Charles Quest, a successful artist, and fine art instructor, worked in a variety of mediums including mosaic, stained glass, mural painting, and sculpture, but remains best known as a printmaker. Quest grew up in St. Louis, his talent evident as a teenager when he began copying the works of masters such as Michelangelo on his bedroom walls. He studied at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University where he later taught from 1944–71. He traveled to Europe after his graduation in 1929, and studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and Académie Colarossi, Paris, continuing to draw inspiration from the works of the Old Masters. After returning to St. Louis, Quest received several commissions to paint murals in public buildings, schools, and churches, including one from Joseph Cardinal Ritter to paint a replica of Velázquez's Crucifixion over the main altar of the Old Cathedral in St. Louis.
Quest soon became interested in the woodcut medium which he apparently learned through his study of J. J. Lankes' A Woodcut Manual (1932) and Paul Landacre's articles in the American Artist magazine since no artists in St. Louis were working in wood at that time. Quest also revealed that for him, woodcutting and engraving were ‘more enjoyable than any other means of expression.’ In the late 1940s, his graphic works began attracting a lot of critical attention — several of his woodcuts won prizes and were acquired by major American and European museums. His wood engraving entitled Lovers was included in the American Federation of Art's traveling print exhibition in 1947. Two years later Quest's two prize-winning prints, Still Life with Grindstone and Break Forth into Singing were exhibited in major American museums in a traveling show organized by the Philadelphia Print Club. His work was included in the Chicago Art Institute's exhibition, Woodcut Through Six Centuries and the print Still Life with Vise, which was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1951, he was invited by artist-curator Jacob Kainen to exhibit 30 wood engravings and color woodcuts in the Graphic Arts Division of the Smithsonian's National Museum (now known as the American History Museum). This one-man exhibition was a remarkable achievement for Quest, who had been working in the medium for only about 10 years.
In the press release for the show, Kainen praised the ‘technical refinement’ of Quest's work. “He obtains a great variety of textural effects through the use of the graver, and these dense or transparent grays are set off against whites or blacks to achieve sparkling results. His work has the handsome qualities characteristic of the craftsman and designer,” noted Kainen. At the time of the Smithsonian exhibition, Quest's work was represented by three New York galleries in addition to one in his hometown. He had also won 38 prizes, and his prints were in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In cooperation with the Art in Embassies program, his color woodcuts were displayed at the American Embassy in Paris in 1951. Recognition at home came in 1955 with his first solo exhibition in St. Louis. Press coverage of the show heralded the growth of graphic arts toward rivaling painting and sculpture as a major independent medium.
Quest retired from teaching in 1971 and made relatively few prints in his later years, as the rigors of the medium were too demanding. He moved to Tryon, North Carolina, with his wife Dorothy, an artist and portrait painter, and remained active as a painter until he died in 1993. An exhibition of his prints at the Bethesda Art Gallery in 1983 attracted the interest of Curator Emeritus Joseph A. Haller, S. J., who began purchasing his work for the University's collection. In 1990, Georgetown University Library's Special Collections Division became the grateful recipient of a large body of Quest's work including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, and stained glass, as well as his archive of correspondence and professional memorabilia. These extensive holdings, including some 260 of his fine prints, provide a rich opportunity for further study and appreciation of this versatile and not-to-be-forgotten mid-Western American artist of the 20th century.
Price Upon Request
The Old Courthouse
By Charles Quest
Located in Missouri, MO
The Old Courthouse, 1968 By. Charles Quest (American, 1904-1993) Signed and Dated Lower Left 32 x 44 inches 38.25 x 50.25 inches with frame Born in Troy, New York, Charles Quest was...
Canvas, Oil
$4,960Sale Price|20% Off
H 30 in W 48 in D 1.5 in
Orange and Purple Trees in Harmony Contemporary Texas Landscape 30" x 48"
By Steve Parker
Located in Houston, TX
LOOK FOR FREE SHIPPING. PRICE NEGOTIABLE Orange and Purple Trees in Harmony is an contemporary impressionist landscape painting that was painted from scenes near Brenham and Chap...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
$5,520Sale Price|35% Off
H 38 in W 36 in D 4 in
'Early Morning River Landscape, ' by Harry L. Hoffman, Oil on Canvas Painting
By Harry L. Hoffman
Located in Oklahoma City, OK
In this gilt wood framed oil on canvas waterscape, American Impressionist artist Harry Hoffman depicts the last moments of a morning sunrise over a river in predominant hues of lavender, purple, pink and blue. The sky is reflected in the water below with a sandy brown beach and large green tree in the foreground. Harry Leslie Hoffman was born in Cressona, a small community in Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill Valley. His mother was an amateur artist who encouraged her son to pursue a career in the arts. In 1893, Hoffman entered the School of Art at Yale University and studied with John Ferguson Weir, the son of Robert Walter Weir. After graduation in 1897, Hoffman moved to New York to continue his studies at the Art Students League. He also traveled to Paris and took classes at the Académie Julien. In the summer of 1902, Hoffman attended the Lyme Summer School of Art, in the town of Old Lyme on the Connecticut coast. The school was headed by Frank Vincent Dumond and was located in a boarding house owned by Florence Griswold. The school eventually grew into an artists’ colony and a center for American Impressionism. When Hoffman first arrived as a student, he was not permitted to stay in the house which was designated for the professional artists only. However, his outgoing personality soon won him many friends at the colony. In 1905, Hoffman settled in Old Lyme and worked as a full member of the artist colony. He was particularly influenced by Willard Leroy Metcalf, an Impressionist also working in Old Lyme. Fellow artists later fondly recalled Hoffman’s antics at the Griswold house, which included playing the flute and banjo, tap-dancing, singing humorous songs, and performing magic tricks. In 1910, Hoffman married another Old Lyme artist named Beatrice Pope, and the couple had one child in 1921. Hoffman and his wife often escaped New England during the harsh winter months. In the winters of 1914 and 1915 he traveled to Savannah, Georgia with fellow Old Lyme artist William Chadwick...
Canvas, Oil
$4,200
H 24 in W 36 in D 1 in
Spring Cove Texas Landscape American Impressionism 24" x 36" Lake Conroe
By Steve Parker
Located in Houston, TX
Framed 26.5" x 37.5 " Spring Cove is an impressionist landscape painting that was painted on Lake Cone located in Montgomery, Texas. Early Spring Cove is a contemporary oil landsc...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
"The Old Pasture"
By William Langson Lathrop
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork. Signed lower right. Complemented by a hand carved and gilt frame. William L. Lathrop (1859-1938) Deemed “Father of the New Hope Art Colony”, William Langson Lathrop was born in Warren, Illinois. He was largely self-taught, having only studied briefly with William Merritt Chase in 1887, at the Art Students League. Lathrop first moved east in the early 1880s, and took a job at the Photoengraving Company in New York City. While there, he befriended a fellow employee, Henry B. Snell. The two men became lifelong friends and ultimately, both would be considered central figures among the New Hope Art Colony. Lathrop's early years as an artist were ones of continuing struggle. His efforts to break through in the New York art scene seemed futile, so he scraped enough money together to travel to Europe with Henry Snell in 1888. There he met and married an English girl, Annie Burt. Upon returning to New York, he tried his hand at etching, making tools from old saw blades...
Canvas, Oil
$3,500
H 24 in W 30 in D 1.5 in
Bayou Reflections II Texas Landscape Oil Impressionism
By Steve Parker
Located in Houston, TX
FREE SHIPPING Bayou Reflections II is contemporary oil landscape painting on canvas 24 x 30. Bayou Reflections II was painted in 202...
Canvas, Oil
$925
H 24 in W 34 in D 0.5 in
Desert Landscape Oil Painting, American Impressionist, Circa 1910s
Located in Arp, TX
Attrib. Ralph Davidson Miller 1858-1945 "Desert landscape" c. 1910s. Oil on canvas 34"x24" unframed Unsigned Presenting an extraordinary artwork attributed to the renowned artist R...
Oil, Canvas
$850
H 6 in W 8 in D 1.5 in
Duomo at Sunset, Impressionism , Landscape, Framed, Plein Aire, Italy, Oil
Located in Houston, TX
Duomo at Sunset at Piazelle Michelangelo, Florence is part of newly released small works from V....Vaughan's collection of recent travels in Italy and France. V....Vaughan painted each of these on location "en plein air" It has an Impressionistic Style as seen in many of Virginia Vaughan's paintings. The Piazzale Michelangelo...
Canvas, Oil
Blue Mountains, Vintage 1970s Desert Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Blue Mountains, Vintage 1970s Desert Landscape Expansive landscape of a monumental mountain range in blue and purple tones in desert scenery by an unknown artist (American, 20th Ce...
Canvas, Oil
$6,000
H 36 in W 36 in D 1 in
Afternoon in the Texas Hill Country Landscape Oil Impressionism, Barn, Sun 36x36
By Steve Parker
Located in Houston, TX
LOOK FOR FREE SHIPPING Afternoon in the Texas Hill Country is an impressionist landscape painting that was painted near Brenham and Chappell Hill. Afternoon in the Texas Hill Count...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
$1,160Sale Price|20% Off
H 27 in W 37 in D 1 in
Vintage Coastal Seascape in Oil on Canvas
By Jac Falcraft
Located in Soquel, CA
Vintage Coastal Seascape in Oil on Canvas Vintage seascape of the California coast by California artist Jac Falcraft (American, 20th century). Wonderfully detailed coastal scene of ...
Canvas, Oil
"The Inlet" Oil Painting
By Leigh Ann Van Fossan
Located in Denver, CO
Leigh Ann Van Fossan's "The Inlet" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a group of sailboats docked in the darkness as their lights cast glimmering reflections on the i...
Canvas, Oil
"Nightwatch" Oil Painting
By Leigh Ann Van Fossan
Located in Denver, CO
Leigh Ann Van Fossan's "Nightwatch" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a lone sailboat floating in the darkness as their lights and the stars cast glimmering reflecti...
Canvas, Oil