William Merritt Chase

Coastal Landscape, California (Carmel-by-the-Sea)

Circa 1914

Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919 French Au bord de la rivière (Along the River) Oil on canvas "Renoir may be the only great painter who has never painted a sad picture." - Octave ...

Childe Hassam 1859-1935 American The Golf Links Oil on canvas board Signed, located and dated "Childe Hassam / Easthampton / Oct 7th 1926" (lower right)...

Henry Moret 1856-1913 French Barque de Peche en Mer Fishing Boat at Sea Signed and dated “Henry Moret 1912” (lower left) Oil on canvas A beautiful gestural composition imbued with the sublime beauty of the open sea, this oil on canvas by Impressionist Henry Moret showcases the artist's deft use of color and texture. One of the most celebrated painters of the Pont-Aven School, Moret’s lasting reputation is tied to his talent for capturing the bright skies, lively waterways and the diverse coastline of northern France. With a mastery of plein air composition and a deep appreciation for the natural world, Moret's Barque de Peche en Mer renders a fishing boat navigating through the ocean. Moret creates a visceral sense of the vitality of the water and the enormity of the open skies. The artist captures the vigorous energy of the sea with a profusion of green and blue hues applied with a thick impasto. Small yet mighty against the infinite backdrop, Moret's fishing boat forges ahead. Henry Moret was born in Cherbourg in 1856, though little else is known about his early life. He entered military service as a young man in 1875, and it was during that period when Moret discovered the beauty of France’s northern coasts, particularly those of Normandy and Brittany. After his tour ended, he embarked on his artistic career, completing his formal education at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts under Jean-Leon Gérôme, and later, from about 1880, under Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian. He exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon in 1880, submitting a landscape of the coast of Brittany. During his time in Paris, he frequently traveled to Brittany to paint the region he so loved. In 1888, he more firmly established himself in Pont-Aven, a town whose center had become an artistic refuge for artists such as the great Paul Gauguin, Ernest Ponthier de Chamaillard, Emile Jourdan and others. Under Gauguin's influence, he briefly explored the concept of Symbolism in his works, but after Gauguin left Pont-Aven in 1891, Moret returned to his Impressionist roots. He formed a relationship with the famed dealer Durand-Ruel in 1895, and his career was officially launched. Today, his works can be found in important museums including the Manchester Art Gallery, the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg), the National Gallery of Art (Washington DC) and others. Dated 1912 Canvas: 28 3/4” high x 36 3/4” wide Frame: 36 5/8" high x 44 1/8" wide Exhibited:Henry Moret, Galerie Durand-Ruel, April 5-January 29, 1966, n° 47 Provenance: Sale Marcel Bernheim...

Childe Hassam 1859-1935 American The Bather Signed and dated “Childe Hassam” (lower right) Oil on canvas Considered by many to be America’s foremost Impressionist painter, Childe Hassam composed his tranquil and intimate oil on canvas The Bather in the early years of the 20th century. The creation of the artwork aligns with a period of Hassam’s career where the artist’s palette was transforming, matching ever closer with the pale and pastel hues of French Impressionists like Claude Monet. Even the subject — a nude woman — represents a greater alignment with the Impressionist project, as artists of the movement and their non-mythological and non-biblical nudes still generated cries of indecency. With Hassam’s signature brushwork and attention to color, The Bather serves as a dream-like vision, serene and sensuous, of a young woman bathing in a lush forest. While the artist's skill for landscape painting is on display, it is Hassam's command of form, light and color that brings this canvas to life. He creates a captivating composition, placing the nude subject in the bottom left of the canvas. The soft, undulating curves of the woman's body in contrapposto and the glow of her fair skin are balanced by the strong verticals and deep earth tones of the tall trees to her right. Hassam delicately frames the nude in the vivid blues of the distant water, building luminous color that further draws the viewer’s eye and results in a somewhat voyeuristic appeal — endowing his nude with both a natural innocence and an intentional sensuality. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Childe Hassam began his artistic career as a freelance illustrator, working for national publications such as Harper’s Weekly, Scribner’s Monthly, and The Century. His first solo exhibition of watercolors took place in Boston in 1883, and he quickly catapulted onto the international scene, winning a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889. The year before the present work was created, he received the Webb Prize from the Society of American Artists for another landscape painted at Gloucester. Hassam would receive numerous other awards throughout his career, most notably the Gold Medal for Distinguished Services to Fine Art from the American Dealers Association. A true master, Hassam depicted a way of life characteristic of both American and French society, and his work elucidates a critical chapter in American art history. Today, his work resides in the Oval Office of the White House and in numerous important museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among others. This painting will be included in Stuart P. Feld's and Kathleen M. Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work. Circa 1905 Canvas: 24 1/2“ high x 20 18” wide Frame: 35 7/8“ high x 31 1/4” wide x 3 1/4“ deep Provenance: Private Collection of William Young...

This 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...

Gaston 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...

Signed lower right: Irving R. Wiles

A fine impressionist sporting painting with salmon fisherman in a canoe by American artist John Whorf (1903-1959). Whorf was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts and by the age of sixteen...

A beautiful vintage oil painting of a canyon and river. Signed "C. Leo" in the lower left. Oil paint on canvas. Unframed. Image, 16"H x 20"W.

Sweeping Big Sur landscape of rolling hills in beautiful pastel colors illuminated with sunlight, by California artist Kathleen Murray (American, 1958). Oil on artists canvas board (...

A nocturnal landscape of a cottage shrouded in foliage by Kristy Simmons (American, 20th century). Signed, stretcher bar, on verso. Unframed. Image, 19.38"H x 23.88"W. Painted during...

Serene atmospheric styled landscape scene of peaks in China with soft sunrise in the background by Duane Albert Armstrong (b. 1938), 1983. Signed and dated lower right and on verso. ...