Summer Afternoon by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939, American)

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Frederick Carl Frieseke
Summer Afternoon by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939, American)
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About the Item

Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939) Summer Afternoon Oil on canvas 26 x 32 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Esther Rosenbaum, New York, 1951-2005 "It is sunshine, flowers in sunshine, girls in sunshine, the nude in sunshine, which I have been principally interested in for eight years…." [1] "One should never forget that seeing and producing an effect of nature is not a matter of intellect, but of feeling." [2] Frederick Carl Frieseke was perhaps the most internationally celebrated Impressionist of his time. He was born in Owosso, Michigan in 1874 and went to Chicago to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and then to New York for lessons at the Art Students League. It was not before long that he followed the expatriate trail to France and enrolled at the Académie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. In Paris, he met Whistler, whose color harmonies the young artist quickly absorbed. Frieseke’s career was graced with countless honors. He won a Gold medal at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1913, a Gold medal in Munich in 1904, a Silver medal at the Corcoran Gallery in 1935, the Grand Prize at the Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, two Gold medals at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1920, and a Gold medal at the Philadelphia Art Club in 1922. Frieseke won notice in Italy as his work, Autumn was acquired by the Museo de Arte Moderna in Venice, and a gallery was designated for his work at the 1909 Venice Biennale. He was also represented in Rome’s 1911 International Exposition, and the artist was documented by Italian journalists. [3] In France, Frieseke was made a member of the Legion of Honor. Now works by Frieseke reside in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, National Gallery of Art, Musee D'Orsay, High Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, New Britain Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, North Carolina Museum of Art and the Birmingham Museum of Art among other notable institutions. When summarizing Frieseke’s great contribution to the Impressionist movement, William H. Gerdts commented, “the academic classicist interpretation gave way to the new generation of Impressionists. Perhaps the first artist of this group in Giverny was Frederick Frieseke, who also became the dominant American there and the most representative of the aesthetic that developed.” [4] A major composition, Summer Afternoon is a breathtaking example of the female subjects that Giverny’s bright and delicate climate inspired. Full of dappled light, lavender, pink tints and a gentle rhythmic patterning of abundant leaves with their tender water reflections, the painting denotes the artist’s concern for color harmony and patterns, two aesthetic devices emphasized by his mentor, James McNeill Whistler. The opalescent flesh tones of the figure suggest the influence of Pierre Auguste Renoir, whose robust hand Frieseke proudly admitted to emulate. An ideal depiction of female beauty, Summer Afternoon carries a soulful dreaminess in details such as the yellow bonnet and silky garments gracefully thrown upon the canoe and in grander features, the luminous layering of transparent walls of soft leaves and ether. [1] Frederick Frieseke cited in Clara T. MacChesney, “Frieseke Tells Some of the Secrets of his Art” New York Times, June 7, 1914, cited in Gerdts, William H., American Impressionism, New York: Artabras, 1984) 264. [2] Freiseke cited in MacChesney, cited in Gerdts, 265. [3] Gerdts, 265. [4] Gerdts, 262.

Creator:
Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939, American)
Creation Year:
Unknown
Dimensions:
Height: 26 in (66.04 cm)Width: 32 in (81.28 cm)
Medium:
Oil
Movement & Style:
American Impressionist
Period:
19th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU117024192562

Shop All Frederick Carl Frieseke

Frederick Carl Frieseke

Frederick Carl Frieseke studied at the Chicago School of Fine Arts from 1884, and at the Art Students League, New York. In 1888, he went to the Académie Julian in Paris, where he worked under Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens, also receiving advice from Whistler. In Paris, he also became acquainted with the work of contemporary artists, particularly Fantin-Latour and Renoir, and discovered Giverny, which he visited frequently during the summer months. In 1906, having achieved a degree of financial and artistic success, Frieseke was able to buy Théodore Robinson's former house in Giverny, which was next door to Monet's. In 1919, he moved to the Normandy village, Le Mesnil-sur-Blangy, where, after a brief return to the United States in 1937, he died.

Frieseke primarily painted female figures and nudes, such as Woman with a Mirror, Young Girl Playing the Piano or Model in Front of a Screen, gradually progressing to intimate scenes of women and, like Renoir, voluptuous nudes posed in the open air, their bodies lit by sunlight filtered through foliage. His methods ranged from a strictly Impressionist technique of separate brushstrokes, to one approaching divisionism, as in Mrs. Whitman's Garden of about 1912, to a broader application of color, as in Ladies in a Boat in Giverny of 1910. At times, he even went beyond Impressionism to a manner inspired by Fauvism, heightening the colors – mauves, blues and pinks – to “exaggerate the effect.” At the same time, Frieseke was also concerned, like Degas, with traditional figure painting, despite often setting them in an Impressionist-style landscape, as in Hollyhocks of 1912–13.

Frieseke took part in many group exhibitions in Paris, including the Salon des Artistes Français and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he became an associate member in 1901 and a permanent member in 1907. He held a solo show at the Venice Biennale in 1909, followed by another in Rome in 1911, and a show in New York in 1912. He received a number of distinctions: 1909, a gold medal at the Munich International Exhibition; 1913, the Temple Prize from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; 1915, the Grand Prix at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, San Francisco; 1915, a gold medal at the Philadelphia Art Club; and was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

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(Biography provided by Leighton Fine Art Ltd.)