mater, and Canada’s oldest independent day and boarding school for girls.  She worked there from 1901 until 1936 as Art Director. 

Abitibi Canyon, Ontario by Mary E Winch

Mary owned a summer residence in a two-storey cottage at Kingwood, Lake of Bays, a township municipality within the District Municipality of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, situated 193 kilometres (120 miies) north of Toronto.  Mary spent hours sketching and painting and for relaxation and exercise would canoe on the lake. It was, whilst living in the beautiful Ontario landscape, that she changed her method of painting.  She now painted directly from nature on canvases over a metre high and wide.

Sawmill, Muskoka by Mary Wrinch (1907)

In 1907 she exhibited her large (84 x 86cms) painting entitled Sawmill, Muskoka at the Ontario Society of Artists.  It was subsequently purchased by the Government of Ontario.  Six years later she was interviewed about this work and its size and she justified it saying:

“…Somehow our Canadian landscapes call for a big canvas and for direct, out of door painting. When you do it small, you lose much of its very essence…”

Funchal Madeira by Mary E Winch

Although spending summers at Lake of Bays, during the Winter months she stayed and worked in her studio in Wychwood Park,  an arts and crafts community, founded in the late nineteenth century, as a private project by painter Marmaduke Matthews and businessman Alexander Jardine. Between 1900 and 1922 she worked closely with and studied under George Agnew Reid, a well known Toronto painter and former tutor.

Mortgaging the Homestead by G A Reid

After briefly apprenticing with an architect, Reid was trained at the Ontario School of Art, Toronto in 1879, where he studied with Robert Harris.  From there, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1882 to 1885 where he was a protégé of Thomas Eakins who appointed him a demonstrator in anatomy classes.  He also studied at the Académie Julian, with Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, and the Prado in Madrid.   George Agnew Reid, who signed his name as G. A. Reid, was a Canadian artist, painter, influential educator and administrator.  He is best known for his genre paintings, but his work also included historical, portrait and landscape subjects.

Portrait of George Agnew Reid by Mary Hiester Reid, (1895)

Reid met his first wife artist Mary Hiester Reid at the Pennsylvania Academy, and the couple married in 1885.  Mary, also a talented artist, became financially successful and received significant reviews in the Toronto press. In 1893, she was elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, one of the first women elected.  He and his wife also made a number of study trips to Europe later, during which they visited France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. George Agnew Reid remained with his wife until her death in 1921.

Ponte Vecchio Florence by Mary E Wrinch (1914)

Mary Wrinch had known Reid since being his student and also was part of Reid and his wife’s circle of artistic friends in Wychwood Park.  The Park was an ideal painting site for its beauty which was then still a rural region on the edge of the city.  The park which was named by Marmaduke Matthews after Wychwood forest in Oxfordshire, England.  Reid had built himself and his wife an Elizabethan-styled grand manor house with a walled garden and a pool known as Upland Cottage.   In 1910 Reid built Mary Wrinch an independent home-studio on Alcina Avenue which was just one block away from where he and his wife Mary lived.

Cineraria by Mary E Winch (1924)

A year later in 1922, following the death of his wife, Reid married forty-five-year-old Mary Evelyn Wrinch his former student at the Central Ontario School of Art in Toronto. Once married, Mary moved into Upland Cottage and was delighted to take charge of the large garden. Later the couple went off exploring and painting the beauty of Northern Canada, visiting Northern Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Despite marrying Reid, Mary Winch persisted in using her maiden name, Mary E. Winch when signing her paintings. For her it was important to maintain her professional identity.

Scarboro’ Linocut by May E Wrinch (c.1938)

In 1928, when Mary Wrinch was fifty-one, she decided on a complete change of artistic style.  She then embraced the art of lino-cut printing and copied her original landscape paintings to achieve intricate highly colourful prints with strong outlines.  She also completed floral prints using flowers from her own garden. Mary was influenced by the Japanese woodcut masters such as Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro and from their works she developed techniques in block printmaking. By 1944 Mary Wrinch had completely given up painting to concentrate on her printmaking.

After 25 years of marriage to Wrinch, her husband, George Agnew Reid died at the age of 87 in 1947.  Mary Wrinch died in Toronto in 1969 at age 90.

Apart from Wikipedia, most of the information for this blog came from these excellent websites:

Moynahan Studio: FemArt Friday: Mary Evelyn Wrinch

Art Windsor Essex

Female self-Representation and the Public Trust

Jean-Pierre Valentin Gallery

Rookleys

Emma Fordyce MacRea

Detail from Emma Fordyce MacRea by Ivan Gregorewitch Olinsky (1930)

Emma Dean Fordyce was born on April 27th 1887 in Vienna.  She was the first-born child of Alice Dean Fordyce (née Smith) a woman of inherited wealth and Dr. John Addison Forsyth.  Her father was a professor of dermatology who was born in Guernsey County, Ohio and graduated in medicine from Northwestern University Medical College in 1881 and after a number of posts in America, travelled to Europe and spent the major part of this time in Vienna.   He returned to America in 1888, a year after his daughter was born and took up posts as a professor at New York University and later Columbia University.

Oriental Backgroumd by Emma Fordyce MacRea (1928)

Emma was brought up in a wealthy household and became interested in the arts through the family’s regular trips to Europe for her father’s work.  Her primary education was at Miss Chapin’s School, an all-girls independent day school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighbourhood in New York City.  From there she attended the Brearley School, an American all-girls private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. 

October Winds by Emma Fordyce MacRea (1914)

In 1910, twenty-three-year-old Emma married Thomas MacRea an intern at her father’s practice.  The marriage was a disaster and lasted less than twelve months.  In 1921 the marriage was annulled and a year later Emma married Homer Swift.  With her first marriage over in 1911 she decided to carry on with studying art and enrolled at the Art Students League under Frank Vincent du Mond, Luis Mora and Kenneth Hayes Miller.  She also took classes at the New York School of Art. In 1914 one of Emma’s paintings entitled October Winds was shown at the Anderson Galleries in New York.  It was a work in the Impressionist style .  Few of her earlier had a richer palette and a hint of form  and few of her very early works exist.  In the 2008 Cape Ann Museum Exhibition catalogue it stated that Emma had already laid down the subjects she favoured for her art.  They were landscapes, floral still life and female figurative compositions. She worked in a flat, linear, primarily two-dimensional style with references to Old Masters and Japanese prints.  MacRae was known for her unique painting style where she used paint sparingly and often scrapped away sections of paint to reveal a textured, chalky canvas. These techniques gave her paintings an antiqued look, while also feeling modern.

The Clam House, an etching by Arthur Wesley Dow (c.1892)

In the early 1920s Emma’s painting style changed.  Despite great reviews of her work exhibited in New York and Boston galleries she decided to move away from Impressionism and create her own artistic style.  We cannot be certain as to why she changed her painting style but it could be due to her second round of coursework at the Art Students League.  It could also have been the change in her personal life or what she had read in Arthur Wesley Dow’s influential book, Composition A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers.  Dow was an American painter, printmaker, photographer, and educator known for his teachings based on Japanese principles of art and for his significant artistic and intellectual contributions to the Arts and Crafts movement.  Dow taught that rather than copying nature, individuals should create art through elements of the composition, such as line, mass, and colour.

Easter Lily by Emma Fordyce MacRea

An example of this change in Emma’s style could be seen in her painting entitled Easter Lily.

It is interesting to note that in many of her female figurative paintings she had focused not just on the sitter but various background items.

Left: Leonore in White by Emma Fordyce MacRea. Right: Ruth by Emma Fordyce MacRea.

In Emma’s painting, Leonore in White, the female figure is holding her book on her lap whilst in the background we have an oval mirror and on a table in the background there is a flower-filled vase. In the other painting, Ruth, we see another female reading with her book on the table and has a background of a painting and a blue upholstered chair.

Left: Distant Mountains by Emma Fordyce MacRea Right: 5 O’Clock by Emma Fordyce MacRea

In the subdued palette used in her painting, Distant Mountains the female wears her green dress which echoes the colour of the ground in the landscape that we see in the valley. In her painting, 5 O’Clock, the vibrant orange dress worn by the model is picked up in the deeper tones of the reddish-orange in the wallpaper. Also in the background there is a landscape painting and a large square clock showing the time as 5 O’Clock.

Fishermen’s Huts by Emma Fordyce MacRea

Lobstermen’s Huts by Emma Fordyce MacRea

With just a few exceptions Emma’s landscape paintings could not be classified as pure landscapes as she always populated the depictions with figures, buildings and boats. In her painting Fishermen’s Huts she has depicted the harbour wall and the coastline slicing diagonally through the depiction and by so doing separates the moored boats from the angular houses seen above the harbour.

The Lily by Emma Fordyce MacRae

Emma loved to paint floral still life depictions and would often use hardboiard Masonite as her painting surface and instead of using the front smooth side would instead paint on the gesso-ground rough rear side which in some ways mirrored a canvas surface.  One example of this was her painting entitled The Lily. First she would sketch in the composition with black chalk or a soft pencil and often she would leave some of this under-drawing visible as outlines in the final painting.

Pigeon Cove by Emma Fordyce MacRea (c.1930)

Emma MacRae’s paintings were exhibited at several important museums and galleries throughout the country, such as The National Academy of Design, Pennsylvania Academy, Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, Chicago Art Institute, John Herron Art Institute of Indianapolis (now the Herron School of Art and Design), the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington D.C., Currier Museum of Art, and Boston Art Club. She also exhibited paintings between 1937 and 1945 as part of The Philadelphia Ten Painters, also known as The Ten, which was a group of female artists from the United States who exhibited together from 1917 to 1945. Emma joined several other artist groups, including the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, Allied Artists of America, North Shore Art Association, National Association of Mural Painters, Boston Art Club, and the New York Society of Painters. In 1951, she received full membership in the National Academy of Design.

Foxgloves in Cloisonné Pot by Emma Fordyce MacRea (1934)

Emma Fordyce MacRae, who married twice had one child, Alice MacRae, from her first marriage.   Emma kept her first married name throughout her professional painting career but for personal matters, after her second marriage to Dr. Homer Swift, went by the name “Swift” .

Rockport Beach, Cape Ann, Massachusetts by Emma Fordyce MacRea (1935)

In 1916, Emma’s father purchased some prime real estate land in the hills overlooking  Stage Fort Park, at Stage Head just west of Gloucester MA ,and on it he had a house built. 

Stage Fort across Gloucester Harbor by Fitz Henry Lane, (1862)

When her father died in 1925 the house became hers.  She would spend the summers there and soon built up a large portfolio of paintings depicting surrounding areas.  The house was called Atlantic Heights and in it she had her own studio.

Gloucester Garden by Emma Fordyce MacRea

It had a large garden which was looked after by her husband Homer Swift. It was often a mass of colours and many of the flowers featured in her floral Still Life works as well as in her painting entitled Gloucester Garden.

Emma Fordyce MacRea died on August 6th 1974 aged 87.

Most of the information regarding the life and works of Emma Fordyce MacRea came from two excellent websites:

Cape Ann Museum Archives

and

Cape Ann Museum Catalogue

Théophile “Théo” van Rysselberghe Part 2.

Van Rysselberghe went to Haarlem in September 1883 to study the light in the works of Frans Hals. He was fascinated by the way the artist had rendered the light and this facet of painting would remain with him for the rest of his life. It was also in the Netherlands that he first met the American painter William Merritt Chase.

Fantasia Araba, by Théo Van Rysselberghe (1884)

Having returned from the Netherlands he remained at home for a short while before setting off on his second painting trip to the Moroccan town of Tangier in November 1883 along with Franz Charlet who had accompanied him on his previous trip. He remained in Morocco for twelve months and managed to put together a large number of paintings and sketches. The highlight of which was his large painting (300 x 170cms) entitled Fantasia Araba, which he completed in 1884. It can be seen at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

Even though he was in North Africa Théo remained in close contact with Octave Maus discussing the running of Les XX. Les XX was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus.

Les XX poster for their sixth exhibition in 1889

For ten years, Les XX held an annual exhibition of their art; each year twenty other international artists were also invited to participate in their exhibition. Théo would suggest names of artists to Maus who he believed should be invited to their first exhibition in 1884. In the first year’s show the foreign invitees included Auguste Rodin, John Singer Sargent, Max Liebermann, Whistler and William Merritt Chase

Abraham Sicsu (Consul de Belgique a Tanger) by Théo Van Rysselberghe (1884)

His long stay in North Africa ended in October 1884 when he ran out of money and had to return home to Belgium. Once again he had many completed paintings to exhibit, including Fantasia Araba, at the second Les XX exhibition in 1885. Another of van Rysselberghe’s paintings exhibited was his portrait of Abraham Sicsu who had entered the service of the Belgian legation in Tangier in 1864 as an interpreter. Many famous painters and members of the Belgian royal family had visited him. He was appointed Belgian consul and officer of the Order of Leopold on 8 April 1889 and finally obtained Belgian naturalisation.

Madame Edmond Picard in Her Box at Theatre de la Monnaie by Theo Rysselberghe (1886)

In the 1886 Les XX exhibition van Rysselberghe saw the works of the Impressionist, Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. He was so enthralled by what he saw that he decided to experiment with this artistic technique. An example of this is his 1886 painting entitled Madame Edmond Picard in Her Box at Theatre de la Monnaie.

Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht by Théo van Ryssdalberghe (1886)

… and his Portrait of Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht in which he used a palette of bright colours.

Les Dunes du Zwin, Knokke, by Théo van Rysselberghe (1887)

…and the impressionist style of van Rysselberghe carried on through many of his landscape and seascape painting including his 1887 work entitled Les Dunes du Zwin, Knokke, a municipality of of West Flanders in  Belgium.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat (1886)

Van Rysselberghe had cultivated close ties with the Parisian art scene, so much so that Octave Maus asked Rysselberghe to go to Paris and search out up-and-coming new talent who would be able to take part in future exhibitions of Les XX. Whilst in Paris van Rysselberghe became aware of Pointilism, a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image. It was a hallmark of Neo-Impressionist painters. Théo first saw it when he visited the eighth impressionism exhibition in 1886 and Georges Seurat’s painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Théo and some other Belgian artists brought the pointillism art form back to Belgium but not every art critic was impressed by this new technique. Seurat was invited to exhibit at the 1887 salon of Les XX in Brussels but it received a very unfavourable reception with many art critics labelling it as “incomprehensible gibberish applied to the noble art of painting”.

Anna Boch by Théo van Rysselberghe (c. 1889)

Not to be deterred by the art critics’ vitriolic comments Théo decided to change his painting style abandoning realism and became proficient at pointillism. In the summer of 1887, he spent a few weeks in Batignolles, near Paris with Eugène Boch, a brother of Anna Boch, a Belgian painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX. His 1889 painting of Anna Boch is a good example of Théo’s pointillism style. It was while with Eugène Bloc that he met several painters from the Parisian art scene such as Sisley, Signac, Degas and especially Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He took the opportunity to invite several of them, including Signac, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec to the next exhibition of Les XX.

View of Meknès by Théo van Rysselberghe (1888)

In December 1887 Théo was invited, together with Edmond Picard, to accompany a Belgian economic delegation to Meknès, one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom.

Encampment near a Moroccan Village by Théo van Rysselberghe (1888)

Encampment near a Moroccan Village by Théo van Rysselberghe (1888)

His third stay in Morocco lasted three months during which time he completed many coloured pencil sketches, made copious notes and took many photos all of which he used to complete paintings. When he had finished these paintings, he stopped completely with this “Moroccan period” in his life. He now turned to portraiture, resulting in a series of remarkable neo-impressionist portraits.

Portrait of Alice Sèthe by Théo van Rysselberghe (1888)

The portrait of Alice Sèthe was an early one of van Rysselberghe’s divisionist (or pointillist) works which juxtaposes small touches of pure tones on the canvas. Alice stands before us in a beautiful blue and white dress. Behind her are the accoutrements of a luxurious setting. Van Rysselberghe’s mixing of colours no longer takes place on his palette but in the eye of the observer. Théo Van Rysselberghe remains one of the few artists who have put this technique in his portraits. This blue and gold portrait, completed in 1888, would become a turning point in his artistic life.

Portrait of Irma Sèthe by Théo van Rysselberghe (1894)

Gérard Sèthe was a wealthy textile merchant from Brussels who belonged to Van Rysselberghe’s circle of friends. Van Rysselberghe portrayed the Sèthe daughters, Irma, Maria and Alice on several occasions. The portrait of Irma Sèthe depicts her playing the violin. The Sèthe family were very musical with Maria playing the harmonium and Irma was apprenticed to the “King of Violin” Eugène Ysaÿe, a violinist and teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. The Portrait of Irma Sèthe epitomises Van Rysselberghe’s pointillism. The satin of Irma’s dress lights up in full pink, comprised of thousands of dots of unmixed colours. The changing light and colour effects create a strong plastic effect over the folds on Irma’s sleeves and skirt. In Irma’s portrait we see her completely engrossed in playing her violin. Our eyes are fixed on her and yet, maybe unnoticed at first, we see that she is not alone as sitting in the room next to her is another woman sitting in a chair with one hand laid on her blue dress. Why was this other woman included in the portrait? Is Irma aware of her presence? Only van Rysselberghe knows the answers. The portrait was exhibited in 1895 at the Paris Salon des Indépendants, in 1898 at the salon of La Libre Esthétique, and in 1899 at the thirteenth exhibition of the Vienna Secession.

Marie Monnom by Fernand Khnopff  (1887)

Fernand Khnopff completed this Portrait of Marie Monnom in 1887. Her father, a publisher of L’Art moderne in Brussels, had commissioned the work. We see her in Khnopff’s studio sitting in an armchair and seen from the side. It shares a number of elements with several portraits of women painted by Khnopff such as the golden circle on the wall on the upper left, the gloves that Marie is wearing, the framing which slices off the subject’s feet. She does not hold our gaze and her face, although bathed in light, is expressionless. Nothing of her personality shows through.

Sunset at Ambleteuse by Théo van Rysselberghe (1899)

Cap Griz Nez by Théo van Rysselberghe (1900)

On September 16th 1889, Théo van Rysselberghe, a close friend of Khnopff’s, married Marie Monnom and they went on their honeymoon to the south of England and then to Brittany where he made many sketches that he would later turn into finished paintings. In October 1890 their daughter Élisabeth was born.

Élisabeth by Théo van Rysselberghe, (1916)

Madame Theo van Rysselberghe and Her Daughter by Théo van Rysselberghe (1899)

Élisabeth in Straw Hat by Théo van Rysselberghe (1901)

Van Rysselberghe’s wife and daughter featured in many of his portraits.

Olive Trees near Nice by Théo van Rysselberghe (1905)

As the years passed van Rysselberghe used his pointillist technique less frequently and by 1910, he had completely put aside pointillism. His brushstrokes became longer and he used more often vivid colours and more intense contrasts, or softened hues. He had mastered the application of light and heat in his paintings.

Female Bathers Under the Pines at Cavaliere by Théo van Rysselberghe (1905) 

He completed his painting entitled Olive Trees near Nice in 1905 and the technique he used for this work is similar to one used by Vincent van Gogh with its longer brushstrokes in red and mauve becoming prominent in his 1905 painting, Bathing ladies under the Pine Trees at Cavalière.

The Vines in Saint Clair by Théo van Rysselberghe (1912)

Van Rysselberghe was travelling along the Mediterranean coast with his friend, the French Neo-Impressionist painter, Henri-Edmond Cross, looking for a suitable place to live. Cross lived in Saint-Clair and van Rysselberghe immediately fell in love with this coastal location. Théo’s brother Octave, who lived nearby, was an architect and, in 1911, he built a house for his brother. Théo now living on the Côte d’Azur slowly extricated himself from the Brussels art scene.

Bathers by Théo van Rysselberghe (1920)

The Model’s Siesta by Théo van Rysselberghe (1920)

Nude from behind Fixing her Hair by Théo van Rysselberghe (1920)

Now living on the Mediterranean coast many of Théo’s painting featured nearby landscape and coastal scenes. He continu

ed with his portraiture mainly focusing on his family. However in the first two decades of the twentieth century he produced many works featuring female nudity.

Théophile van Rysselberghe died on December 14th 1926 aged 64 and was buried in the cemetery of Lavandou, next to his friend and painter Henri-Edmond Cross.

Once again most of the information for this blog came from various Wikipedia and associated sites.

Théophile “Théo” van Rysselberghe Part 1.

The artist I am looking at today is Théophile “Théo” van Rysselberghe a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who was a major protagonist in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century.

Self-portrait in a Green Waistcoat (1924)

Théo was born in Ghent on November 23rd 1862, the youngest child of Jean-Baptiste and Melanie van Rysselberghe and had five bothers and a sister. He was brought up in a French-speaking middle-class home. His first art training occurred when he attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent studying under the Belgian painter, Theo Canneel.

Oriental Beauty by Jean-François Portaels

In 1879 he enrolled at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels under the directorship of Jean-François Portaels, a Belgian painter of genre scenes, biblical stories, landscapes, portraits and orientalist subjects. Portaels is regarded as the founder of the Belgian Orientalist school and his North African paintings had started an orientalist fashion in Belgium. This aspect of Portaels’ work had a great influence on the young Théo van Rysselberghe, so much so that he made three extended painting trips to Morocco between 1882 and 1888.

Self-portrait with Pipe by Théophile “Théo” van Rysselberghe (1880)

In 1880, when Theo was eighteen years of age he submitted and had accepted two portraits to the Salon of Ghent and that year completed a self-portrait entitled Self Portrait with Pipe. In 1881, he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in Brussels.

Portrait of a Young Spanish Woman by Théophile “Théo” van Rysselberghe

Spanish Woman by Théophile “Théo” van Rysselberghe (1880)

In 1881 Theo made his first trip to Spain and Morocco, along with his friend Frantz Charlet, a Belgian painter, etcher, and lithographer and the Asturian painter Darío de Regoyos. It was Theo’s intention to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Jean-François Portaels.

Descent from the Cross by Pedro Campaña (1547)

Whilst in Madrid he visited the Museo del Prado and later the trio visited Seville where Théo met Constantin Meunier, who had been commissioned by the Belgian government to copy Pedro Campaña’s Descent from the Cross which was mounted on the back wal of the Sacristia Mayor of Seville Cathedral.

Dario de Regoyos playing the guitar by Théo Van Rysselberghe (1882)

During Théo’s stay in Spain he made time to complete a portrait of his fellow traveller, Darío de Regoyos, playing his guitar.

Arabian Street Cobbler by Théo Van Rysselberghe

Moroccan Market by Théo Van Rysselberghe (1883)

Théo arrived in Tangier at the end of October 1882 and suddenly he realised that he had entered a “new” world, so different from the Europe he had come from. He stayed in the town for four months continually sketching and painting street scenes, the kasbah and the souk.

The Oyster Eater by James Ensor (1883)

In April 1883 he exhibited these scenes of everyday Mediterranean life at the Salon L’Essor, in Brussels. L’Essor was an association of visual artists in Brussels, which was active from 1876 to 1891. Its original aim was to rebel against the conservative tendencies of the art institutions and art circles in Brussels. However in 1883 some of the artists of this group were dissatisfied with the ruling body of the group with regards its admission policy, lack of direction and their controversial decision to reject Belgian Expressionist painter James Ensor’s The Oyster Eater in the 1883 L’Essor Salon. However, it has to be remembered that the previous year the Antwerp Salon jurists had rejected the same painting. It is thought that the rejection was because of the sexual overtones suggested by a single young woman eating oysters, which at the time was considered to be an aphrodisiac.

Portraits of or work by the 11 original founders of Les XX. Upper register, left to right: Darío de Regoyos y Valdés, Guillaume van Strydonck, Théo van Rysselberghe, Fernand Khnopff and a portrait of Willy Finch by Magnus Enckell. Bottom, left to right: La donna morta by Willy Schlobach, Rodolphe Wytsman, Le viatique qui passa (1884) by Charles Goethals, a medal made by Paul Du Bois, and a painting by Frantz Charlet. Right, larger image: James Ensor.

Portrait of Octave Maus by Théo Van Rysselberghe

Portrait of Octave Maus by Théo Van Rysselberghe (1885)

Van Rysselberghe and James Ensor were two of the eleven artists who left L’Essor and became founding members of the breakaway group, Les XX. Les XX became a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus, who, with his wife, featured in a number of van Rysselberghe’s portraits between 1883 and 1890, Each year twenty other international artists were also invited to participate in the Les XX exhibitions. Among the most notable members were James Ensor, Willy Finch, Fernand Khnopff, Félicien Rops, and later Auguste Rodin and Paul Signac.

Emile Verhaeren by Théo Van Rysselberghe

Emile Verhaeren by Théo Van Rysselberghe ((1892)

Rysselberghe completed many portraits and it was around 1882 that he struck up a close friendship with the poet and art critic Emile Verhaeren who featured in many of Théo’s portrait works. The lower work was viewed as a masterpiece of Neo-Impressionist drawing and aroused the passions of true connoisseurs. The sketch sold for 150,000 euros in 2006, it was offered at the same auction house, Christie’s Paris, on 21 October 2023 with an astonishing estimate of 60-80,000 euros. After a fierce bidding war, it sold for €240,000. This works out at €302,000, with the buyer paying the substantial sales costs.

Portrait of Marguerite van Mons by Théo Van Rysselberghe (1886)

Another of Rysselberge’s portraits featured the daughters of his friend Emile van Mons, a lawyer and well-known art lover. The June 1886 Portrait of Marguerite van Mons features ten-year-old Marguerite shortly after the death of her mother. She stands facing us wearing a simple black dress in front of a pastel blue door on which are a number of gilded ornaments. Her right hand holds the doorknob as if she had just entered or was about to leave the room. There is an air of mystery and melancholia about the depiction as the pale-faced girl stares absently out at us

Portrait of Camille van Mons by Théo Van Rysselberghe (1886)

Months earlier van Rysselberghe had completed a portrait of Marguerite’s elder sister, Camille.

……. to be continued

.

Most of this information for this blog came from various Wikipedia sites.

Hannah Harrison Cohoon and the Shakers.

My short blog today is about n artist and a religion. It looks at the life and works of Hannah Cohoon, a person you may not have heard of before. Her art is both unusual and simplistic and is connected to a millenarian restorationist Christian sect known as The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, but more commonly referred to as the Shakers. The group grew out of a branch of Quakerism around  1747 in Northwest England and later, the visionary Ann Lee (Mother Ann) brought Shakerism to America in the 1780s.

Shaker workshop service showing worshippers on benches and marching in a spiral.

The Shakers were so-called because of their practices of shaking, dancing, whirling, and speaking, shouting, and singing in tongues.

Hancock Shaker Village

Round Stone Barn and Fields

Hannah Harrison Cohoon was an American painter born in Williamstown, Massachusetts on February 1st 1788 and later became a member of Hancock Shaker Village. Although there are only sketchy details of Hannah’s education it is thought that she would have been instructed in watercolour painting and probably would have learned needlework skills from her elders as it was a skill, like painting that was considered an essential ability that every young woman should possess Hannah, now married, and known as Hannah Cohoon was twenty-nine-years-old and the mother of two young children. Her son Harrison was born in 1812 and her daughter Mariah was born in 1814. It was on March 15th 1817 that the twenty-nine-year-old Hannah entered the Hancock Shaker Village community situated just outside  Hancock and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In the main, the Hancock Shakers supported themselves through farming. The grew and cultivated flowers and plants and from them sold garden seeds. Over time they purchased more land and by the 1830s the Hancock Shakers owned about 3,000 acres (12 km2).

Tree of Light or Blazing Tree by Hannah Cohoon (1845)

The leading artists at the time who worked at Hancock were Joseph Wicker, Hannah Cohoon, and Polly Collins and all chose to depict images which were derived from nature, especially trees. For the Shakers, the Tree of Life was an immediately identifiable symbol, celebrated in sermons, gift songs, and in their early history as a representation of the unity of the Shaker Church.

Tree of Life by Hannah Cohoon (1854).   Ink and tempera on paper. Courtesy of Andrews Collection, Hancock Shaker Village.

When we look at Cohoon’s wonderful single-image paintings of trees we realise that her expertise in embroidery, the ornamental needlework of appliqué, and her knowledge of quilting techniques were all present in her mind when she painted. It was during a summer day in 1854, that Hannah Cohoon, who had been a member of the Shaker community in Hancock for thirty-seven years, had a vision of a singular and curious tree. She saw plainly the branches, leaves and fruit, and she sketched and painted them on a sheet of white paper. One of the Shaker elders saw what she had done and told her that the name of the tree was the Tree of Life. Cohoon described how the vision came to her to create the Tree of Life drawing:

“…I received a draft of a beautiful Tree pencil’d on large sheet of plain white paper bearing ripe fruit. I saw it plainly, it looked very singular and curious to me. I have since learned that this Tree grows in the Spirit Land. Afterwards the Spirit showed me plainly the branches, leaves and fruit, painted or drawn upon paper. The leaves were check’d or cross’d and the same colours you see here. I entreated Mother Ann to tell me the name of this tree which she did on Oct. 1st 4th hour P.M. by moving the hand of a medium to write twice over Your Tree is the Tree of Life…”

A Bower of Mulberry Tree by Hannah Cohoon. (1854). Ink and tempera on paper. Courtesy of Andrews Collection, Hancock Shaker Village.

A Bower of Mulberry Trees by Hannah Cohoon (1854)

The main feature of Hannah’s painting entitled A Bower of Mulberry Trees is dominated by the curving branches of trees that form an arch over a long Shaker table which is set out for a feast. It came from her vision of Shaker elders feasting on cakes under mulberry trees which were held at biennial meetings,. The doves represent the bounties that the believer would experience in heaven, and the table depicts holy feasts which were held biennially.

A Little Basket Full of Beautiful Apples by Hannah Cohoon (1856) Art Work by Hannah Cohoon / Courtesy the Hancock Shaker Village Collection / American Folk Art Museum.

Hannah also completed A Little Basket Full of Beautiful Apples in 1856. In his article for the New Yorker journal, Adam Gopnik, a long-time staff writer for the paper, wrote:

“...Shining Tree of Life is among the key drawings in American art, with a tonic sense of abundance—all the apples just alike, each with its rub-on of rouge, like blush applied by an adolescent girl—allied to obsessive order…”

Hannah Harrison Cohoon died in Hancock, Massachusetts, on January 7th, 1864, aged 75 and is buried in the family cemetery of the Church.


An image of Cohoon’s Tree of Life appeared in a December 1945 Antiques magazine article by Edward Deming Andrews. Andrews used the image for the covers of his books, Visions of Heavenly Sphere and Fruits of the Shaker Tree of Life in 1969 and 1975.
The Hancock Shaker Village became a museum in 1960, and sometime after that the Andrews sold Cohoon’s drawings and other gift drawings to the museum. Andrews also organized an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1935.
Her Tree of Life drawing was used in 1974 for a UNICEF Christmas postcard to raise funds for the organization. In 1980, the Whitney Museum of Art held another exhibition, “American Folk Painters of Three Centuries, which featured four of Cohoon’s drawings.

New Hope Artist Colony. Part 2.

Part 2. Edward Willis Redfield

The second artist I am looking at who was an early member of the New Hope Artists Colony was Edward Redfield

Edward Willis Redfield

Edward Willis Redfield was born on December 18th 1869 in Bridgeville, Delaware, before moving to Philadelphia as a young child. He was the youngest son of Bradley Redfield, who owned plant nurseries and sold fruit and flowers, and Frances Gale Phillips. He had two older brothers, Eugene and Elma, an older sister Ada and a younger sister May. Even at the age of seven he showed a love and talent for art and aged seven he exhibited a drawing of a cow in a competition for school children at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. From an early age, he studied at the Spring Garden Institute and the Franklin Institute and continued to show artistic talent. It was Redfield’s aim to be accepted into the Pennsylvania Academy, so in preparation for studying there, he received training from a commercial artist, Henry Rolfe. In 1887 Edward’s dream came true when he was accepted on a two-year course at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. At the Academy his tutors were Thomas Anshutz, James Kelly and Thomas Hovenden. Anshutz, like Thomas Eakins, focused on an intense study of the nude as well as on human anatomy. While a student at the Academy Redfield met Robert Henri, who would later become an important American painter and educator and he and Henri became lifelong friends with  Henri often spedingt weekends at the Redfield home.

Village of Equihen, France by Edward Willis Redfield (1908)

Once he had completed his studies at the Academy in 1889, he approached his father for financial support for his proposde trip to study art in Paris. Redfield’s father agreed to send his son fifty dollars per month to finance a period of study in Europe and so Redfield left for Paris with the sculptor and former fellow student, Charles Grafly and they met up with Robert Henri in the French capital. Redfield and Henri attended classes at the Julian Academy, a school which provided art tuition to foreigners who had difficulty gaining entrance to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His instructors there were William Adolphe Bouguereau, one of the leading and best-known French academic painters and Tony Robert-Fleury. .Whilst residing in France Redfield became influenced by the work of the Impressionist painters Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and the Norwegian artist Fritz Thaulow.

Hotel Deligant in Bois-le-Roi-Brolles

It was while he was living in France that Redfield met Elise Devin Deligant, the daughter of the innkeeper of the Hotel Deligant in the village of Bois-le-Roi, a French commune located on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau and along the Seine, 6km from Fontainebleau and 60km from Paris. The village inn became a meeting place for Redfield, Henri, Grafly, and they attracted other young artists who would come and the enlarged group would have long discussions about art and aesthetics. It was winter at the inn and Redfield became captivated by local snow scenes. Originally Redfield had set his heart on becoming a portrait artist but he abandoned this idea and decided to concentrate on landscape painting. He stated the reason for his decision:

“…With landscape, if I make it good enough, there are many who will appreciate it. Portrait painting must please the subject as a general thing – or no pay! It’s a hired man’s job…”

Canal en Hiver by Edward Willis Redfield

Many of those artists who used to meet at the inn submitted works to the Paris Salon of 1891. Redfield sent his painting entitled Canal en Hiver, one of his first winter snow scenes and it was accepted.

Redfield left France in 1892 to return to America where his one-man exhibition was being staged in Boston. The following year, 1893, Redfield returned to London where he married Elise Deligant. Sadly their first child died and this tragic event caused his wife to suffer from bouts of depression and mental illness, all her life. However, the couple went on to have five children, three sons, Laurent, Horace and George and two daughters, Louise and Frances.

1898 Historical Map of Center Bridge and Hendrick Island. Red arrow marks position of Redfield’s house.

On returning to America Redfield and his wife settled in Glenside, Pennsylvania but in 1898 they relocated to a home he had renovated in the Pennsylvania town of Center Bridge which was situated alongside the Delaware River towpath and several miles north of New Hope. They purchased a property that was situated between the Delaware River and the Delaware Canal in Center Bridge. The property included an island in the river, known then as Hendrick Island, where his father lived and farmed.

Center Bridge by Edward Willis Redfield (1926)

Redfield was one of the first painters to move to the area and is thought to have been a co-founder of the artist colony at New Hope along with William Langson Lathrop, who had taken up residence in New Hope that same year. Soon after settling in Center Bridge, Redfield began to produce a series of local snow scenes and soon his name became synonymous with the painter of the winter landscapes. Redfield completed his painting entitled Center Bridge in 1904 and it depicts a view of Redfield’s home town from a nearby hill. As expected the scene has changed nowadays since woods and new neighborhoods have grown over these hills. This painting is currently at The Art Institute of Chicago.

The Burning of Center Bridge” by Edward Willis Redfield

The large covered bridge across the river seen on the right of the picture no longer exists as it burned down in 1923 and was captured in Redfield’s painting entitled The Burning of Center Bridge.

New Hope by Edward Willis Redfield (1926)

Redfield’s works were, unlike many of his contemporary landscape painters, monumental in size, in contrast to the often-small sentimental works of the earlier nineteenth-century American landscape painters. He was a fast painter, as he had been taught in his early days, and often completed his 50 x 56 inch winter snow scenes, en plein air, in often harsh freezing conditions, in eight hours. Redfield stated:

“…What I wanted to do was to go outdoors and capture the look of a scene, whether it was a brook or a bridge, as it looked on a certain day…”

Redfield described his modus operandi for the plein air painting sessions saying that he would start by walking to his designated site often trudging through slush and snow with his gear weighing fifty pounds and his huge canvas balanced on his head. He said that he would start with almost no under-drawing and finish his painting in a single session using small brushes to cover the entire canvas with thick paint.

The Rock Garden, Monhegan Island, Maine by Edward Willis Redfield (1928)

Beginning in 1902 the Redfield family spent their summers at Booth Bay Harbor, Maine, due to the generosity of Dr. Samuel Woodward, who financed these annual vacations. In June 1903 the Redfields invited Robert Henri and his wife to spend part of their summer with them. During their stay Henri and Redfield sailed around the neighbouring islands constantly searching out suitable subject matter for their paintings. Henri was especially impressed by the beauty of Monhegan Island, an island in the Gulf of Maine. Redfield’s many paintings depicting New Hope landscapes were now supplemented with Maine seascapes. Other works would focus on the flora found on Monhegan Island, Maine. The Rock Garden, Monhegan Island, Maine by Edward Redfield is a study of peace and tranquillity during a warm summer’s afternoon painted in vibrant colours. In this painting Redfield builds up the paint with multiple layers of thick pigment, creating a rich impasto texture. The lively brushstrokes create a dynamic cross-hatching effect and a pattern of colour that brings the scene to life. In the foreground the vividly coloured and rigorously painted flower beds provide a dynamic contrast to the austere New England clapboard houses. A winding path runs diagonally through the scene, providing a sense of spatial recession to a distant shore. The painting sold for USD 750,000 at a 2015 Christies auction. Redfield was awarded the N. Howard Heinz Prize of $500 for The Rock Garden, Monhegan Island, Maine in 1928 at the Grand Central Art Galleries, New York. Redfield, like Henri, fell in love with the beauty of Monhegen Island so much so that he eventually purchased a house at Boothbay harbour and from then on spent nearly every summer vacation around the area.

Fleecydale Road by Edward Willis Redfield

Redfield completed his painting entitled Fleecydale Road in 1930. This road starts in the town of Lumberville on the Delaware River and ends in Carversville. Lumberville was once the home of another covered bridge across the river which was later replaced with a metal bridge that was restricted to pedestrian traffic. It connected walkers to a state park on the New Jersey side. This picture can be seen at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA.

Winter Reflections by Edward Willis Redfield (1935)

Another snow scene by Redfield was his 1935 painting, Winter Reflections. The painting depicts a view of the buildings in New Hope near the railroad station. The buildings backed on to the canal and you are still able to stand at this very spot on the towpath. New Hope’s railroad station is now just a tourist attraction which provides short rides on an old steam train. The painting is part of the collection of the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

The Mill in Winter by Edward Willis Redfield (1921)

Another winter scene painting by Redfield was his The Mill In Winter which he completed in 1921. In the Redfield archive papers it was referred to as the Centreville Mill. Centreville was a small crossroads between New Hope and Doylestown but has since disappeared as such as an officially named location. This painting is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Spring in the Harbour by Edward Willis Redfield (c.1927)

As Redfield’s international reputation increased, many young artists were attracted to New Hope as according to James Alterman in his book, New Hope for American Art, Redfield was a great inspiration and an iconic role model, and his work is among the most widely recognized of the Pennsylvania Impressionists.

Sadly, in later years, Redfield became disappointed with his early work. In 1947, the year his wife died, he burned a large number of his early works which he considered to be sub-standard. In 1953, at the age of 84, he gave up painting altogether. Redfield talked about his decision saying:

“…I was outside one day. My insteps started hurting. It was very windy and I had a hard time keeping my easel up. So I quit. The main reason though, was that I wasn’t good as I had been, and I didn’t want to be putting my name on an “old man’s stuff,” just to keep going…”

Redfield died on October 19, 1965. Today his paintings are in many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

…..to be concluded.

Information for this blog came from numerous sources including:

New Hope Colony Foundation of the Arts

Edward Redfield – Champion of Winter’s Timeless and Seductive Beauty

Hollis Taggart Galleries

New Hope Artist Colony. Part 1.

Part 1 – The Beginning

In my last blog about the American Impressionist, M Elizabeth Price, I mentioned the New Hope Artist Colony and this name has cropped up in other of my blogs so I thought I would give you a more in-depth look at this artist colony and how it all began and the three artists who were part of its foundation.

William Langson Lathrop, Edward Willis Redfield and Daniel Garber

Dr. George Morley Marshall

The New Hope Artist’s Colony can be traced back to 1896 when a Philadelphia surgeon and laryngologist Dr. George Morley Marshall acquired the hamlet of Phillips’ Mill in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania from the Betts Family. The grist mill, originally built in 1756 by Aaron Phillips, was ideally positioned to serve the many surrounding family farms.

Four generations of the Phillips family ground locally-farmed grain until 1889, when the property was sold and the mill fell into disuse. The property included a grist mill with water rights and glen, a dam, a pond, the Primrose Creek and a 40-foot waterfall which fed the mill race to run the two waterwheels. The buildings which surrounded the mill soon became residences for summer tenants, including the new school of Impressionist landscape painters, who used the outbuildings as studios to capture the natural beauty of Solebury and its environs.

William Langson Lathrop

William Langson Lathrop – self portrait

In 1897, Dr. Marshall contacted his boyhood friend, the well-known landscape artist William Langson Lathrop, inviting him to come to New Hope to paint the magnificent landscapes which bordered Phillips Mill.

Ely’s Bridge by William Langson Lathrop

William Langson Lathrop was an American Impressionist landscape painter. He was born in Painesville, Ohio, a small town on the shores of Lake Erie, on March 29th 1859. It was on this vast lake that William learnt to sail, a hobby he would enjoy for the rest of his life and ultimately, was to be the death of him.

A Pennsylvania Farm by William Langson Lathrop

Once he had completed his formal education, Lathrop began his art career in New York City. He was largely self-taught until he traveled to New York for a brief period of study with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League. In the early 1880’s Lathrop secured a job as a graphic artist with Charles Parsons at Harper’s Magazine but he found that the small amount of money he earned was barely enough to live on. In the 1880s he travelled to England, France and Holland and it was during his stay in the English city of Oxford that Lathrop met, and in 1888, married his wife, Annie Sarah Burt. They had five children, three daughters, Nancy, Elizabeth and Ellen and two sons Joseph and Julian. Lathrop returned to America with little money, depressed at the way his artistic journey had stalled and he decided to give up art as a profession. After several years of struggle and failure, his friends back home persuaded him to return to his art and try the medium of watercolour. Lathrop finally found fame as a painter when, with one his works, he won the prestigious Evans Prize at the American Watercolor Society’s annual exhibition in 1896.  More importantly, he received a fulsome review in The New York Times, and, buoyed by this success, Lathrop embarked on the re-launch of his artistic career. In 1902 he was elected to the National Academy of Design.

Landscape by William Langson Lathrop (1915)

Having received Dr. Marshall’s invitation to visit the New Hope area, Lathrop, along with his wife Annie Sarah and their three children, Nancy, Joseph and Julian, travelled to New Hope where they rented the miller’s house which once belonged to Aaron Phillips on Marshall’s property. William Lathrop would later buy the property together with the surrounding four acres of farmland.

Twilight after the Storm by William Langson Lathrop

Lathrop’s wife Annie became a beloved figure in the New Hope Arts community and she would host afternoon teas on a Sunday on the lawn of their home besides the canal. These Sunday afternoon tea parties featured lively discussion of aesthetic, philosophical, and political issues, and visitors to these teas would love to sample a feast of homemade sandwiches, jams, beverages, and pastries. Lathrop’s wife, Annie, was a gifted cook and an affable host who took a genuine interest in the students’ well-being. Annie would attend their every need, housing, feeding, and encouraging them in a warmly maternal fashion. Martha Candler Cheney, a writer on the arts, wrote about these Sunday afternoon events:

“…Sunday afternoons, the Lathrops’ lawn was a collecting place at tea-time and someone remembered nostalgically only the other day how the fine, almost lost art of conversation flourished there…”

Spring Landscape by William Langson Lathrop (c.1915)

It was Lathrop’s reputation as an artist and a teacher that attracted other artists such as Edward Redfield. Daniel Garber and Charles Rosen to come to New Hope and form the group known as the Pennsylvania Impressionists. Lathrop was often called the “dean” of the New Hope art colony, and regularly welcomed students into his home at Phillips Mill. Unlike some of his colleagues, he preferred to work in the studio, rather than outdoors, which distinguished him from other artists in the group. Known primarily as a tonalist, Lathrop created rustic, simplified landscapes with a muted palette.

Montauk by William Langson Lathrop (1938)

William Langson Lathrop’s loved sailing and always had a boat.

Wiliam Langson Lathrop and his boat The Widget

William Langson Lathrop’s greatest love besides his art was sailing and in 1927 Lathrop hand-built a wooden boat in his backyard and named it The Widge which would become the love of his life. He completed and launched it into the Delaware River in 1930. It subsequently became his painting studio. Lathrop, being a competent sailor, would take the boat on trips along the eastern seaboard of America during the summer months. A companion on one of these trips was Albert Einstein, who was teaching at Princeton. 

On September 21, 1938, whilst Lathrop was sailing his boat around eastern Mountauk Point in Long Island he received word of an approaching hurricane. He was miles away from a safe harbour and so decided to ride out the storm in a secluded bay. The boat survived the hurricane-whipped seas but Lathrop’s body was recovered along the shoreline a month later. It is thought that he had suffered a heart attack and been washed overboard. After his death, a painting, entitled Montauk, dated September 21, 1938 was discovered in the boat’s cabin, proving that until his poignant final moments, Lathrop drew inspiration from the sea.

His good friend and fellow Bucks County artist, Henry B Snell wrote:

“…He had no fear of meeting death as he did — facing one of nature’s greatest manifestations. I know he died as he would have wanted to…”

William Langso Lathrop was buried in Solebury Friends Graveyard, Solebury, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

………to be continued.

Important information for this and subsequent blogs regarding the New Hope Artists Colony came from an assorted websites, some of which were:

New Hope Colony Foundation of the Arts

Google Arts and Culture

Solebury

Diversions – A Meandering Journey through the World of Art

Mitchener Art Museum, Doylestown PA.

Mary Elizabeth Price

Mary Elizabeth Price

Mary Elizabeth Price, sometimes simply known as M. Elizabeth Price, was born on March 1st 1877 near the town of Martinsburg, West Virginia. Her parents, Reuben Moore Price and Caroline Cooper Paxson Price were Quakers, who lived in Shenandoah, Virginia. She was one of five children, having a sister, Alice Price, and three brothers, Frederick Newlin Price, Rueben Moore Price and Carroll Price. During her early days she lived in Virginnia but the family moved to the Shenandoah Valley and later to New Hope, Pennsylvania where she grew up.

Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, Philadelphia. 

Art classrooms at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, (c. 1891)

According to the Friends Intelligencer and Journal, Elizabeth graduated from her Literary Course at the Friends’ Central School in 1896, aged nineteen, and she enrolled at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, a museum and teaching institution which later split into the Philadelphia Museum of Art and University of the Arts.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts building

In 1904, having completed her course, she enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and studied under Hugh Breckenridge an artist and educator who advocated the artistic movements from impressionism to modernism. Another of her tutors was Daniel Garber, an American Impressionist landscape painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth also took private art lessons from William Langson Lathrop, an American Impressionist landscape painter and who founded the art colony in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where he was an influential founder of Pennsylvania Impressionism.

Picking Flowers by M Elizabeth Price (1916)

In 1917 Elizabeth moved to New York and took part in the “Baby Art School,” which was a pioneering programme funded by Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney (Gertrude Vanderbilt) and previously known as the Neighbourhood Art School of the Greenwich House. Children from nearby public schools were taught the fine arts of drawing, painting, sculpting, pottery, and wood carving. This idea was so successful that Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh asked Elizabeth to stage an exhibition of the children’s work in the winter of 1919-1920, in conjunction with an art education campaign for teachers and supervisors in art.

Delphinium Pattern by M Elizabeth Price (1933)

When looking at Elizabeth Price’s work, her floral painting are the ones that are best remembered. She often painted on wooden panels coated with a mixture of gesso and red clay. Then, gold or silver leaf was applied over that, followed by the painted image in oils. One example of this is her 1933 painting entitled Delphinium Pattern.

Summer Bouquet by M Elizabeth Price (c.1933)

Another such work was Summer Bouquet which she completed around 1933.

Elizabeth Price joined a group of female artists known as the Philadelphia Ten. This group exhibited together between 1917 and 1945, at first annually in Philadelphia and later, with traveling exhibitions at major museums and galleries on the east coast and in the Midwest. All the members had studied art in the schools of Philadelphia, most having been graduate students at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design). The aim of the group was to move beyond the perception that they were merely hobbyists, as they were commonly viewed in the early 20th century, and be accepted as professional artists. Price regularly exhibited with the group from 1921 until their last exhibition in 1945.

Pumpkinseed Cottage on the bank of the Delaware Canal

Elizabeth, having been brought up on a farmstead in a rural area around Martinsburg, West Virginnia, had always hoped to one day leave the hustle and bustle of New York city life and return to the quieter countryside. Around 1927 she had finished her teaching contract in New York and decided it was time to make that move. She had fallen in love with Bucks County and the area around the town of New Hope and took up residence in an old stone house on the banks of the Delaware Canal. Her house was known as Pumpkinseed Cottage due to its bold yellow colour and diminutive size. She spent much of her time in her home with its studio. She also had a garden where she grew irises, mallows, peonies, lilies, delphiniums, poppies, hollyhocks, and gladioliflowers which often provided her the focus of her many floral paintings. She loved living here and said of it:

“…When I first saw the original cottage it was painted such a vivid yellow that I instinctively thought of a pumpkin; and it was so small that I named it Pumpkin Seed more in derision than anything else. But the quaintness of the name grew on us so that we’ve learned to love it…”

Christmas Card by M. Elizabeth Price. Inside Reads: Christmas Greetings! Card of her studio in the “Pumpkinseed” she and her brother, Fredric Newlin Price, occupied on the Canal Bank – near Rabbit Run Bridge, New Hope, Pennsylvania

She remained living here for the rest of her life with her brother, Fredric Newlin Price, who owned a house, farm, and property in the New Hope area. Whilst living here, she took the opportunity to give talks on art to the New Hope Women’s Club, where she often exhibited her works of art and at the same time encouraged and inspired local artists.

Cheerful Barge 269 by M Elizabeth Price

Although Elizabeth may be best remembered for her floral art works she painted many other genres. One such painting was entitled Cheerful Barge 269, which depicts a bright orange barge sliding by the canal waters on a sunny day. In the painting we see the blue water of the canal seemingly covered by fallen leaves from the trees along the canal banks but in fact what we see on the water is the reflection of the leaves which remain on the overhanging trees. In the foreground we can see sets of stones, alongside a wooden building, which create a path along the canal bank. Strangely, at the bottom right of the painting, we see a single tall red flower, and wonder what made the artist depict such a solitary item.

Bucks County Landscape by M Elizabeth Price

A Country Lane by M Elizabeth Price

Many of her paintings were inspired by what she saw during her walks in the surrounding countryside.

57th Street Window by M Elizabeth Price

Back when she was living and teaching in New York she produced her urban landscape work entitled 57th Street Window.

Bathing in Yardley, Pennsylvania by M Elizabeth Price

Pennsylvania Impressionism, which the artwork of Elizabeth Price emulated, was an American Impressionist movement of the first half of the 20th century. It was characterised by an interest in the quality of colour, light, and the time of day. It was centred in and around Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and particularly the town of New Hope. The movement is sometimes referred to as the “New Hope School” or the “Pennsylvania School” of landscape painting. It all began when landscape artist, William Langson Lathrop moved to New Hope in 1898 and founded a summer art school. The mill town, New Hope, was located along the Delaware River, about forty miles from Philadelphia and seventy miles from Manhattan. It was a landscape artist’s paradise with its spectacular rolling hills, the picturesque river, its tributaries, and the Delaware Canal. An example of this is her painting, Bathing in Yardley, which is a riverside town about 10 miles southeast of New Hope.

Frederick Price, M. Elizabeth Price, Rae Bredin and Alice Price Bredin aboard ship.

M. Elizabeth Price was an untiring promoter of the arts and shared her passion with her talented siblings. One brother, Frederic Newlin Price, owned the successful Ferargil Art Gallery in New York City; another brother, R. Moore Price, was an art dealer and an accomplished frame maker, while his wife, Elizabeth Freedley Price, was a painter; and her brother-in-law, Rae Sloan Bredin, was a member of the New Hope Group. M. Elizabeth Price distinguished herself for her development of women’s and children’s involvement in the arts.

Mary Elizabeth Price died in Trenton, New Jersey on February 19th, 1965 at Mercer Hospital. At the time of her death, she was a member of the Solebury Friends Meeting and, at the age of 87, had been the last living of the Price children. She was survived by her nieces and nephews. Elizabeth Price was buried in the Solebury Friends Meeting House cemetery, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Information for this blog was sourced from

Hellenica World

Art Now and Then

Invaluable

Michener Museum

Maria Elisabeth Georgina “Lizzie” Ansingh

Lizzie Ansingh

My featured artist today is a Dutch lady who became a great portrait painter but may be best remembered for another type of art which I will tell you about later.

Portrait of Lizzie Ansingh by Thérèse Schwartze (1895)

Maria Elisabeth Georgina Ansingh, better known as simply Lizzie Ansingh, was born on March 13th 1875 in the Dutch town of Utrecht. She was the eldest of three daughters of the pharmacist and amateur painter, Edzard Willem Ansingh and Clara Theresia Schwartze.

Johann Georg Schwartze self portrait (1869)

Her maternal grandfather was Johann Georg Schwartze a painter from Northern Netherlands who grew up in America and her aunt who was the portrait painter Thérèse Schwartze, and it was she who gave Lizzie her first drawing lessons. For many years during her childhood, due to her mother’s poor health, Lizzy lived with her aunt Thérèse and it was this aunt who encouraged her to paint and as French impressionism was the rage around that time, Thérèse introduced Lizzy to all sorts of impressionist painters of the time. Both of them also visited many museums and art exhibitions together, which further helped Lizzy gain a perspective on art.

Theresia Ansingh by Thérèse Schwartze

Lizzie’s youngest sister Theresia Ansingh was also a painter but did not take up art, using the non-de-plume Sorella, (meaning “sister”), until she was approaching the age of 50.

Housemates by Thérèse Schwartze (c.1919)

Around 1915, Thérèse Schwartze completed a group portrait of those living together in the Ansingh/Schwartze household. The setting is a room in their house in which a table is the only furniture on show. There are five people around the table. Sitting, with her hands on her lap, is Thérèse Schwartze’s sister the sculptor, Georgine Elisabeth Schwartze. Standing at the back, dressed in black with her hands crossed, is Lizzie Ansingh’s mother, Clara Theresia Ansingh-Schwartze. In the centre, seated at the table with an open book resting on two other books is Anton Gillis Cornelis van Duyl, the journalist and editor-in-chief of the Algemeen Handelsblad, the husband of Thérèse Schwartze. On the right of the group is Lizzie’s sister Thérèse Ansingh and on the far right, standing, leaning against her sister, Maria Elisabeth Georgina (‘Lizzy’) Ansingh.

Kunstenaars or Amsterdamse Joffers: Ritsema, Surie, Osieck, Ansingh, Van den Berg, Van Regteren-Altena en Bodenheim.

In 1894, when Lizzie was nineteen years old she enrolled at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) and studied Fine Art in a separate class for female students and this helped her to further develop her artistic skills. At the Academy, she also learned about human anatomy by studying Greek and Roman statues. Whilst studying at the Academy she and a number of fellow students, Marie van Regteren Altena, Suze Bisschop-Robertson, Coba Ritsema, Ans van den Berg, Jacoba Surie, Nelly Bodenheim, Betsy Westendorp-Osieck and Jo Bauer-Stumpff, formed a group in Amsterdam called Amsterdamse Joffers. This was a group of like-minded young Dutch female painters who would meet up regularly and share their artwork and more importantly support each other on their artistic journey. Many came from wealthy and artistic families and did not depend on painting for their livelihoods. Thérèse Schwartze would often act as a mentor/facilitator at their meetings. It became a major movement in Amsterdam and opened ways for many female painters to pursue art as a full-time profession. Lizzy Ansingh joined many other art associations such as Arti et Amicitiae, kunstvereniging Sint Lucas and Pulchri Studio. Lizzy Ansingh graduated from the art academy in 1897 and by this time Thérèse Schwartze had persuaded Lizzie to make painting a full-time career. This is what she actually did.

The Source of Life by Lizzie Ansingh

As I alluded to at the start of this blog, although Lizzy Ansingh, like her aunt, painted portraits, she will be remembered for being a painter of dolls. Thérèse Schwartze, her aunt encouraged this unusual interest. Lizzy purchased an antique dollhouse from 1740s and would spend hours arranging her dolls looking for inspiration for her paintings and would often buy pieces for furnishing the dollhouse.

Flora by Lizzy Ansingh

Sadly, on the night of April 17th 1943, Lizzy’s Amsterdam studio, along with the doll-house, was severely damaged when a British bomber was shot down, destroying the Carlton Hotel and much of the Reguliersdwarsstraat alongside her studio. The fire which followed was the most devastating in Amsterdam since 1659. Fortunately Lizzie restored the dollhouse and is now part of the Museum Arnhem collection.

Child on a Carp by Lizzie Ansingh

A Doll wearing a Mantilla by Lizzie Ansingh

Lizzie wrote two children’s books, A Little Fruit Basket in 1927 and Aunt Tor has Her Birthday in 1950. She also collaborated with illustrator, Nelly Bodenhein, and published a booklet of illustrations with lines of verse. Her poetry was published in the literary magazine Maatstaf from 1956 to 1957.

Lizzy Ansingh on the occasion of her 80th birthday (13 March 1955) in her Amsterdam studio on Prinsengracht. Photo Ben van Meerendonk / AHF, IISH Collection, Amsterdam

Lizzie Ansingh never married. She died in Amsterdam on December 14th 1959 aged 84.

Information for this blog came from a number of sources including:

Art Now and Then

The Famous People

Arnhem aan Zee – The Doll World of Lizzie Ansing

Jacob Ochtervelt and his Voorhuis Paintings

For many of my blogs recently, I have concentrated on nineteenth century artists as this is one of my favourite artistic era but I have always been fascinated by the artists who flourished during the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history which lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established until 1672, when the Rampjaar occurred. The Rampjaar, or Disaster Year, was the year of the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War, when France invaded and nearly overran the Dutch Republic. It was the time of its peripheral conflict, the Third Anglo-Dutch War, and at the same time, it faced the threat of an English naval blockade in support of the French.

Portrait of a Family by Jacob Ochtervelt (1663)

The seventeenth century was a torrid time for the people of the Netherlands who had had to endure war with the old Spanish monarchist with their Catholic cultural traditions. It meant that Dutch art had to reinvent itself almost entirely, a task in which it was very largely successful. The painting of religious subjects of earlier days declined and a large prosperous new market for all kinds of secular subjects evolved. It was an era that saw genre paintings dominated by the likes of Vermeer, Gabriel Metsu, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan Steen to mention but a few.

A Singing Violinist set within a niche (thought to be a self-portrait) by Jacob Ochtervelt (c.1670)

Today, my featured artist was a contemporary of these great Dutch painters who was also active during this period but was less well known. He is Jacob Ochtervelt, a Dutch Golden Age painter who was born in Rotterdam in late January 1634. He was the son and third child of of Lucas Hendricksz, who was employed as a bridgeman of the Roode Brugge, and Trintje Jans. He studied painting and lived in Haarlem from 1646 to 1655 apprenticed to the landscape painter Nicolaes Berchem along with fellow apprentice Pieter de Hooch, who became famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes and known for his kamergezichten or “room-views” with ladies and gentlemen in conversation. Ochtervelt moved back to Rotterdam in 1655 where he was a pupil of Ludolf de Jongh, who also taught Pieter de Hooch.

The Music Lesson by Jacob Ochtervelt (1670)

Jacob Ochtervelt married Dirkje Meesters in the Reformed Church of Rotterdam on December 14th 1655. Due to the lack of baptismal records of the church, it is thought that the couple apparently had no children. On January 7th 1657 the following year, however, on January 7, 1666, Ochtervelt was appointed one of two guardians of the orphaned children of his brother Jan. It was thought that Jan may have been a sailor; and according to records, he had died on a return voyage from the East Indies.

Singing Violinist by Jacob Ochtervelt (c.1666)

Ochtervelt depicted scenes which centred on the pleasures of the aristocratic life and leisure—men and women were portrayed reading and writing letters, eating and drinking, making music, and playing games. However, he also depicted the “them and us” perspective with his paintings focusing on the interactions between the upper and lower classes, and the setting for these works was often the threshold of an elegant townhouse. These were known as Voorhuis painting. Voorhuis, which translated means entrance hall or foyer and these paintings were a popular Dutch painting genre of the 17th century, which depicted a view from inside a wealthy house with affluent residents standing in the entrance hall and their interaction with the callers to the house. The foyer is lit up from the light emanating through the open front door bathing the area in light and colour. Ochtervelt was a master of this genre and compassionately depicted the people from the differing social classes.

A Nurse and a Child in an Elegant Foye by Jacob Ochtervelt (1663)

An example of Ochtervelt’s Voorhuis paintings was his 1663 work entitled A Nurse and a Child in an Elegant Foyer, which is in the National Gallery of London collection. It is a depiction of a young boy presumed to be about three years old. He wears his hair in long curls and is dressed in a freshly ironed white dress. It was common for boys until the age of around seven before they started wearing breeches. The young boys hand is outstretched offering money to a family of beggars who have called at his home. The housemaid gently holds her charge’s hand while in the background we see the child’s parents looking on through the open doorway. They beam with pride at their son’s generosity, something they have instilled in him, a virtue taught in the home and of great importance to the Dutch. Outside we see a beggar boy as he sets his foot gingerly on the hall floor as he waits to receive a coin. His mother holds a nursing infant to her breast as she covertly observes her son receiving the money. Ochtervelt skilfully contrasts the two classes of people, the privileged world of the aristocratic family with the insecurities of the life of the poor. He has achieved that by differentiating the dark, ragged clothing of the beggars with the grand marble hallway and the radiant attire of those who live in the impressive townhouse.

Street Musicians at the Door by Jacob Ochtervelt (1665)

A similar depiction can be seen in Ochtervelt’s 1665 painting entitled Street Musicians at the Door which can be seen at the St Louis Art Museum. The setting is similar to the previous painting – the foyer of an upper-class Dutch home. In the mid-ground we see the lady of the house and to the right, the housemaid wearing her pinafore holding the hand of a very young, very excited child dressed in a blue gown as she opens the front door of the house. On the outside we see two dishevelled street musicians who are going from house to house trying to elicit money and who would play some music once they had been paid. There is a moral to this depiction. It is about the child’s mother teaching her child to give coins to the hard working musicians. There is an obvious contrast between the wealthy occupants of the house who are dressed in bright reds and blues, and the musicians, standing outside, begging for money, dressed in shades of murky brown. Through the open doorway we get a perspective view of city buildings culminating in a church.

Bettelmusikanten (Begging Musicians) by Jacob Ochtervelt (c.1665)

A very similar scenario can be seen in Ochtervelt’s painting entitled Bettelmusikanten, which translated means “Begging Musicians”. The setting is once again the entrance area or foyer of a wealthy home. To the left stands a young woman and through the open front door we look into the nighttime darkness and see two musicians who have been going from house to house begging for money as recompense for playing a tune. They are about to enter the voorhuis with its marble-tiled hallway. The woman is holding on to a toddler with both hands who in turn is unaware of the musicians at the door but is concentrating all his efforts on attracting the dog’s attention by waving the yellow ribbons of his dress. Another child on the right bedecked in red satin dress with an expensive lace collar looks mesmerised by the sight of the musicians in the doorway and is already proffering money to recompense the musicians for their tunes.

The Regents of the Leper House, by Jacob Ochtervelt (1674)

The last record of Ochtervelt living in Rotterdam was in 1672, the Ramplaar year. He and his wife were recorded on July 10th 1672 as being a witness at the baptism of the daughter of Jan Meesters and Marya de Jong in a Rotterdam church. There is clear evidence that Ochtervelt and his wife moved to Amsterdam where he was to spend the remainder of his life. It is generally thought that the reason for the move was that Ochtervelt believed that he would find more patrons and receive more lucrative commissions in Amsterdam. Soon he was proved right when in that year he received his largest commission: a group portrait of the Regents of the Amsterdam Leper House. The painting which is now on loan to the Rijksmuseum from the City of Amsterdam. The painting depicts the four regents of the Leprozenhuis, Anthonie de Haes, Gilles Hens, dr. Bonavendura van Dortmont and Isaac Hudde.

Lazarus and the Dog

It is thought that the original painting was slightly larger than this version judged by the way the depiction of the dog in the foreground is almost cut off. On the wall in the background is painted Apollo, and to the right above the door is the Poor Lazarus, just like the lepers “full of ulcers”, whose wounds are licked by a dog as told in the Bible (Luke 16: 19-21):

“…There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores…”

An Interior with a Lady giving Alms to Beggars by Jacob Ochtervelt

Documents from the Burial Register of the Nieuwezijds Chapel in Amsterdam show that Jacob Ochtervelt died in April 1682, aged 58 and his name was entered in the Burial Register of the Nieuwezijds Chapel in Amsterdam on May 1, 1682 which stated that at the time of his death he had been living at the Schapenmarkt near the Amsterdam Mint.
His wife Dirkje was not left a wealthy widow and following her husband’s death she moved back to Rotterdam and died in February 1710 and was buried at the Dutch Reformed Church of Rotterdam.

Information for this blog came mainly from the following websites:

The Ochtervelt Documents by Susan Donahue Kuretsky In the Oud Holland, Journal

Johnny van Haeften website

The Leiden Collection