Greta Allen

untitled (Maine Autumn Landscape across the narrows from Mt. Desert)

1945-1955

untitled (Maine Landscape near Mt. Desert Island) Watercolor on paper, c. 1945-1955 Signed by the artist lower left (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the artist Condition: Excellent ...

West Gouldsboro (Looking Across Mt. Desert Narrows) Watercolor on paper, c. 1945-1955 Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the Artist Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 9 7/8 x 12 1/2 inches Regarding the Maine subject matter of her watercolors, we know that Allen taught art in West Gouldsboro, ME, located near Arcadia National Forest. This watercolor was most probably done in that vicinity. A local Maine newsletter mentions “the artist Greta Allen’s house” as artist residing in West Gouldsboro, Maine in a house formerly owned by James Hill. West Gouldsboro is located just east of the Mt. Desert Narrows, across Frenchman Bay from Mt. Desert Island and Arcadia National Park. Please see attached images for detailed information about the artist's life and time in Maine. Greta Allen, who is sometimes listed under her married name Dietz, was born in Boston in 1881. At the Massachusetts Normal Art School she took elementary lessons from Joseph R. DeCamp, then Frank Benson was her teacher at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Although her work seems to be only in private collections today, Allen exhibited at the Boston Art Club, at the Copley Society...

Snowy Peaks (Mont Blanc) Watercolor on paper, c. 1930 Signed "R. Hallowell" lower right (see photo) The image depicts is of Mont Blanc in France. Mont Blanc is the highest mountain i...

Standing Lincoln: The Man, Lincoln Park, Illinois Watercolor and graphite on paper , c. 1895 Signed in script lower right (see photo) The scene depicts the Augustus Saint-Gaudens bro...

This artwork "The Old Carriage" c.1950 is a watercolor on paper by noted California artist William Jack Laycox, 1921-1984. It is signed at he lower right corner by the artist. The ar...

Max Kuehne (1880 - 1968) Train Station, circa 1910 Watercolor on paper 8 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches Signed lower right Provenance: Private Collection, Illinois Max Kuehne was born in Halle, Germany on November 7, 1880. During his adolescence the family immigrated to America and settled in Flushing, New York. As a young man, Max was active in rowing events, bicycle racing, swimming and sailing. After experimenting with various occupations, Kuehne decided to study art, which led him to William Merritt Chase's famous school in New York; he was trained by Chase himself, then by Kenneth Hayes Miller. Chase was at the peak of his career, and his portraits were especially in demand. Kuehne would have profited from Chase's invaluable lessons in technique, as well as his inspirational personality. Miller, only four years older than Kuehne, was another of the many artists to benefit from Chase's teachings. Even though Miller still would have been under the spell of Chase upon Kuehne's arrival, he was already experimenting with an aestheticism that went beyond Chase's realism and virtuosity of the brush. Later Miller developed a style dependent upon volumetric figures that recall Italian Renaissance prototypes. Kuehne moved from Miller to Robert Henri in 1909. Rockwell Kent, who also studied under Chase, Miller, and Henri, expressed what he felt were their respective contributions: "As Chase had taught us to use our eyes, and Henri to enlist our hearts, Miller called on us to use our heads." (Rockwell Kent, It's Me O Lord: The Autobiography of Rockwell Kent. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1955, p. 83). Henri prompted Kuehne to search out the unvarnished realities of urban living; a notable portion of Henri's stylistic formula was incorporated into his work. Having received such a thorough foundation in art, Kuehne spent a year in Europe's major art museums to study techniques of the old masters. His son Richard named Ernest Lawson as one of Max Kuehne's European traveling companions. In 1911 Kuehne moved to New York where he maintained a studio and painted everyday scenes around him, using the rather Manet-like, dark palette of Henri. A trip to Gloucester during the following summer engendered a brighter palette. In the words of Gallatin (1924, p. 60), during that summer Kuehne "executed some of his most successful pictures, paintings full of sunlight . . . revealing the fact that he was becoming a colorist of considerable distinction." Kuehne was away in England the year of the Armory Show (1913), where he worked on powerful, painterly seascapes on the rocky shores of Cornwall. Possibly inspired by Henri - who had discovered Madrid in 1900 then took classes there in 1906, 1908 and 1912 - Kuehne visited Spain in 1914; in all, he would spend three years there, maintaining a studio in Granada. He developed his own impressionism and a greater simplicity while in Spain, under the influence of the brilliant Mediterranean light. George Bellows convinced Kuehne to spend the summer of 1919 in Rockport, Maine (near Camden). The influence of Bellows was more than casual; he would have intensified Kuehne's commitment to paint life "in the raw" around him. After another brief trip to Spain in 1920, Kuehne went to the other Rockport (Cape Ann, Massachusetts) where he was accepted as a member of the vigorous art colony, spearheaded by Aldro T. Hibbard. Rockport's picturesque ambiance fulfilled the needs of an artist-sailor: as a writer in the Gloucester Daily Times explained, "Max Kuehne came to Rockport to paint, but he stayed to sail." The 1920s was a boom decade for Cape Ann, as it was for the rest of the nation. Kuehne's studio in Rockport was formerly occupied by Jonas Lie. Kuehne spent the summer of 1923 in Paris, where in July, André Breton started a brawl as the curtain went up on a play by his rival Tristan Tzara; the event signified the demise of the Dada movement. Kuehne could not relate to this avant-garde art but was apparently influenced by more traditional painters — the Fauves, Nabis, and painters such as Bonnard. Gallatin perceived a looser handling and more brilliant color in the pictures Kuehne brought back to the States in the fall. In 1926, Kuehne won the First Honorable Mention at the Carnegie Institute, and he re-exhibited there, for example, in 1937 (Before the Wind). Besides painting, Kuehne did sculpture, decorative screens, and furniture work with carved and gilded molding. In addition, he designed and carved his own frames, and John Taylor Adams encouraged Kuehne to execute etchings. Through his talents in all these media he was able to survive the Depression, and during the 1940s and 1950s these activities almost eclipsed his easel painting. In later years, Kuehne's landscapes and still-lifes show the influence of Cézanne and Bonnard, and his style changed radically. Max Kuehne died in 1968. He exhibited his work at the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, and in various New York City galleries. Kuehne's works are in the following public collections: the Detroit Institute of Arts (Marine Headland), the Whitney Museum (Diamond Hill...

"Ward Ranch", a detailed watercolor landscape by Leonard Frank Starks (American, 1891-1986). Unframed. Signed "L F Starks" lower left. Titled "Ward Ranch-Carlotta" and dated "9-69" o...

Delicate and detailed etching by Orpha Klinker (American, 1891-1964). At the edge of an old Adobe building, a staircase leads to the second floor. The stucco on the walls of the building is cracked, revealing the stonework below. Next to the building is a garden with Corkscrew Willow trees. One of her first projects with which Orpha impressed the public was a notable series of her large color portraits of California pioneers in the L.A.TIMES under the heading of "Speaking Of Pioneers." This led to another series on landmarks and famous tales of early California including oil paintings of historic adobes, buildings, and trees of California. Signed in plate, lower left. Paper size: 8.5"H x 10.5"W Mat size: 10"H x 12"W Orpha Klinker (American, 1891-1964) graduated from Polytechnic High School, L.A. and later studied at U.C.L.A. Art School and at the Cannon Art School. Artists Paul Lauritz and Anna A. Hills of Laguna Beach were her first art teachers. She continued her study of art at the Julian and Colarossi Academies in Europe. Some of her earliest work was in designing. Many pages of her fine pen work drawings appeared in Los Angeles newspapers, illustrating the fashions of the day, not only in clothes but in furniture and other things. Then for a time she did her work in New York City and later with the Ladies Home Journal in Philadelphia. One of her first projects with which Orpha impressed the public was a notable series of her large color portraits of California pioneers in the L.A.TIMES under the heading of "Speaking Of Pioneers." This led to another series on landmarks and famous tales of early California including oil paintings of historic adobes, buildings, and trees of California. From the Mexican border to Death Valley she roamed, meeting and painting portraits of such characters as Death Valley Scotty, Shoshone Johnny, the ancient Indian who supposedly saw the first white man come to Death Valley, Emanuel A. Speegle, "The Last of the 49'ers" (over 90 years of age) and others. Orpha was active in keeping alive the memory of one historical event in particular, the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga ending the Mexican War...