Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 2

Donald S. Vogel
Picnic Shade

1981

About the Item

Donald Vogel’s paintings reflect his interest in seeking beauty in life and in sharing pleasure with his viewers. Vogel entreats us to "rejoice and celebrate each new day, knowing it is a gift in itself, and produce something of worth to be shared. That is the life that has served this artist's pilgrimage." Donald S. Vogel has been a set designer and technical director in the theater, a fine art dealer, and a writer, but first and foremost he is a painter. From a young age he was intrigued by the possibilities of creating images. The excitement and pleasure derived from the act of creation continued to be the force that compelled him to paint throughout his life. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Donald S. Vogel began his formal art training at the Witte Memorial Museum in San Antonio when he was seventeen. His training, under the watchful eye of Eleanor Onderdonk, was briefly interrupted by a move to Washington, DC , where he took drawing classes at The Corcoran School of Art . He returned to San Antonio to finish high school and continued studying under Onderdonk. After graduation, he moved to Chicago in 1936 to enroll in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist rooms of the Institute, a new world opened up to him, one that would forever influence the direction of his work. He saw art that dealt with the effects of atmosphere and light. The subjects and techniques used by these painters conveyed a sense of happiness, exuberance, and pleasure, which offered a stark contrast to the world outside stifled by the Great Depression. While studying at the Art Institute, Vogel roomed at the Artist Community House where many students lived. This environment served as a counterpoint to the academic training he received at the Institute. It afforded the students the freedom to discuss issues in contemporary art, and freely experiment with unconventional ideas and techniques. Most importantly, this fertile environment intensified Vogel's commitment to paint. Feeling the pinch of the Depression, Vogel left the Art Institute in 1940, and was accepted on the WPA Easel Project. This allowed him the luxury of drawing and painting from dawn to dusk. The freedom to paint at all hours focused his interest on the seemingly endless variations of light and atmosphere. With unlimited use of a model, he produced thousands of figure drawings until, eventually freed from the necessity of working from life, he began to paint purely from his imagination. In 1942, Vogel moved to Dallas. The previous year, while he was still living in Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts had given Vogel a one-person show; in 1943, shortly after his arrival in Dallas, the DMFA gave him another. While working first as a set designer and then as technical director at the Dallas Little Theater, Vogel spent his free time at the easel. During the 1940's he gained recognition in the art community by promoting the work of fellow artists and winning coveted purchase awards and prizes in the Texas General and Allied Arts Exhibitions for his own paintings. In 1951, Vogel and his wife Peggy, alongside Dallas arts patron Betty McLean, opened the Betty McLean Gallery. It was the first gallery in Texas to deal in modern art on an international level. In 1954, the Vogels moved to a five-acre site north of Dallas and opened Valley House Gallery. The new setting at Valley House deeply inspired Vogel, serving as a source for ideas, and providing a place of serenity and contemplation. Vogel's work is characterized by his love of color, and his fascination with the changing qualities of light. A favorite subject, often revisited during the latter part of his career, is the greenhouse. He first experimented with this subject in 1976, and began using it in earnest in 1978. Having worked in a hothouse during his youth, he found it a natural subject for exploring the effects of atmosphere, light, and color. Like Monet's pond at Giverny, Vogel's greenhouses have become his signature: an imaginary place of endless fascination. Vogel produced many catalogues for gallery artists but he had never written for himself. In 1989, he penned two autobiographical short stories and published them under the title Charcoal and Cadmium Red. He found writing to be as challenging a process as painting. During his eighth decade, he wrote and painted with equal intensity. “The agony and ecstasy I felt while producing each work was welcomed, as each required the other to fulfill the quest. And the quest remains to produce works that should delight the eye, give pause for thought, heighten the spirit, and sense the awareness of our being,” wrote Donald S. Vogel in 1998, on the occasion of his Retrospective exhibition and catalogue. Donald S. Vogel's work is included in the following collections: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Beaumont Museum of Fine Art, Beaumont, Texas Charles Goddard Center, Ardmore, Oklahoma Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, Alabama Ft. Worth Art Association, Ft. Worth, Texas Old Jail Foundation, Albany, Texas Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma The Pennsylvania Trust, Radnor, Pennsylvania Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas
  • Creator:
    Donald S. Vogel (1917-2004, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1981
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 70 in (177.8 cm)Width: 80 in (203.2 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Dallas, TX
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: A05991stDibs: LU2572523881

More From This Seller

View All
Shaded Path
By Donald S. Vogel
Located in Dallas, TX
Donald Vogel was inspired by gardens throughout his painting career. Before moving to Dallas, as a student at the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 1930's, Vogel's studio was a block away from Chicago's Lincoln Park...
Category

1980s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Garden Walk
By Donald S. Vogel
Located in Dallas, TX
Donald S. Vogel has been a set designer and technical director in the theater, a fine art dealer, and a writer, but first and foremost he is a painter. From a young age he was intrig...
Category

Late 20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Figure in Garden
By Donald S. Vogel
Located in Dallas, TX
Donald Vogel’s paintings reflect his interest in seeking beauty in life and in sharing pleasure with his viewers. Vogel entreats us to "rejoice and celebrate each new day, knowing it...
Category

1980s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Anxiety
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler: Visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined painting...
Category

1980s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Emerging Barely Differentiated Presences
By Jim Woodson
Located in Dallas, TX
The High Desert near Abiquiu is the inspiration for Texas artist Jim Woodson. His paintings are a unity of the intuitive process of painting, personal ideology, and the desert landsc...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Scattering Ashes
By Miles Cleveland Goodwin
Located in Dallas, TX
In Hyperallergic (April 8, 2017) Edward M. Gómez writes of Miles Cleveland Goodwin, his "portraits and images of nature or people in nature... capture moments of heightened awareness...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

River Passage in the Levant
Located in San Francisco, CA
A flight of fancy, this work is a bit of a surprise for a 20th-century California painter. With its colorful dhows topped by lateen sails and attended by turbaned sailors, the artist Anthony Muscat...
Category

1950s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Riverbank" Charles Sprague Pearce, American Impressionist Boat Sketch
By Charles Sprague Pearce
Located in New York, NY
Charles Sprague Pearce The Riverbank, circa 1900 Signed lower left, inscribed verso Oil on canvas 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches Charles Sprague Pearce made a successful career painting high...
Category

Early 1900s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Gloucester Harbor" Laura Woodward, Cape Ann Marine Scene, Hudson River School
By Laura Woodward
Located in New York, NY
Laura Woodward Gloucester Harbor, circa 1880 Signed lower left Oil on canvas 18 x 24 inches Provenance: Private Collection, United Kingdom Priory Fine ...
Category

1880s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Risen Moon" Frederick Judd Waugh, Coastal Landscape, Rocky Coast Marine Scene
By Frederick Judd Waugh
Located in New York, NY
Frederick Judd Waugh Risen Moon Signed lower right, Grand Central Art Galleries Inc. label on verso Oil on board 25 x 30 inches Mainly known as a marine painter. Waugh's sea paintings were enthusiastically received; for five consecutive years, he was awarded the Popular Prize at the Carnegie International Exhibition. Waugh was the son of a well-known Philadelphia portrait painter, Samuel Waugh...
Category

1920s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"A Man in His Garden, " Emil Carlsen, Backyard and Barn Impressionist Landscape
By Emil Carlsen
Located in New York, NY
Soren Emil Carlsen (1848 - 1932) A Man in His Garden, 1893 Oil on canvas 28 3/4 x 35 1/2 inches Signed and dated lower right Provenance: The artist [1848-1932] Macbeth Gallery, New York Grand Central Art Galleries, New York Luella May (Ruby) Carlsen (the artist's wife), New York Dines Carlsen (the artist's son), Falls Village, Connecticut Private Collection, Miami, Florida Exhibited: New York, Macbeth Gallery, Summer Exhibition: Painting by American Artists, July - August, 1926, no. 31 (as The Man in the Garden). Houston, Texas, Museum of Fine Arts, Exhibition of Contemporary American Art by Members of the Grand Central Art Galleries, January 13 - 27, 1929 (as The Man in the Garden). Miami Antique...
Category

1890s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage Alfred Wands Western Stagecoach Oil Painting Colorado Front Range Scene
By Alfred Wands
Located in Denver, CO
This vintage oil on canvas by Alfred Wands (1904-1998) depicts a classic Western scene of horses pulling a stagecoach through Colorado’s stunning Front Range. Featuring vibrant autumn foliage, golden grasses, a flowing river, and snow-capped mountains, the painting captures the rugged beauty of the Colorado wilderness. Wands’ detailed brushwork and rich color palette bring this iconic moment to life, making it a compelling addition to any Western or landscape art collection. The artwork is framed in a vintage frame measuring 29 ½ x 35 ½ x 1 inches (outer), with an image size of 24 x 30 inches. It remains in very good condition—please contact us for a detailed report. About the artist: Alfred Wands, known as the "Dean of Colorado Landscape Painters," studied in Cleveland and Paris, led Colorado Women’s College art program, and deeply influenced the regional art scene. © David Cook Galleries...
Category

20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All