The Emerald Pool by Edward Cucuel
View Similar Items
Edward CucuelThe Emerald Pool by Edward CucuelCirca 1909-1920
Circa 1909-1920
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Cucuel (1879-1954, American)
- Creation Year:Circa 1909-1920
- Dimensions:Height: 46 in (116.84 cm)Width: 50.5 in (128.27 cm)Depth: 3.25 in (8.26 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New Orleans, LA
- Reference Number:Seller: 31-49851stDibs: LU18610711792
Edward Cucuel
Edward Cucuel, who enjoyed a successful career as a Munich artist, was, in fact, an American, a California native who was born in San Francisco and died in Pasadena. In the interim he studied art in San Francisco and Paris, found international success as an illustrator, and expatriated to Munich where he married a German wife and painted with a group of local artists loosely allied with the Munich Secession. (Information about Cucuel is sketchy and, in some details, inconsistent. The primary source, which informs this essay unless otherwise indicated, is Cucuel, a catalogue published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Guarisco Gallery in Washington, D.C., in 1996.) As is the case with many expatriate artists, the success which Cucuel enjoyed during his lifetime has proven difficult to sustain in the years since his death with the result that his work, not quite German and not quite American, has yet to find its proper audience.
Cucuel began his art studies at the San Francisco School of Design in 1889 with Arthur Mathews (1860–1945). Mathews, who went on to become a seminal figure in the California Arts and Crafts movement, had, in 1889, just returned from training in Paris. Cucuel’s father was a native of France; his mother was born in California to English parents. The family has been identified as being in the publishing business. When he was only 15 years old, in 1890, Cucuel exhibited at the San Francisco Mechanics Institute. He worked as an illustrator for the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Call before going to Paris in 1892 to pursue a serious art education.
Cucuel’s first stops in Paris were the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi, both popular schools with Americans. At Julian, Cucuel studied with Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Jean-Paul Laurens, and William Adolphe Bouguereau, all leading academic figure painters. In 1894, Cucuel was admitted into the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux Arts. (His name is recorded in the official records as Edward Alfred Cueull. See Barbara Weinberg, “Nineteenth-Century American Painters at the École des Beaux-Arts,” in The American Art JournalXIII [Autumn 1981], p. 84.) Cucuel returned to the United States in 1896 and worked briefly in New York as an illustrator for The New York Herald before returning to San Francisco in 1897. He exhibited again at the Mechanics Institute and rejoined the San Francisco Examiner. In 1898, he went back to Paris and joined the Old American Art Club, supporting himself through freelance illustration work for Le Figaro and L’illustration and, across the English Channel, the Illustrated London News.
In the beginning years of the twentieth century, Cucuel fashioned a successful career as an illustrator for books and for major publications in Europe and America. He collaborated with a noted author of the day, W. C. Morrow, providing over one hundred illustrations for Bohemian Paris of To–day, a memoir of his days as an American art student in Paris. (His name is spelled, on the title page, Edouard Cucuel.) In 1899, Cucuel moved to Berlin and made that city his home as he continued to work as a journalist-illustrator. In the early years of the twentieth century he exhibited in Düsseldorf (1901), at the Munich Secession (1902), in Berlin (1904), and repeatedly at the Société National des Beaux-Arts in Paris between 1902 and 1912. (This was an 1890 breakaway group from the official Paris Salon, holding its exhibitions at the Champ de Mars.) Cucuel was dispatched by European publications to report on the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 (The Louisiana Purchase Exposition), sending back illustrated accounts. After his St. Louis assignment, he stopped at home in San Francisco, and then proceeded to the Far East, visiting Japan, China, India and Ceylon, before returning to Germany. Cucuel had already arrived back in Berlin when news reached him of the San Francisco earthquake and fire. He immediately traveled home to help as he could. Afterward, he returned briefly to Berlin, but, in 1907 made a decision which proved crucial to his future career in art. He moved to Munich.
In 1909, Cucuel made the acquaintance of Leo Putz (1869–1940), a leading figure in the Munich artists’ community. Putz was a founder of a diverse group of modernist Munich artists who called themselves “die Scholle,” and showed together at Joseph Brakl’s Moderner Kunsthandlung (Modern Art Gallery) from 1899 to 1911. Putz was devoted to plein-air painting, making a specialty of summer images of young women posed on or near rivers and lakes in the countryside near Munich. Cucuel apprenticed himself to Putz, focusing all his attention, for the first time in his career, on painting in oil. The two artists became firm friends and spent summers painting in tandem, sharing models. Cucuel’s career as an oil painter can thus best be understood in the context of early twentieth-century Munich art. While much of his work comes close to Impressionism and recalls the painting of Frederick Frieseke produced during the same period in Giverny, France, there are echoes of Art Nouveau, Symbolism and Japonisme on his canvases.
Cucuel married Claire Lotte von Marcard in 1913. She was a painter of floral still lifes and the daughter of a prominent German politician. The two had met shortly after he arrived in Berlin where von Marcard had facilitated his access to German society. According to the Guarisco exhibition catalogue, the marriage in 1913 was the second for Cucuel. The couple may have spent as long as two years in Japan, from 1913 to 1915, where Cucuel deepened his study of Japanese art. Cucuel returned to Munich and prospered there. Remarkably (for an American), he appears to have spent the World War I years largely in Germany. In 1918, he bought a country home and estate on the Ammersee outside of Munich, where he settled his family and painted during the summer. Although Cucuel found reputation and financial success in Germany, he never entirely gave up an American presence. In 1915, he sent five pictures to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and was awarded a silver medal. He sent pictures to The Carnegie International Exhibitions in 1914, 1920 and 1921, and showed work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, in 1914 and 1920. In 1921 and again in 1928, full color reproductions of his pictures appeared on the cover of Town & Country magazine. In 1920, he had a gallery show at the Howard Young Gallery in New York which was favorably reviewed in the New York Times (“Notes on Current Art,” New York Times, March 28, 1920 p. XX6). Cucuel remained in Munich through the 1920s, although he traveled frequently. In 1928, he moved to New York City and painted some New York cityscapes. Through the 1930s he spent winters in New York and returned for the summer to Bavaria. His last visit to Germany was in 1939, after which he moved permanently to Pasadena where he remained living in relative obscurity until his death.
(Biography provided by Hirschl & Adler)
- Dans le parc en automne, Paris (In the Park in Autumn, Paris)By Jean Francois RaffaëlliLocated in New Orleans, LAThis thoroughly modern Parisian scene was composed by the celebrated French painter Jean François Raffaëlli. The delicate oil captures a familiar subject from late 19th-century life in the city: a busy avenue at the edge of a park on a cool autumn day. Exploring the climate of the city, Raffaëlli's mature works capture the energy of the grand parks and boulevards of the new Paris that emerged at the turn of the century. His legacy documents the realities of urban life during his age, all chronicled in his distinctive brushwork and sophisticated palette. While Raffaëlli was never fully accepted as a member of the Impressionist group, his works display a similar affinity for capturing the transient moments of modern life. His figures exude a sense of being suspended in time, as though they are part of some subtle narrative that is both restless and harmonious. Perhaps more aligned with Naturalism than Impressionism, the visual effect of Raffaëlli's composition is one of carefully composed spontaneity that makes manifest the joie de vivre of the age. Raffaëlli was not the only artist of his era to devote his canvases to the urban landscape. Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Gustave Caillebotte and others composed significant works on the subject of the urban milieu. On the whole, it was an entirely new kind of painting, and it was largely influenced by the work of social engineer Baron Haussmann beginning in the 1850s. At the request of Emperor Napoleon III, Haussmann designed and carried out a large-scale urban renewal program, erecting landmarks and tree-lined thoroughfares throughout the city to create a unified and socially-centered urban aesthetic. The city became a glittering stage for modern advancements and bourgeois pleasure, which paved the way for a new kind of subject that was eagerly adopted by the Impressionists and artistic avant-garde. Born in Paris in 1850, Raffaëlli first studied theater and music before turning to painting in 1870. That same year, he submitted a landscape painting to the Salon and was accepted. Aside from just three months studying with the Academic great Jean-Léon Gérôme, Raffaëlli was self-trained, developing his own unique style that brought together Realism, Naturalism and Impressionism. While he managed to exhibit works at both the Salon and the Impressionist exhibitions...Category
Late 19th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings
MaterialsBoard, Oil
- TaroudantLocated in New Orleans, LASigned, inscribed and dated "R. Pinatel / Taroudant / 1926" (lower right) Oil on panel A stunning ode to the Moroccan landscape, this oil on panel was composed by the French Orientalist painter Raphaël Pinatel, whose lively works adeptly translated the romanticism of the East for a Western audience. The present work, which captures a market in Taroudant, a city in southeastern Morocco, exemplifies the artist’s distinctive approach as he brilliantly translates the energy and atmosphere of the desert city. Pinatel’s style is impressionistic in his brushwork and handling of light and atmosphere. In the present work, he brilliantly captures the effects of the direct desert sun...Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings
MaterialsPanel, Oil
- L’embarquement by Gaston La ToucheBy Gaston La ToucheLocated in New Orleans, LAGaston La Touche 1854 - 1913 French L’embarquement The Embarkment Signed "Gaston La Touche" (lower right) Oil on panel A fashionable group of merrymakers boards a rowboat at sundown in this oil on panel by renowned French painter Gaston La Touche. Softly lit and lushly detailed, the work represents the artist’s talent for capturing the gaiety of the Belle Époque. With its luminous coloring and feathery brushwork, this oil evokes the style and joie de vivre of the era rendered in La Touche’s distinctive, mature style. Fresh and airy, the work is a beautiful example of the artist’s skill at capturing the subtle qualities of light and color. Set against the plein air backdrop of a wooded pond awash in the soft glow of the golden hour, the scene reflects the influence of the Impressionists. The subject also recalls works by Manet, Monet and Renoir, who delighted in depictions of modern leisure among the expanding middle class. The scene is an informal one, and its unconventional cropping suggests that the viewer is invited to take a seat in the boat and join the group on their outing. Such relaxed, inviting scenes were remarkably popular among contemporary, modern audiences. However, La Touche's style is singular, possessing an element of fantasy and romance that set him apart from the Impressionists. Gaston La Touche was born in St. Cloud, outside of Paris, in 1854, and he showed a keen interest in art from a young age. At ten years old, he began taking private art instruction, which lasted until 1870, when his family was forced to flee to Normandy amid the Franco-Prussian War. This was the only formal art training La Touche would ever receive. Despite his lack of Academy training, he made his debut at the Paris Salon of 1875 with a sculptural medallion and etchings, and he exhibited his first painting at the Salon of 1881. Although he began his career painting dark-toned realist compositions, by 1890, his style had shifted to what would become his signature — a lighter, brighter, idealistic society world. The artist was associated with practically all of the most influential artists and thinkers of late 19th century France, including Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Émile Zola, who frequently met at the legendary Cafe de la Nouvelle Athenes to share their thoughts on modern society. In 1900, he was named a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur and an Officer in 1909. Additionally, he was well-decorated at the grand...Category
Late 19th Century Impressionist Figurative Paintings
MaterialsPanel, Oil
- A Spring Roundelay by Edward Atkinson HornelBy Edward Atkinson HornelLocated in New Orleans, LAEdward Atkinson Hornel 1864-1933 Scottish A Spring Roundelay Signed “E A Hornel” and dated 1910 (lower left) Oil on canvas Visually arresting with the v...Category
20th Century Figurative Paintings
MaterialsOil, Canvas
- Élégantes À Deauville By Ramon DilleyLocated in New Orleans, LARamon Dilley 1933 - Spanish Élégantes à Deauville Signed “Dilley 91” (lower right) Signed and titled “Ramon Dilley / Elegantes a Deauville” (en verso) Oil on board laid on canvas ...Category
20th Century Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil, Board
- La Petite Swan By Ramon DilleyLocated in New Orleans, LARamon Dilley 1933 - Spanish La Petite Swan Signed “Dilley 91” (lower right) Signed and titled “Ramon Dilley / La Petite Swan” (en verso) Oil on board laid on canvas This captivat...Category
20th Century Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings
MaterialsOil, Canvas, Board
- Painting en plein air - Impressionist Figure in Landscape Oil by Charles AngrandBy Charles AngrandLocated in Marlow, BuckinghamshireSigned and dated oil on canvas by French impressionist painter Charles Theophile Angrand. This wonderful and good-sized piece depicts an artist painting "en plain air" in a beautiful...Category
1880s Impressionist Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Signed Antique French Impressionist Oil Painting Children Playing in ParkBy Louis Abel-TruchetLocated in Cirencester, GloucestershireIn the Park by Louis Abel-Truchet (French 1857-1918) *see below signed oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 16 x 13 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: overall good a...Category
Late 19th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- A walk in the vegetable gardenLocated in THOMERY, FRThis captivating artwork, titled "A Walk in the Vegetable Garden," is a stunning portrayal of a moment frozen in time, inspired by a vegetable garden I visited in Normandy. It unveil...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Orientalist Beach Scene, Chenoua Plage, Algerie, Oil On Canvas.Located in Cotignac, FRAn Orientalist beach scene of the coast of Algeria at Chenoua by French painter Gustave Lino. The painting is signed, located and dated bottom left. Presented in a plain gilt frame. A charming and atmospheric view of a day at the beach. The revellers are enjoying bathing in the Mediterranean, resting under their colourful parasols against the sun and exploring the far off rocks of the cove. The sea gently lapping against the rocks at the shore. A small row boat ready for an excursion. Lino has beautifully captured the feeling of joy and fun that a day at the beach brings. Gustave Lino was born in 1893 in Mulhouse, France. At the age of twenty, he went to Marseille, discovered Provence and the Mediterranean. He was already interested in painting and art from numerous visits to the museum of his hometown, but he had not yet followed any training in this field. In Marseille, far from home and idle, he decides, almost on a whim, to travel to Algiers, without really knowing what he will discover there. He embarked for Algiers at the age of 19 in 1912. He exhibited with his friends Romeo Charles Aglietti in 1914 at 'Herero' in Algiers. Unfortunately in 1914 in Corsica in Ajaccio, being of German nationality and Mulhouse being part of the German Empire since 1871, he was interned as a 'civilian'. He spent the First World War in the Isle of Beauty but spent his time wisely developing his artistic skills. He realised many paintings as well as the historical decorations of the Solferino Hotel in Ajaccio and the religious decorations of the castle of Malaspena-Massa in Belgodère. In December 1918, he returned to Algiers where he was a pupil of Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1926 and at the Danton gallery, rue La Boétie in 1927. He settled permanently in Algiers and then in Bou-Saada. Back in Algeria, he took a close interest in the painting of Albert Marquet, which particularly seduced him and with whom he became a close friend. The transparent sharpness, this harmony of lines and tones becomes his ideal of perfection. He specialised in Algerian seascapes and landscapes, a colourist above all. Becoming an adopted member of the group called "Painters of Poetic Reality" (with Jean...Category
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- "The Auction"By Robert SpencerLocated in Lambertville, NJJim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Robert Spencer (1879 - 1931) One of the rarest and most important artists among the New Hope School, Robert Spencer was bor...Category
1910s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings
MaterialsOil, Canvas
- "The Gentleman"By Carle John BlennerLocated in Lambertville, NJAshley John is proud to offer this artwork by: Carle Blenner (1862 - 1952) Carle Blenner was born in Richmond, Virginia, and received his education in Marburg, Germany. Blenner re...Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist Figurative Paintings
MaterialsOil, Canvas
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Wear Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Genius on Your Finger with This Vivid Ring
In his jewelry making, the designer rarely used diamonds — this rare example has two.
You Won’t Find a More Handsome Stopwatch Than This 1890s Pocket Chronograph
A Grand Complication from the golden era of pocket watches, the Marius Lecoultre pocket watch does everything but uncork your wine.