V. Crowell

'Golden Delta Sunset', Mid-Century Modernist Estuary Landscape, Water Grasses

1966

Signed lower left, and lower right, 'Patricia Cunningham' for Patricia Stanley Cunningham (American, 1907-1984) and painted circa 1965. A vibrant, Post-Impressionistic oil showing a view of Paris with two nuns wearing wimples and cornets, one carrying a basket of daffodils, standing beneath the shade of a tree and with a view beyond to the facade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame lit by bright sunshine. The first woman to serve as president of the Carmel Art Association, Patricia Stanley Cunningham first studied at UC Berkeley and, subsequently, with Hans Hofmann in Munich and with André Lhote in Paris. While in Paris, in 1930, she wed the American artist, John Cunningham. Settling on the Monterey Peninsula after returning from Europe, Cunningham joined the Carmel Art Institute, of which she became president, the Southwest Artists...

Signed lower right, 'Dusso' for Leon D'Usseau, Jr. (American, 1918-1991) and painted circa 1965. A substantial oil painting showing two lovers reclining in a barge on a stream before a Persian palace crowned with domes and minarets; the pair elegantly dressed, with the young woman bejeweled and the young man playing a lute. Born in Los Angeles, Leon D'Usseau began training under the guidance of his father, who was among the earliest fine art film directors in Hollywood. At the age of twelve, he was drawing seriously and, at fifteen, he received a working scholarship at Chouinard School of Art where he studied under Merrill Gage and Alexander Archipenko and also taught a line-drawing class. Adopting the anglicized brush-name of Dusso, he exhibited widely and with success including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1937-40), the California Palace Legion of Honor (1941), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1942), the Laguna Festival of Arts, Los Angeles Artists Association (1945), the California Watercolor Society (1946) and the Audubon Association (1945). Leon Dusso...

A charming & diminutive 1930s oil on Masonite view of Martha's Vineyard harbor by notable Chicago artist Francis Chapin. Artwork size: 8 3/4" x 11 3/4". Framed size: 12 1/2" x 15 1/2". Provenance: Estate of the artist. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945). A prolific painter, Chapin produced numerous works while traveling in Mexico, France, Spain, Saugatuck and Martha’s Vineyard, where he frequently spent summers and taught at the Old Sculpin Gallery there. Chapin was best recognized for his dynamic and vibrant images of Chicago during the 1930s and 40s. Chapin was a resident of the Old Town neighborhood where he lived and kept his studio on Menomonee Street for many years. Described as a “colorful figure, nearly 6 feet 6 inches tall, and thin, and usually wearing tweeds”, it is easy to imagine Chapin at work observing the busy street life of the city. In addition to his many exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chapin’s work was shown during his lifetime at such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the National Academy of Design, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, among others. Francis Chapin’s paintings are represented in the collections the Art Institute of Chicago; the Friedman Collection, Chicago; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown; the Denver Art Museum; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach...

A colorful, vibrant 1930s winter scene painting Saugatuck, Michigan by famed Chicago Modern artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Depicting the Old Fish House on the left, with a ...