Ralph Cahoon Jr.

Sailors and Mermaids

c. 1960s

Provenance The artist; Collection of Walter Stuempfig, Philadelphia; Private collection, Massachusetts until 2022 The Philadelphia modernist Arthur B. Carles was a brilliant coloris...

Excerpted from The Painter's Journey: The Art of William S. Robinson, The Cooley Gallery Born in East Gloucester, Massachusetts, William S. Robinson became a talented and successful...

Like his mentor the great American Impressionist William Merritt Chase, Charles Webster Hawthorne was equally admired in his own day as both a talented painter and a highly influential instructor. Hawthorne first studied with Chase at his Shinnecock Summer School of Art, which was specifically dedicated to open-air landscape painting. Not only did Hawthorne quickly absorb all the principles of Chase’s instruction, but he also became determined to found his own school based on the same model. In 1899 Hawthorne discovered the small fishing village of Provincetown on the furthermost tip of Cape Cod, and after purchasing a large house on Miller Hill, he opened the Cape Cod School of Art, which proved to be an immediate success. While Hawthorne’s own approach as a teacher owed much to Chase, he developed a distinctly unique painting style and teaching method that defies easy categorization. He was greatly impressed with the work of Franz Hals, which he was exposed to during his trip to Holland in the summer of 1898. Hawthorne was particularly struck by Hals’ Regentesses of the Old Men’s Almhouse, and from this work he absorbed a deep appreciation for the power of human expression and an economy of technique. Hawthorne applied these lessons to his own realistic portraits of Provincetown fishermen and their families; these works have a somber, almost melancholy quality to them, and they reveal a sense of the vulnerability of the human condition. Stylistically, Hawthorne maintained a life-long commitment to the importance of color. “Beauty in art,” he said, “is the delicious notes of color one against the other.” Of equal importance to him was capturing the effects of light. He told his students: “Everything in painting is a matter of silhouettes. Hold light against shadow, not light against light.” He developed a particular technique of layering glazes and texturing the surface of his paintings, which heightens the relationship between the colors and creates a light effect that seems to emanate from within the painting. These stylistic techniques in combination with his straightforward compositions of one or more figures shown at close range create the hallmarks of Hawthorne’s best paintings. Hawthorne and his wife Ethel’s 1905-1907 trip to Italy did not result in a drastic impact on his artistic style. Nonetheless, it proved to be a transformative and enlightening voyage. The extensive trip was financed by collectors who paid in advance for a painting to be produced abroad. On the trip, Hawthorne explored the work of old masters and was struck particularly by the paintings of Titian, which to Hawthorne, demonstrated the master’s true adoration for the act of painting itself through his handling of paint and color. Where Titian’s paintings...

Provenance Private collection, New Jersey; Thomas Colville Fine Art, Guilford, Connecticut; Private collection, Connecticut, until present John Koch’s portraits of New York high soc...

Devils depicted. Artist Wilson Bigaud paints a graphic narrative of mid-century life in Haiti without modern medicine. A man is dying yet there is no doctor present. In the struggle...

A bustling street scene of everyday life in front of the famed Marché in Cap-Haïtien is rendered in Sénèque This is a relatively early work by Obin's signature brightly colored and flat naive style. Signed lower right. Provenance: Galerie Issa - Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - Owned by Issa El Saieh of later named El Saieh Gallery Sénèque Obin...

A young man at a crowded upper-class Haitian swimming pool attracts attention. We see him only from the back in a Magritte-like pose. The transfixed expressions of some of the nubile bare-breasted bathing beauties and one man with his hands down his pants give us a clue that the mystery man is special. This is a fascinating work packed with drama and overflowing with pent-up emotion.
Bigaud's narrative is as complex as his figural composition of lookers and swimmers. Notice the sight lines of the lookers go back to front while the two swimmers go from left to right. The twenty-two figures are contained in the rectangular shape of the pool, which is pushed to the front of the picture plane. The cars of the pool partygoers are seen in the background with one witness. He is fully clothed and is most likely a chauffeur. The fully clothed female at the pool offering food is a servant. A boxy-looking radio with a pack of cigarettes and the style of the cars give glue to the date. Most Haitian art depicts average working people. The pool party departs from that tradition and shows life of the Haitian upper class. Most likely, this was painted in Petion-Ville. The higher the elevation in Port-au-Prince the more wealthy the homes. Although the artist's painting technique may be described as naive or lacking polish.
 t's one of the reasons why the work radiates charm and interest. The painting is oversized with huge dimensions of 55 x 48 and will be a statement in any room. Wilson Bigaud is considered to be a Haitian master. The condition is good. Three repaired one-inch issues on the extreme center and upper right edge. Visible only on close inspection. Otherwise presents very well and is elegantly framed, ______________________________________ Haitian master Wilson Bigaud is renowned for works portraying everyday life and rites of passage—vodou rituals, fortune-tellers, weddings, cockfights, and carnivals—with voluminous figures and lucid colors. Born in Port-au-Prince, in 1946 Bigaud was among the first to attend DeWitt Peters’s Le Centre d’Art d’Haïti, where he studied with Hector Hyppolite...

Original oil on masonite painting of a girl with hula hoop and a carnival merry-go-round in the background by Carol Blanchard. Signed lower right. Condition...