Wilson Henry Irvine Landscape Paintings

The Harbor at Camden, Maine (c.1907) Oil on canvas 24" x 27" 32 ½" x 35 ½" x 3 ½" framed Signed "Irvine" lower right. Provenance: Private collection, Beverly Hills California until 1944 Private collection, Glendale, California 1944-1987 By descent About this artist: American Impressionist painter Wilson Henry Irvine was born just outside of Byron, Illinois in 1869. Though raised in the Midwest, Irvine was captivated by the scenic coast and landscape of New England and spent most of his adult life there. Painting in the American Barbizon tradition, modeled after the nineteenth century French Barbizon School, Irvine sketched and painted directly from nature preferring to work en plein air. His impressionistic style and choice of subjects are often compared to painters of the American Barbizon School, particularly Irvine’s contemporary, Childe Hassam. Irvine stands out from other American Impressionists of his time, for his willingness to push the traditional techniques of impressionism with his aquaprints and prismatic paintings of the late 1920s. Shortly after graduating from Rockford’s Central High School, Irvine moved from the suburbs to Chicago in order to attend business school. He worked at the Chicago Portrait Company starting in 1893, and began evening classes at The Art Institute of Chicago two years later. Irvine continued taking courses at the Art Institute for eight years. His classes included life drawing and illustration with a heavy focus on human anatomy. In 1895, Irvine founded the Palette and Chisel Club of Chicago with his classmates, and served as both treasurer and president. It was with this group that he began exploring landscape painting, and soon he began showing his landscapes at group shows at The Art Institute of Chicago. Initially Irvine’s work is reminiscent of early impressionism, with the artist’s use of lively, visible brush strokes and his emphasis on the contrasts of color and texture to create a sense of depth in his paintings. Though he spent a brief amount of time sketching in Brown County with Indiana based “Hoosier” school...

Wilson Irvine A Glimpse of the Lieutenant River, Connecticut Signed lower left Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches Provenance: Charles Brown Fine Art, Locust Valley, New York Mr. & Mrs, Harry Vonderlieth, Locust Valley, New York (acquired directly from the above in 1991) A prolific Impressionist with a penchant for atmospheric scenes, Illinois native Wilson Irvine began his career in Chicago as an airbrush artist. His expertise led to his eventual employment with the newly founded Chicago Portrait Company, where he retouched photographs to achieve highly realistic results. It was not until 1895 that Irvine enrolled in evening classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, studying first with the academically trained Charles E. Boutwood and later with the illustrator Walter M. Clute. Beginning in 1900, Irvine’s landscape paintings appeared in forty-one exhibitions hosted by the Art Institute, and soon his work was seen at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Corcoran Gallery, and the National Academy of Design. Irvine was awarded a silver medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Also in 1895, Irvine and a group of fellow artists founded the Palette and Chisel Club of Chicago. Members met on Sunday mornings at the studio of noted sculptor Lorado Taft to draw from the model during daylight hours. Irvine served first as the treasurer and then as president of the club, regularly participating in the group’s exhibitions, which were held at the art galleries of Marshall Field’s eponymous department store. In 1907, Irvine was one of the founders of the Cliff Dwellers Club, spearheaded by noted author Hamlin Garland. He was also active in the Artists’ Guild, which merged into the Arts Club, and the Chicago Watercolor...

A Hazy Summer's Day. c. 1920. Oil on panel. 24 x 27 1/8 (framed 31 x 33 1/8). Signed, lower left. Housed in a contemporary Thanhardt Burger Impressionist style gold frame. In 1914, ...