Jasper Cropsey (1823-1900), "Autumn Sunset," ca. 1870-75, oil on canvas, 23 x 34 inches
Lisa N. Peters
We have a new painting by the Hudson River School artist Jasper Cropsey (1823-1900) at the gallery, entitled Autumn Sunset. Art historian Kenneth W. Maddox (who is preparing the Cropsey catalogue raisonné for publication by the Newington-Cropsey Foundation) identifies the work as among Cropsey’s many views based on Greenwood Lake, in northern New Jersey, where the artist’s wife’s family had a home, and where Cropsey painted often from the 1840s through the 1890s. The painting can be linked with a number of images Cropsey created of this site in the early 1870s. A comparable work is Greenwood Lake, New Jersey of 1871, which belongs to the New York Historical Society. Read the rest of this entry »
Carol Lowrey
Philip Leslie Hale (1865 - 1931), "Young Woman Adjusting Veil of Her Hat," pencil on paper, 10 3/4 x 8 in.
At a recent lecture at the National Academy of Design, the eminent academician Will Barnet (b. 1911) discussed his take on figure painting. As many of you know, Will has dabbled in abstraction at various times in his career, but he is best known for his figure subjects, executed in an elegant and very ordered style that combines an objective realism with the simplified, hard-edged forms of modernism. Like so many artists of his generation, he spent his formative years studying traditional methods of figure drawing, greatly encouraged, as he pointed out, by the example of Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931), his favorite teacher at Boston’s Museum School.
The son of the Reverend Edward Everett Hale, the acclaimed author, orator and preacher, Hale created colorful paintings in an advanced impressionist style (I’ll discuss these in a future blog) and as a penman he wrote insightful criticism on contemporary European art, as well as an influential book on Vermeer. He also produced exquisite drawings. Indeed, Hale loved to draw and did so incessantly throughout his career. As a young man he drew illustrations for the Harvard Lampoon, going on to hone his technique in the art schools of Boston, New York and then Paris, where he was known as the “crack” draftsman of the famous Académie Julian. Hale’s affinity for drawing was heightened when he was appointed an instructor in Antique Drawing at the Museum School, where he taught for over thirty years. And in his spare time (as related in Nancy Hale’s 1969 memoir, The Life in the Studio), he would typically spend his evenings in his study, “drawing under a blue bulb shaded by a paper-clipped sheet of paper . . . drawing . . . just for the pleasure of drawing . . . until two or three in the morning.” Read the rest of this entry »
Installation photo of "Jasmina Danowski: Quite a Little Bit"
Jasmina Danowski: Quite is Little Bit is opening tonight at 6 o’clock. Please stop by, meet the artist, and enjoy these gorgeous works on paper. ..and a few panels too!
A tidbit from the exhibition’s press release:
Representing a turning point in her art, the latest works, comprising her third exhibition at the gallery, were inspired by a number of recent trips she took to Eastern Long Island. Initially visiting Montauk as well as the North Fork wine country to relax and vacation for the first time in many years, she was surprised by the beauty of the landscape and its wildness and felt compelled to Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this week, Sarah Hardin, head gallery Archivist, found an original issue of Life Magazine from January 15, 1951, which included a photograph of ”The Irascibles”—a group of artists who protested the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rejection of abstract works, eventually affecting a change in the museum’s plan for its upcoming exhibition, as the caption for the photograph notes. The group consisted of most of the leading figures in the New York School, and among its members was Jimmy Ernst (1920-1984). This was a timely discovery, as the gallery, which represents Ernst’s estate, is preparing an exhibition of his work that will open January 5, 2010.
A son of surrealist Max Ernst and the art historian Louise Straus-Ernst, Jimmy Ernst spent his childhood in the company of Paul Klee, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and André Breton, who were among his parents’ close friends. After emigrating to the United States in 1938, he worked in the mail room and film library of the Museum of Modern Art and later for Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery. He began to paint in the early 1940s, creating works that evolved from surrealist images in the mode of his father to abstract freeform compositions filled with intricate quill-like markings. Ernst was one of few artists of his time to be embraced by both the Abstract Expressionists and the literate, often elitist artists of pre- and postwar Europe, who frequently saw the younger Americans as upstarts who lacked intellectual rigor.
A scan of the magazine article is shown below. The photograph caption reads: Read the rest of this entry »
William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916), "Child Star Elsie Leslie Lyde as Little Lord Fauntleroy," ca. 1889, oil on canvas, 70 x 40 in.
Carol Lowrey
William Merritt Chase’s (1849-1916) sitters included many female performers, among them Minnie Maddern Fiske and Carmencita. Spanierman Gallery’s current offerings include what is perhaps his finest portrayal of a member of New York’s theatrical world––namely, his colorful and very picturesque rendition of Elsie Leslie Lyde in the role of Little Lord Fauntleroy. The story is by Frances Hodgson Burnett and describes the adventures of young Cedric Errol, who lived with his widowed mother in Brooklyn and, upon discovering that he is the grandson of an earl, goes to England to claim his inheritance. When the play debuted at the Broadway Theatre in New York on December 3rd 1888, Chase was in the audience and was so taken with Lyde’s charms that he arranged to paint her portrait in his Tenth Street studio. Read the rest of this entry »
Daniel Huntington (1816-1906), "A Dog Sitting," pencil on paper, 7-3/4 x 5 inches
Katherine Bogden
As a dog lover, something I quickly grew to love about New York City is the remarkable number of dogs you can see being walked along the city streets on any given day. With that on my mind (I passed a few dogs on my way into work this morning) I’ve decided to share some charming pictures of dogs.
Although the gallery has a number of wonderful dog paintings (many of hunting dogs and other “working” dogs), I found myself drawn to two little sketches by Daniel Huntington. Huntington, who was considered New York City’s “official” portraitist during the post Civil War era, was also known for his genre scenes, historical pieces, and landscapes.
In the first drawing, A Dog Sitting, a medium-to-long-haired dog is looking away from the viewer. I get the impression, from his patient and loyal appearance, he is waiting for something or someone. I’m not entirely sure of his breed, but it seems possible he is some kind of Setter or Retriever (regardless, his gentle, kind appearance reminds me very much of my childhood dog, Max—a Labrador Retriever). Read the rest of this entry »
Jenn McMenemy
A few weeks ago we invited artist Peter Poskas in for a brief video interview with Ira. As part of the “video team” it was a pleasure meeting Peter and his wife, Jan, and a treat to hear him talk about one of his recent works, Prelude to Spring, New Milford, Connecticut. It was nice hearing of his experiences painting the farms of Connecticut, especially the story of the only refusal he’s gotten on a farm he wanted to paint.
