The discovery of this early drawing by the artist Patrick Henry Bruce adds yet another illustration to the life and work of a man often ranked as one of the leading lights of modernism in American art. While his style may have been modern, his life was more than slightly tinged with a tragic air. Born to a prominent Southern family that fell on hard times in the aftermath of the Civil War, Bruce’s childhood was spent in genteel poverty in Richmond. Both his parents, as well as two siblings, had died by the time he was eighteen; from that age, he was on his own.

Bruce’s first teacher was the distinguished sculptor Edward Virginius Valentine. His early studies were very academic in nature: life drawing classes with Valentine, along with more practical instruction in mechanical drawing and drafting at the Virginia Mechanics Institute. Bruce realized that there was a larger world beyond Richmond and "all he lived for was to study art in Paris." He moved to Paris by way of New York, where he spent the year 1902-1903 studying with William Merritt Chase and Kenneth Hayes Miller, and made the acquaintance of Edward Hopper and Guy Pène du Bois.

Bruce was working in Paris in 1905, when he wrote to Robert Henri that he longed for "really truthful painting." By 1906, he had met Gertrude and Leo Stein, and frequented the salons in their atelier. There, a panoply of artists on view stirred his imagination, and he became especially influenced by the planar field organization and color field dispatch of Cezanne. During this time, Bruce created still life and landscape watercolors with a distinctly Cezannesque flair; this is the style he presented in the famous New York Armory Show of 1913. After the First World War, he began to paint works in oil in a style William Agee has called "geometric architectural."

In this example which precedes Bruce’s modernist phase, a live oak dominates the planar field, dwarfing a small shack in the back. Melancholy would haunt Bruce’s life, which he himself terminated in 1936 in New York.

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This essay is copyrighted by the Charleston Renaissance Gallery and may not be reproduced or transmitted without written permission from Hicklin Galleries, LLC.

Best known for his rural genre scenes with a distinctly American tone, Francis William Edmonds was born on November 22, 1806 in Hudson, New York. In 1923, he moved to New York City to enter the banking profession. Later that decade, Edmonds enrolled in art classes at the Antique School of the National Academy of Design, becoming an associate member in 1829. For a few years, he suspended his artistic pursuits and concentrated on building a career as a banker, but resumed painting in 1835. Within a year, he once again exhibited works at the National Academy and would later be represented in exhibitions at the American Art Union, Boston Athenaeum, Brooklyn Art Association, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and London’s Royal Academy. From the mid-1830s on, Edmonds balanced life as both financier and artist, although he occasionally concealed his artistic accomplishments from his Wall Street associates, concerned that those colleagues might disapprove of his avocational interests.

Edmonds found unalloyed success among the artists of the mid-nineteenth century. In 1841, he traveled to Europe, studying in Paris and Italy for eight months in the company of his friends Asher B. Durand, John W. Casilear, Thomas P. Rossiter, and John F. Kensett. During this sojourn, Edmonds devoted considerable attention to Dutch Old Masters paintings, especially genre scenes of domestic and public life. Returning to the United States, he adopted Dutch genre scenes and late seventeenth century Dutch painting techniques as hallmarks of his aesthetic approach. Edmonds is well known today as the creator of such works as The Two Culprits (1850), The Scythe Grinder (1856), and The New Bonnet (1858). The artist served as secretary and then treasurer of the National Academy of Design and founded a bank-note engraving company. He resigned from the academy in 1861 and died within two years, on February 7, 1863.

Edmonds’ posthumous portrait of James Madison likely depicts the future president during the years 1801 to 1809 when Madison served as secretary of state in the administrations of Thomas Jefferson. The naval vessels in the background along with the book and quill pen Madison hold suggest the executive duties of an American diplomat. During Madison’s term in this office, the United States negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from France; engaged in an unofficial war with the Barbary pirate states of North Africa; and struggled to remain neutral during the Napoleonic wars that engulfed Europe in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Madison succeeded Jefferson to the presidency, serving as commander-in-chief from 1809 to 1817. Executed in 1862, Edmonds’ likeness bears close resemblance to a pair of Gilbert Stuart portraits of Madison executed in 1804 and 1805 (presently held in the collections of Colonial Williamsburg and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, respectively.) 

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This essay is copyrighted by the Charleston Renaissance Gallery and may not be reproduced or transmitted without written permission from Hicklin Galleries, LLC.

Alexander Brook, born in Brooklyn, studied at the Art Students League in New York with Kenneth Hayes Miller from 1914 to 1918. A critic for The Arts during the early 1920s, he became an assistant for the newly-founded Whitney Studio Club in 1924. It was at this time that he began to paint in earnest, traveling and exhibiting widely with his first wife, the artist Peggy Bacon; the two were members of the Woodstock art colony. During the Depression, Brook taught at the League and won several fellowships and important prizes, enjoying broad success.

Born to the British aristocracy, Anne Seymour Damer was an accomplished neoclassicist sculptor whose rank and wealth afforded her career both advantage and detraction. Having shown an early inclination for art, she received formal training abroad from the Italian master Giuseppe Ceracchi and in England from sculptor John Bacon the Elder. It was, however, in the wake of her troubled marriage to John Damer, the dilettante son of Lord Milton, and his subsequent suicide that she immersed herself in her work.

 

 

One of the nineteenth century’s premier naval artists, Julian Oliver Davidson was born in Cumberland, Maryland to a family of education and means. As a child, Davidson made five trips to Cuba, sailing with his engineer father who was overseeing railroad construction in that country. Thus began Davidson’s love for the ocean, a passion that would inform his personal and professional life thereafter. At the age of seventeen, Davidson ran away to sea, crewing on ships that traveled to the Mediterranean and Orient. He returned home, laden with sketchbooks and paintings from his experiences, and, settling in New York, undertook instruction with the Dutch painter Mauritz F. H. de Haas in the legendary Tenth Street Studio Building. There, he came into contact with Hudson River luminaries such as Winslow Homer, Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, and Stanford R. Gifford. The romantic sensibilities of the Hudson River school can be seen in the vigor and vitality of Davidson’s marine scenes and large history paintings, including a series of works documenting key naval engagements of the War of 1812.

Davidson’s remarkable facility with naval illustration proved highly marketable during the Civil War. He was a regular illustrator for both The Century and Harper’s, providing detailed artistic accounts of naval operations and battles. Later in his career, he found equal commercial demand for his depictions of sailing sports. A champion rower, Davidson lived on the Hudson River where he found ample subject matter for his brush.

A frequent exhibitor at the National Academy of Design and the Salmagundi Club, Davidson’s life was cut short by a sudden illness at the age of forty-one.

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This essay is copyrighted by the Charleston Renaissance Gallery and may not be reproduced or transmitted without written permission from Hicklin Galleries, LLC.

Growing up on the edge of the sea in Southampton, Hampshire, Montague Dawson spent his youth learning about shipping, sailing and fishing. His father was a yacht handler and an engineer whose inventions tended to be fanciful rather than innovative. In spite of the fact that Dawson’s father had inherited a comfortable fortune, he managed to spend the bulk of that legacy on his inventions. As a result, the Dawson children’s education was provided primarily by affordable tutors. However, the family’s move from Chiswick to Southampton where there was more affordable housing proved to be a gift for the fledgling artist. His natural talent for drawing—and the lure of the open sea—evolved into a powerful attraction for an artist with very little formal training.

 

At age fifteen, Dawson began working for a commercial art studio in Bedford Row, London where he received an on-the-job education in illustration and poster design. The basic skills that he acquired here would serve him well for the rest of his career; and his exposure to the museums of London introduced him to the work of the Dutch maritime artists who had set the standards for excellence in seascape painting.

 

The excitement of learning his craft, and enjoying the pleasures of London, was inevitably interrupted by the onset of World War I. Dawson enlisted in the Navy and became a lieutenant serving on minesweepers and trawlers. His ability to draw, and his intimate knowledge of ships, led his superiors to assign him the duty of visually recording the war at sea. Many of these drawings became illustrations in the weekly newspaper, The Sphere. In fact, the newspaper published an entire issue devoted to Dawson’s eyewitness drawings of the final surrender of the German Grand Fleet in 1918.

 

The war years were also crucial for introducing Dawson to the marine painter Charles Napier Hemy, R.A. (1841–1917) who lived in Falmouth, Cornwall. Hemy became a friend and mentor to the young painter, encouraging him to continue pursuing a career in the arts. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Dawson returned to London to resume his work as an illustrator, but in 1924, he embarked on a treasure-hunting expedition to the Caribbean. Although sunken treasure eluded him, Dawson’s documentary drawings of the voyage were sent back to London for publication in The Graphic and The Sphere, thus establishing his name ever more prominently as one of England’s best young illustrators.

 

Life in London became even sweeter in 1925 when Dawson married Doris Mary; and in 1926, began a relationship with the fine art dealers, Frost & Reed who would remain his representatives for the rest of his life. He also continued to publish in The Sphere, but increasingly turned his attention to oil painting rather than focusing on watercolors and drawings. During these years, he also began submitting his work to the Royal Academy exhibitions, hoping to establish himself as a serious marine painter as well as a respected illustrator. The decade ended with yet another joyful event, the birth of a daughter, Nyria, in 1928.

 

Although the family had been quite content living in St. Charles’s Square, London, Dawson decided to move to Milford on Sea in 1934, perhaps to be closer to his preferred subject matter or alternatively, to escape the high cost of living in the city. Simultaneously, Dawson’s reputation as a marine painter grew significantly. By 1937 he was able to purchase a large new house directly on the coast that would remain his home for the rest of his life; the house itself had been developed for the Ideal Home Exhibition, and was something of an art deco landmark in its own right. [i]

 

World War II was only a dark cloud on the horizon when the Dawson family moved into their new home, but after the Battle of Dunkirk in late May of 1940, the English coast became part of the front line, and many of Dawson’s neighbors moved inland. As a maritime painter—and former illustrator of wars at sea—Dawson remained at home, painting current events at the request of Naval officials and continuing to publish his drawings in The Sphere. In addition, he provided working drawings of Royal Navy destroyers from the shipbuilders. The paintings became part of the British government’s public relations effort, providing precise dramatizations of sea battles to reassure the public of the Royal Navy’s skill and courage.

 

The postwar decades brought ever more recognition. Dawson became of member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists in 1946, and began to exhibit there regularly; and his list of clients grew increasingly prestigious, eventually including the British royal family, and Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson. During these years, he also focused his attention increasingly on painting clipper ships, the multi-sailed and elegant vessels that made the New York to China tea trade possible in the middle of the nineteenth century. Like most sailors—regardless of whether or not they are also painters—Dawson was enchanted by the romantic history and graceful design of the sleek clipper ships. He painted them in battle scenes, in races, and occasionally silhouetted alone against the horizon almost as if he was painting a portrait of an old friend.

 

Accolades and commissions continued to flood into Dawson’s studio throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He worked consistently, refining his understanding of his subject and spending most of his time in the studio behind his home that he’d built in the later 1930s. When he died in 1973, he left behind a legacy of contemporary marine paintings unequalled in the twentieth century.

 

 

                                                                              Janet Whitmore, Ph.D.

 

Selected Museums

 

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England

North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina

Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, England

Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, England

Tyne and Wear Museum, Newcastle on Tyne, England

 

                                                                                                           

 

[i] For more information about this annual housing exhibition sponsored by The Daily Mail, see Deborah S. Ryan, The Ideal Home Through the Twentieth Century,

(London: Hazar Publishing, 1997).

 

 

Frederick Morgan was born in London in 1847 to the British genre artist John Morgan (1823 – 1886).  Fred showed a keen interest in art and began studying with his father at an early age.  In 1865, at the age of 19, Fred exhibited his first painting, The Leaders of the Singing, at the Royal Academy.

 

After working for a number of years as a portrait artist, he finally hit upon his signature subject matter – scenes of happy childhood.  Out of Reach was one of the three works Morgan chose to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1897.  We can imagine the little girl (seen only in three-quarter length) standing on her tippy-toes as she stretches to reach the pink rose that is just beyond her grasp.  With her big blue eyes and cherubic face, Morgan has captured the amazement, wonder and innocence of the young girl.  It was this ability to capture all these loving qualities of childhood in a soft and natural style that made Fred Morgan one of the greatest British genre painters of his time.

 

With his popularity ever increasing there was a constant demand for his work.  As a result, thousands of reproductions of his paintings of radiant childhood and domestic felicity were created and sold.  Three photogravures of his painting of Alexandra – the Princess of Wales – feeding her dogs in the grounds at Sandringham House were hung in Buckingham Palace.   The original painting was begun in 1901; exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1902 and subsequently purchased by the New South Wales Public Gallery. ¹

 

A delightful conversationalist with a fund of anecdotes, Fred Morgan was a charming host, and the friends whom he entertained at his Broadstairs home derived new inspiration from his alert and vigorous mind, and his refreshing outlook towards life and art.  The pride he took in the beautiful garden in which his studio stood was part of his love for the idyllic side of life, which is reflected in his pictures.  A great lover of music, his home was the center of many interesting musical gatherings. ²

  

He was married three times.  His first wife was Miss Alice Havers (1850-1890), a brilliant genre and landscape artist. They were married in 1872 and had three childre­n; the eldest, a son, was also an artist and exhibited at the Royal Academy under the name Val Havers.  With his second wife (who died in 1905) he had two children.  His son, from this marriage, was also an art master.

 

Fred Morgan continued to paint up until his death.  His final painting, that of a little child, was finished only a week before his death in 1927 and was painted in his most finished style.  During his lifetime he exhibited more that 200 works at various exhibition: including the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of Oil Painters (of which he was a member) and the Manchester City Art Gallery.

 

 

1. The Advertiser, April 9th, 1927, pg. 9

2. Ibid.

 

 

_{This essay is copyrighted by Rehs Galleries, Inc. and may not be reproduced or transmitted without written permission from Rehs Galleries, Inc.}

Mary Abbott was born in New York City, and her lineage traces back to John Adams, the second president of the United States, who was a great, great…. great grandfather. While Mary’s childhood was one of privilege, her family was not all politics. Her mother Elizabeth Grinnell was a poet and syndicated columnist with Hearst.

In New York in the early 1940s Mary’s early interest in art led her to courses at the Art Students League where she worked with painters such as George Grosz. She lived mainly in New York but spent time in Washington where she studied with Eugene Weiss from the Corcoran Museum School. In the early 1940’s Mary also worked as a model and appeared on the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, among others. In 1948, she met the sculptor David Hare, who introduced her to an experimental school called The Subject of the Artist. Through these associations Abbott moved into the heart of the New York avant-garde. In the early 1950’s Mary spent time with her second husband Tom Clyde in the Virgin Islands, where she produced a great deal of work. The two then moved to Southampton, New York where Mary still resides.

Back in New York City, Mary became a member of the Artist’s Club, where she was one of three female members along with Perle Fine and Elaine de Kooning. Also in the early 1950’s Mary began to exhibit extensively with shows at Kootz, Tibor de Nagy and Tanager. She was also in three of the famous Stable Gallery Annuals.

In the 1970s Abbott taught at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis but eventually returned to New York where she continues to maintain homes in both the city and in the Hamptons. Mary has often said that her life’s work is to “define the poetry of living space,” something she has been doing for over sixty years.

Ilya Bolotowsky had a legendary career that involved painting, sculpture, mural production, as well as teaching and also filmmaking. He was an idealist who constantly embraced new trends in search for order and balance in response to his tumultous upbringing in Russia. Born in St. Petersburg, Ilya Bolotowsky became a leading early 20th-century painter in abstract styles in New York City. His work, a search for philosophical order through visual expression, embraced Cubism and Geometric Abstraction and was much influenced by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.

Bolotowsky immigrated to America in 1923 and, settling in New York City, attended the National Academy of Design. He became associated with a group called The Ten, artists including Julian Weir and Childe Hassam who rebelled against the strictures of the Academy and held independent exhibitions.

In 1936, having turned to Geometric Abstractions, he was one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists, a cooperative formed to promote the interests of abstract painters and to increase understanding between themselves and the public. During this period, Bolotowsky came under the influence of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian and the tenets of Neoplasticism, a movement that advocated the possibility of ideal order in the visual arts. Bolotowsky adopted his mentor’s use of horizontal and vertical geometric pattern and a palette restricted to primary colors and neutrals.

In a review of his 1974 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, which traveled to Washington D.C.’s National Gallery, his work was singled out at scarcely human, commanding a design sense of such power and flexibility.

Robert Goodnough was born in upstate Cortland, New York. Though he later evolved into a full-blown abstractionist, while at Syracuse University, he worked realistically from casts and from life. His move toward abstraction began with study with Amedee Ozenfant and Hans Hofmann in New York City, 1946-1947.

Hofmann, at this time in America, probably had more to do with shifting young American painters away from making art from reality and realist thinking into abstraction than any other teacher of painting.

Now living in New York City, Goodnough would later teach at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, New York University and the Fieldston School in New York City. He also served as an art critic for Art News Magazine from 1950 to 1957.

Goodnough became another of the tens of thousands of artists caught up in the Cubism of Pablo Picasso. He was also attracted by the stark abstractions Piet Mondrian. He combined these styles in the 1950s with that of Hofmann, his teacher, in a hybrid of Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. Since that time, like so many other abstractionists, Goodnough has been influenced by many abstract directions in art, including collage, sculpted constructions of birds and figures, and hard-edge paintings in the 1950s and 60s. From the 1970s, Goodnough has painted very large, geometric, abstract canvases.

His work is in the following collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Art Institute of Chicago; Baltimore Museum of Art; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Newark Museum, New Jersey; and the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

Source:
Michael David Zellman, “300 Years of American Art”
Matthew Baigell, “Dictionary of American Art”