Pruett Alexander Carter

An Evening Conversation

Date: 1941 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions; 30.00" x 45.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Illustration for Look magazine

Date: 1950s Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 20.00" x 16.00" Signature: Unsigned Color study featured in Step By Step Graphics, 1950's.

Pruett Carter captures the quintessential look of the 1950's in this loosely rendered but charming work for Redbook. Bright, punchy colors define each object and are arranged in a simplified but complex composition of intersecting and overlapping planes of color. The double portrait of the girl expresses a peak moment of introspection. She ponders her situation while preparing to get dressed for her special occasion. The whole scene is imbued with suspense about her future. Carter is a great academic painter. With just a few light touches of the brush, he quickly defines the form of the subject and achieves the X factor of the work. The profile and frontal view of the girl clearly are the same person. He nails her look. This is hard to do. Do not underestimate it. Sadly, there is a reason why there are very few contemporary artists can actually paint and draw without tracing photographs or resort to naive painting. It's hard to do. It's hard to be a painter. You can not fake...

Hubert-Denis Etcheverry Bayonne 1867 – 1950 Paris French Painter 'Une Consultation de Sigmund Freud' Signature: signed lower right and dated ‘D. Etcheverry / Paris 1900’ Medium: oi...