Robert Emmett Owen

Old House, New Canaan

Robert Emmett Owen was a successful American artist and painter, best known for his impressionist views of rural landscapes. His color-filled paintings capture the moods and seasonal splendor of the New England countryside.

Robert was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, in 1878. He began his art studies at Drury Academy, in his hometown and quickly gained notice. At the age of 19 years, in 1897, he had several drawings accepted for publication by Life Magazine. The following year, he received a scholarship to the Eric Pape School of Art, in Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked in the art department of The Boston Globe, to pay for his studies.

He moved to New York City, in 1901, where he rapidly achieved fame, as an illustrator and worked for various publications, including Harper’s Bazaar, Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly and Cosmopolitan, while continuing his training at the Art Students League, the Chase School and the National Academy of Design.

In 1910, Robert moved to Bagnall, Connecticut, to concentrate on landscapes full time. He had the opportunity there, to paint outdoors in all seasons. He also received numerous commissions from many prominent citizens. In 1919, Temple Gwathmey, former president of the New York Stock Exchange, commissioned a series of twenty paintings and in 1923, Stephen H.P. Pell commissioned a series of images for Fort Ticonderoga, eight of which were reproduced as full-page illustrations in Harper’s Bazaar. He also received commissions from Percy Rockefeller and Edward Stettinus, former US Secretary of State.

Robert moved back to New York City, in 1920 and opened his own gallery, while continuing to do magazine illustrations. The gallery, called the Robert Emmett Owen New England Landscape Gallery, only exhibited and sold his own work. It moved several times, during the next 21 years, always remaining successful, until Robert closed it in 1941, when the United States entered the Second World War and moved to New Rochelle, New York, to be the artist-in-residence at the Thomas Paine Memorial Museum.

His work was well liked by both critics and the public and examples are held by the Frick Art Museum, in New York, the Bruce Museum, in Connecticut and the Greenwich Public Library. Robert died in New Rochelle, in 1957.