Masters of California Impressionism by Heather James Fine Art

MASTERS OF CALIFORNIA IMPRESSIONISM

California Impressionism and the Birth of the Laguna Art Colony An Introduction By Steven Biller Hypnotic, foaming breakers whoosh onto black lava rock, sand coves and the sun bathes the bluffs and fills the canyon. This is Laguna Beach, the sweet spot of 1,000 miles of California coast to which artists have paid homage for 150 years and counting. Over the past 30 years, interest in works by William Wendt, Edgar Payne, Guy Rose, Maurice Braun, and others has increased in lockstep with American art in general. And some of the most notable paintings depict the early artist colonies of Laguna and Monterey/Carmel. These idyllic, coastal locales and a few inland colonies, particularly Palm Springs and the surrounding desert towns, asserted great influence in California Impressionism. Geography plays a vital role in Impressionist painting. “The early painters working in Giverny and Grez had neither the coast nor the mountains to explore and pictorially exploit as did the Californians,” says William H. Gerdts, professor of art history at the Graduate School of the City University of New York and author of numerous books on American and California Impressionism. “The earlier painters in the Northeast usually chose intimate landscapes — often their own home environment — rather than the expansive landscapes of the West Coast.” The early California Impressionists, taught by the French masters and inspired by the natural beauty of California’s sun-drenched coastline, painted en plein air, or in the outdoors. Italian and French in origin, the Impressionist movement began in the 1860s and moved westward around the globe, landing in California around the turn of the 20th century. In the 30 years between 1885 and 1915, the Southern California economy transformed from rural to industrial, and artists came to the region, finding the light and color a refreshing change for the Impressionist style. Wendt and George Gardner Symons painted the earliest California Impressionist works near Los Angeles in the 1890s. “Of all the regional schools, California — especially Southern California — was richest in quality artists and

works,” Gerdts says. “And so the appeal of Impressionism was transferred to California artists, with the added appeal among California collectors of patronizing their own distinct heritage.” Meanwhile, New York purists were consumed by the work of Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and their East Coast American counterparts — and engaged in discourse over Impressionism’s deepening wedge between Neo-Impressionism, which almost codified the technique, and Post-Impressionism, which accentuated form and bold color. What would this mean to American Impressionists who had spent time in Giverny? Many returned to the United States but sought fresh sources of inspiration and a healthier climate in California’s coastlines, canyons, deserts, forests, and mountains. And their pictures looked a world apart from their East Coast counterparts. “They saw the style as bright, colorful, and upbeat in feeling — appropriate for interpreting the state’s attitude, color, and sunlight,” observes Nancy Moure, author of the definitive California Art: 450 Years of Painting & Other Media (Dustin Publishing, 1998). The 1975 publication of Moure’s Dictionary of Art and Artists in Southern California Before 1930 fueled a resurgence of the style. Finally, she says, “people knew what they were looking for; they recognized the names and it started to take off.”

Creating the Laguna Art Colony William Wendt, one of the most iconic and revered California landscapists, was among the first homesteaders to buy a lot on Laguna Beach — drawn, like other artists would be, to the incredible light and color and waves crashing on the dramatic coastline. It was isolated from the more popular Newport Beach, which offered visitors easier access. Wendt, a German native who lived and worked in Chicago before moving to California in 1906, marveled at the coastal landscape and often ventured into its wilderness. “The quality that makes Wendt’s work outstanding is its character, most likely due to his reverence and respect for the land itself,” Moure says, noting Wendt’s bold, masculine style. Incidentally, Guy Rose, a U.S. expatriate returning at the onset of World War I, would later influence a “feminization” of the style, Moure suggests, pointing the artist’s brushstroke, which appears similar to Monet’s

“fishhook” and influenced by the Giverny region’s moist climate and delicate colors. Edgar Payne, another painter who had settled into a cottage along the coast, was a catalyst in the effort to transform The Pavilion, a multipurpose building in town, into an exhibition space for their paintings. It became known as the Laguna Beach Art Association, and drew greater interest from more artists as well as their admirers. In 1929, the gallery reopened in a clifftop space overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Frank Cuprien, a bright personality known in town for his knickers and meticulous white hair and beard, painted the sea from the garden on the edge of the bluff where he kept his studio-residence south of the town center. “Cuprien, like Monet, was fascinated with light effects at different times of day and never tired of sketching the sunsets he saw from his studio,” Moure wrote. “Although his work ranges in quality, Cuprien is the best of Laguna’s many painters of seascapes.” While most artists of the period focused solely on landscapes, images of luxuriating sunbathers were inescapable, and some artists, particularly Joseph Kleitsch depicted them with the same bright color and Post-Impressionist energy as his bustling townscapes — another departure from the more common pictures of the land without the intrusion of human activity. “Unwittingly, this small group of painters gave a personality to the fledgling beachside community,” Moure suggests, noting, however, that while most came for the ocean, “It’s difficult to define a ‘Laguna’ artist [because] few resided there year round.” Many came from Los Angeles and inland areas such as San Bernardino and Riverside. They might have owned second homes or property in Laguna and spent summers and weekends there. By the 1920s, with roads and automobiles stirring activity, Laguna drew a greater number of artists, and a colony began to form where they could enjoy each other’s friendship, revelry, and kind criticism. Clarence Hinkle was another artist who turned to the town, distinguishing his canvases with the rare and bold use of black, contrasted with long, pale strokes and accents in brighter oranges and yellows. His work arguably bridges the traditional landscapes of California Impressionism to the bolder style of Modernism. By 1930, Post-Impressionism gave way to Modernism, and the artist colony as it was known weakened as a contemporary scene grew in the inland agriculture town of Santa Ana.

E. CHARLTON FORTUNE (1885-1969) Picking Apples Signed lower left Oil on canvas 22 x 30 in. Painted circa 1920-1921 Provenance: Private California collection to Mr. Harry Parashis, Carmel, California Exhibited: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, One Hundred and Seventeenth Annual Exhibition, February 5 - March 6, 1922

Painted from an elevated vantage point, Picking Apples overlooks the town and bay below. A pair of women pluck fruit from a tree in the immediate foreground, while the buildings of the small town slope towards the coastline behind them. Soft hills and trees line the top of the painting, creating a strikingly varied composition. Fortune's warm palette is characteristic of her classic Impressionist style. A well-known fixture of the Monterey arts scene, often spotted traveling around the peninsula on her bicycle with painting supplies in tow, E. Charlton Fortune is heralded as one of the premier California Impressionists. Born Euphemia, the artist preferred to be called Effie, and further truncated her professional name to the genderless E. Charlton Fortune to ensure her work was distanced from her identity as a female artist. After studying art in Europe, San Francisco, and New York, Fortune returned to her hometown on the California coast where she painted landscapes and seascapes infused with local culture.

MAURICE BRAUN (1877-1941) Mountain Lake Signed lower left Oil on canvas 25 x 30 in. Painted circa 1920 Provenance: Private collection, California

Mountain Lake is a classic example of Maurice Braun’s “cool” palette, with blues and greens. The dimension, the crisp color values in the foreground, the slightly opaque background and attention to detail show why the artist is considered the preeminent landscape Impressionist. Maurice Braun was born in Hungary and was four years old when his family moved to New York. He attended the Academy of Design and studied for a year with William Merritt Chase. He painted New England landscapes and portraits until 1909 when he moved to San Diego, the subject of some of his best-known paintings, where he could pursue his interest in the philosophical orientation of theosophy. Although Braun would continue to spend time in the East, he proved his mettle among California Impressionist painters in 1915 by winning the gold medal for painting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Braun studied the landscape by sketching it in detail. Once he understood the elements, he focused on composition to communicate the natural beauty of California’s light and color — although not always with the precision of his drawings. In a 1991 essay, William H. Gerdts quoted Braun as saying, “Landscape should not be taken too literally. It is what we visualize and the interpretation we give the fantasy of our mind that counts.”

KARL ALBERT BUEHR (1866-1952) News From Home Signed lower left Oil on canvas laid on Masonite board 39 1/2 x 32 1/2 in. Painted in 1912 Exhibited: Paris Salon, 1913 Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, January 1913 Rochester, New York, The Memorial Art Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings by Contemporary American Painters, November 18 - December 6, 1914 Chicago, Illinois, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago Modern, 1893 - 1945: Pursuit of the New, July 16 - October 31, 2004 Literature: Chicago Modern, 1893 - 1945: Pursuit of the New. Ed. Elizabeth Kennedy. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2004. 98.

News from Home is unquestionably one of Buehr’s finest and most important works, exhibited at the prestigious Paris Salon of 1913 as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago, the artist’s alma-mater, later that same year. A finely dressed woman with a cluster of thickly-painted blooms adorning her wispy hair sits on a porch before a lush background of verdant foliage studiously reading a letter from home. The bright reds, oranges and yellows of the bouquet to her right stand out against the soft greens and blues that dominate the composition. Born in Germany, Buehr moved with his family to Chicago in the 1880s. As a young man he worked as a night watchman at the Art Institute, where he later studied and taught for many years. Like many other expatriate American artists, Buehr spent time in Giverny in the early 1900s. It was there, the influence of Monet’s Impressionism inescapable, that Buehr developed the style that would come to define the artist as a leading figure of American Impressionism.

GUY ROSE (1867-1925) Guy Rose was born in San Gabriel, California, and was one of the premier early California Impressionist painters. He graduated from Los Angeles High School and studied with Virgil Williams and Emil Carlsen at the California School of Design in San Francisco. He later studied in Paris, where he enrolled at the Académie Julian and became the first Californian to win an honorable mention at the Paris Salon. Rose suffered a bout of lead poising that kept him away from oil painting for several years, and he moved to New York to become an illustrator and teach at the Pratt Institute. He returned to France and bought a cottage at Giverny, where Claude Monet was a friend, mentor and great influence. Throughout Rose’s journey, the sensibilities of the French Impressionists prevailed in his signature style, including a classic fishhook brushstroke. Rose moved to Pasadena in 1914 and painted mostly in Southern California until 1918, when he began spending summers on the Monterey Peninsula. “In California’s shoreline he found a counterpart for the coastal views he had been painting in France, and in California’s sycamores, eucalyptus and cypresses he found counterparts for his French polled willows, poplars and tamarisk trees,” Nancy Moure suggests in her book, California Art: 450 Years of Painting & Other Media (Dustin Publishing, 1998).

GUY ROSE (1867-1925) Untitled (Painting of South Laguna) Signed lower right Oil on canvas 24 x 28 3/4 in. Painted circa 1915 Provenance: Private collection, California

A California native, Rose studied art in San Francisco before travelling to Paris to continue his education. He ultimately settled in Monet's colony at Giverny and forged a friendship with the French Impressionist that undoubtedly influenced his work. The artist painted this work shortly after returning to California, where it was likely completed at his Orange Avenue Studio in Los Angeles or his subsequent studio on Arroyo Terrace in Pasadena. This painting is a larger version of a well-known work in the permanent collection of the Irvine Museum and was first known to exist from its appearance in the Rose family's personal photographs.

GUY ROSE (1867-1925) Laguna Beach Signed lower right Oil on canvas 18 x 15 in. Provenance: Private collection, California

A relatively minimal painting for Guy Rose, known for his painstaking detail and intricate fishhook-like brushstroke, Laguna Beach offers a slice of the sweet spot of the Southern California coastline. He executed the painting in his signature â&#x20AC;&#x153;feminineâ&#x20AC;? palette, building the surface with the essence in the abstract and surprising detail in the more opaque background.

GUY ROSE (1867-1925) Sunshine and Firelight Signed lower left Oil on canvas 31 x 19 in. Painted in 1909 Provenance: Ms. Josephine Everett, Pasadena, California John Moran Auctioneers & Appraisers: Tuesday, October 29, 2002, Important California & American Paintings Private collection, acquired from above sale

Sunshine and Firelight represents one of the most sought after of all Early California subjects â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a figurative work by the French-trained, California Impressionist Guy Rose. The painting depicts a nude, female model from behind, slightly bent towards the warmth of a glowing hearth. Though the composition is simple, Rose adds another layer of visual interest with the criss-crossing shadows, perhaps from the lattice-work of a nearby window, that blanket the scene. The vivid green tones of the interior wall provide a bold contrast to the otherwise warm palette; the soft reds and pinks of the woman's skin call to mind the radiant flesh tones of Renoir.

PHIL DIKE (1906-1990) Los Angeles County Fair Signed lower right Oil on canvas 30 x 36 in. Painted circa 1930 Provenance: The Dike family, Southern California

An important early work, this unusually composed painting stands as one of Phil Dike's finest pieces. Showing a tent at the Los Angeles County Fair as seen from above, the painting captures the hustle and bustle of the crowds. Hundreds of individual figures are sparingly rendered as simple blocks of color, creating the impression of meandering fair goers. The surface of the painting is thick with paint, as Dike enlists a heavy palette and black outlines to delineate the scene. The overall effect is a bold work that conveys a kinetic modernity. A native Californian, Phil Dike studied art in Los Angeles, New York, and France before returning to Southern California. In the early part of the twentieth century, the artist began to make a name for himself as an esteemed watercolor painter and was an active member of the California Watercolor Society. In 1935 he was hired by Disney as a color coordinator and story designer, working on films such as Snow White and Fantasia. Following his tenure at Disney, Dike went on teach art at Scripps College in Claremont, California.

CHARLES REIFFEL (1862-1942) Across the Valley Signed lower left Oil on canvas 40 x 60 in. Painted circa 1920 Provenance: Christie’s Los Angeles: Wednesday, April 25, 2007, California, Western and American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Private collection, acquired from above sale Exhibited: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, 21st Annual International Exhibition of Paintings, April 27 - June 15, 1922 Indianapolis, Indiana, Hoosier Salon Art Gallery, Second Annual Hoosier Salon, March, 1926 Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Thirty-Fourth Annual Exhibition of American Art, May - July, 1927 Literature: 21st Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Carnegie Institute Pittsburgh: April 27 to June 15, 1922 Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, 1922.

Across the Valley presents a panoramic view of an eastern meadow brimming with saplings and shrubs. A meandering river leads the viewer from the bottom right corner into the center of the composition, illustrating Reiffel's ability to create dynamic and engaging compositions. A line of foothills sweeps across the canvas to create an undulating horizon bordering a sky filled with clouds made up of the artist's characteristic brush strokes. The palette is rich and varied, with soft greens in the foreground and sunburnt pasturelands at the painting's center. A studied lithographer from a young age, Charles Reiffel came to painting later in life. Although he travelled extensively throughout Europe, Reiffel received very little formal training and was mostly self-taught. He completed several pieces under the WPA’s Federal Art Project, many of which are now housed at the Smithsonian. During his lifetime he exhibited throughout California and eventually settled in San Diego, where he was actively involved in the community’s developing art scene. Often described as “America's Van Gogh” by critics of his time, Reiffel couples the stylization typical of lithography and textured Impressionistic brushwork with an Expressionistic intensity that has set his work apart from other California Impressionists.

ABEL WARSHAWSKY (1883-1962) Antibes

Signed lower right Oil on canvas 26 x 32 in. Painted in 1912 Provenance: Collection of the artist’s wife Hudeck Collection, New York

This painting depicts Antibes, a city on the French coast for which the artist had a particular affection. The painting's balanced composition is dominated by a large tree positioned at its center, its branches extending on either side to cast a slight shadow on the grass below. A figure sits beneath the tree, the arch of their back mirrored by the curve of the tree trunk. A woman dressed in white stands opposite the seated figure, against the backdrop of the subtly curving coastline. With its strong forms and painterly brushwork, the painting is typical of American Impressionism. In keeping with Warshawsky's other Mediterranean works, the lush palette and dynamic forms of Antibes reflect the influence of Monet. Abel Warshawsky attended the Cleveland School of Art and the National Academy of Design in New York before travelling to France in the early 1900’s. In France, the artist established himself with a group of expatriate intellectuals and secured his reputation as a selfpronounced “classical Impressionist.” In recognition of his work the French government invited Warshawsky to exhibit at the Luxembourg Gallery and even named him Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. The artist left France at the outbreak of World War II to settle in Monterey, California, where he was active in the Carmel Art Association up until his death in 1962.

EDGAR PAYNE (1883-1947) Peaks of St. Gervais

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 28 x 34 in. Provenance: Private collection, California

Peaks of St. Gervais is a classic example of Edgar Payne’s Western landscapes, with his swift, signature brushstroke, charming town and structures — half of which he rendered in the shade — dwarfed by the snow-capped mountain. Edgar Payne was born in Washburn, Missouri in 1882; from an early age, his goal was to become a painter. Primarily self taught, he studied briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago and began his career painting scenery for the stage and murals for homes and theaters. Recognized as one of California’s leading landscape artists, Payne earned the respect of his peers and art critics for his Impressionistic landscapes painted in the plein-air style.

THEODORE LUKITS (1897-1992) Oriental Harmony Signed lower left Oil on panel 36 x 30 in. Painted circa 1918-1920 Provenance: Purchased from Ms. Lucille Luktis Exhibited: Pasadena, California, Pacific Asia Museum, Theodore Luktis - An American Orientalist, October 17 - November 29, 1998 traveled to: Oxnard, California, Carnegie Art Museum, December 12, 1998 February 21, 1999; Fullerton, California, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, April 3 - 29, 1999 Literature: Theodore Luktis: An American Orientalist. Pasadena: California Art Club Press, 1998. 5.

One of Theodore Luktis' most significant early works, this accomplished painting was completed as he was finishing his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago when he was twenty-one years old. Many of Luktis' influences are on display in this bold, colorful painting—from the distinct American Impressionist style of his teachers, Richard E. Miller and Karl Buehr, to the artist's interest in Chinese textiles and Japanese woodblock prints. Oriental Harmony is a classic work of Decorative Impressionism, coupling a realistically painted figure, which reveals the artist’s academic training, with a highly stylized background. Luktis’ teacher, Richard E. Miller, stated his goal was to restore a decorative element to painting. This work, featuring an American model in a Chinese Robe seated before a painted Japanese screen, exemplifies the ways in which Luktis adopted and continued Miller’s aim. Theodore Luktis was born in Hungary and moved to Los Angeles in 1922 after studying art at Washington University and the Art Institute of Chicago. In Southern California, he built a career painting portraits of prominent local residents and later established the Luktis Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught many well-known California landscape and figurative painters.

WILLIAM WENDT (1865-1946) William Wendt was born in Bentzen, Germany, and immigrated to Chicago in 1880. Although he took classes for a short time at the Art Institute of Chicago, Wendt was a largely self-taught painter with a religious reverence for nature; he saw himself as nature’s faithful interpreter. Wendt co-founded the California Art Club in 1911, and within a year he was elected to the National Academy of Design and built his home and studio in Laguna Beach. Often referred to as the “Dean of Southern California artists,” he became known for his ability to scout locations for ideal, naturally occurring compositions. His earlier, Edenic landscapes exude the hallmark lightness of traditional Impressionism, but he became known for his bolder, block-style, pastoral compositions with distinctively muted colors. The masculine quality had an influential effect on the style of paintings in the American West. “Wendt’s canvases grew in strength and boldness over his forty years of painting,” Nancy Moure wrote in her comprehensive book, California Art: 450 Years of Painting & Other Media (Dustin Publishing, 1998). “He soon began to ‘draw’ with his brush, to carve out the underlying structure of the mountains, delighting in the folds of the earth.”

WILLIAM WENDT (1865-1946) Houses at Arch Beach

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 25 x 30 in. Painted circa 1930 Exhibited: Laguna Beach, California, Laguna Art Museum, In Nature’s Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt, November 9, 2008 - February 8, 2009 Literature: Stern, Jean, Will South, and Janet Blake, In Nature’s Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt Irvine: The Irvine Museum - Laguna Art Museum, 2008. 22.

Showing the houses of Laguna’s Arch Beach against the striking blue backdrop of the Pacific Ocean, this painting depicts the coastal community at a moment of transition when it was growing from a humble village to a bustling artistic hub. Wendt chooses an elevated vantage point, perhaps looking down upon the simple, wooden cottages from the Pacific Coast Highway. The curving coastline cuts across the upper half of the painting, and a thin band of sky, split by the shadowy figure of Catalina Island, lines the top of the composition. While the painting displays Wendt’s characteristic blocky brushwork, the structures are rendered with an architectural precision.

WILLIAM WENDT (1865-1946) Laguna Canyon Signed lower left Oil on canvas 20 x 30 in. Painted circa 1919 Provenance: Private collection, Colorado Literature: Stern, Jean, Will South, and Janet Blake, In Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt Irvine: The Irvine Museum - Laguna Art Museum, 2008. 93.

This painting depicts Laguna Canyon in autumn, the wide canyon filled with deep-green oaks and vibrant orange sycamores standing along the banks of the canyon's creek. In contrast to the lush center of the composition, the foreground is almost barren. The canyon walls are devoid of foliage, their sculptural forms awash in the intense Southern California light.

WILLIAM WENDT (1865-1946) Nature Smiles

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 30 x 36 in. Painted in 1928 Provenance: IBM Corporate Collection Sotheby’s New York: Wednesday, March 15, 2000, American Paintings, Drawing and Sculpture Private collection, acquired from above sale Exhibited: Laguna Beach, California, Laguna Art Museum, In Nature’s Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt, November 9, 2008 - February 8, 2009 Literature: Stern, Jean, Will South, and Janet Blake, In Nature’s Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt Irvine: The Irvine Museum - Laguna Art Museum, 2008. 61.

In contrast to many of William Wendt's legendary landscapes which favor panoramic views of the western topography, Nature Smiles focuses on a smaller section of a large valley. Wendt decides against a typical composition with a horizon line splitting land and sky in favor of a concentrated study of the valley floor. The painting is a patchwork of brilliant green foliage punctuated by rock formations in the foreground; rolling hills blanketed with grass rise in the background. In many places the artist’s brushwork is almost stylized, the high-contrast darks and lights of the thick treetops blocked out as rectilinear forms.

WILLIAM WENDT (1865-1946) Eucalyptus, Laguna Signed lower left Oil on canvas 25 x 30 in. Provenance: Private collection, California

William Wendt embraced building and structures in his landscape compositions. The scale of the crisply renderered trees in Eucalyptus, Laguna creates a curiosity about the structures that seem to hide behind them. The earthy palette reflects the masculine sensibilities that became influential to the California Impressionists.

WILLIAM WENDT (1865-1946) The Mansion

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 30 x 25 in. Painted in 1928 Provenance: Private collection, California Exhibited: Laguna Beach, California, Laguna Art Museum, In Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt, November 9, 2008 - February 8, 2009

The Mansion depicts the Susanna Bixby Bryant Ranch house in the Anaheim Hills area of Santa Anaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a custom Wallace Neff estate. Executed in Wendt's signature palette, the architecture of the ranch melts into the natural setting and becomes a focal point to read the scale and perspective of the scene. During the same period Wendt painted this landscape, Susanna Bixby Bryant established a botanic garden as a memorial to her father, and 200 acres of the ranch were developed as Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. 45

WILLIAM WENDT (1865-1946) An Echo of the Past Signed lower right Oil on canvas 20 x 30 in. Painted in 1917 Provenance: Private collection, California Exibition History: Pasadena Museum of California Art, Romance of the Bells: The California Missions in Art, 2008, organized by The Irvine Museum

Featuring the classic architecture of Mission San Juan Capistrano, An Echo of the Past includes the artist’s signature muted green in the tall tree, with minimal spots of flowering reds — a classic California scene. The painting was exhibited in “Romance of the Bells: The California Missions in Art” at Pasadena Museum of California Art in 2008, an exhibition focusing on the history of the missions themselves organized by The Irvine Museum.

MISCHA (MAURICE) ASKENAZY (1888-1961) Interior

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 40 x 32 in. Painted circa 1935 Provenance: Ms. Alma Lasher, Beverly Hills, California The Estate of Alma Lasher, inherited from above Exhibited: Laguna Beach Art Association Membership Exhibition

Interior is one of Maurice Askenazyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more modern compositions, calling to mind the work of Bonnard or Vuillard. The intimate scene shows a nude female model, dramatically seen in profile, posing for a painter in a sundrenched studio. The door to the room is open, giving the impression that the viewer is stealing a glimpse of a private interaction between artist and model. A cleverly placed mirror on the back of the open door reveals the reflection of the painter, who we are meant to take as Askenazy himself, at work. Askenazy takes great care to depict the details of the room, from the patterned ottoman to the framed paintings on the walls, each a mosaic of Impressionistic color. Born Mischa Askenazy, the artist immigrated with his family to the United States from Russia as a young boy. He grew up in New York City and studied at the National Academy of Design before travelling to Europe on a scholarship. Upon his return to America he settled in Los Angeles and gained critical acclaim as a painter of society portraits.

EDOUARD ANTONIN VYSEKAL (1890-1939) Girl in a Garden Signed lower left Oil on canvas 36 x 34 in. Painted in 1926 Provenance: Bonhams and Butterfields: 2005 Private collection, acquired from above sale Exhibited: Laguna Beach, California, Laguna Beach Art Association Gallery (now Laguna Art Museum), 12th Annual Exhibition, 1930; awarded first prize Pasadena, California, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Love Never Fails: The Art of Edouard and Luvena Vysekal, September 18 - January 12, 2012 Literature: Love Never Fails: The Art of Edouard and Luvena Vysekal Pasadena: Pasadena Museum of California Art, 2011

Girl in a Garden exemplifies Vysekalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s demonstrated ability to combine careful draftsmanship with new explorations of color and composition. An assertively modern portrait in both subject and style, the young woman looks out of the painting from the verdant foliage of a tropical tree, her indirect gaze just eluding that of the viewer. Her white sundress reflects the colored shadows of the vibrant leaves, giving the painting a bold, graphic quality. Born into a family of artists, Edouard Antonin Vysekal was exposed to art throughout his childhood in Prague. When he was a teenager he immigrated to the United States and studied art in Chicago before moving to California. In Southern California Vysekal and his wife Luvena, also a well-known artist, were at the vanguard of an emerging modernist aesthetic. The pair were active contributors to avant-garde groups such as the California Progressive Painters and the Group of Eight. Vysekal taught drawing and landscape painting at the Art Students League of Los Angeles and then the Otis Art Institute until his death in 1939.

WILLIAM F. RITSCHEL (1864-1949) The Derelict

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 50 x 60 in. Painted circa 1914 Provenance: Family of the artist Christieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Los Angeles: Thursday, October 28, 1999, California, Western and American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Private collection, acquired from above sale Exhibited: San Francisco, California, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Exhibition of Paintings by William Ritschel, November, 1925

Depicting an indomitable ship that refused to sink, The Derelict represents a tenuous story of triumph. A barnacle-clad, sailing ship, stripped of its masts, bobs on the ocean swells. Though immobilized and in a state of disrepair, the ship remains above water. The painting's rich blue and green tones and assertive brushwork are characteristic of Ritschel's style. Ritschel himself was a man of the sea, and this large canvas was of great personal importance to the artist, remaining with his family for many years. Born in Nuremberg, Germany, Ritschel studied art at the Royal Academy in Munich before moving to New York at the turn of the twentieth century. He eventually settled in Carmel, California, where he lived and painted until his death in 1949. Ritschel is regarded as a seminal American Impressionist who helped define the legacy of California landscape painting. 55

JAMES MILFORD ZORNES (1908-2008) Nipomo Hills

Signed lower right Oil on canvas 24 x 36 in. Painted circa 1936 Provenance: Mr. Joseph Moure, Santa Fe, New Mexico Exhibited: Laguna Beach, California, Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Southern California Artists: 1890 - 1940, July 10 - August 28, 1979 Palm Springs, California, Palm Springs Desert Museum, The West as Art: Changing Perceptions of Western Art in California Collections, February 24 - May 30, 1982 Literature: Southern California Artists: 1890 - 1940. Laguna Beach: Laguna Beach Museum of Art, 1979. The West as Art: Changing Perceptions of Western Art in California Collections. Palm Springs: Palm Springs Desert Museum, 1982.

A novel work when it was painted in the 1930s, James Milford Zornes considered this highly stylized painting of the California Coastal region of Nipomo to be among his finest. Devoid of extraneous detail, the abstracted work reduces the landscape to the rhythmic contours of the mountains and rolling hills of farmland. Zornesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; palette is rich, the foreground rendered in the russet tones of the sun-washed landscape and the hills and sky painted with flat blues and greens. An Oklahoma native, James Milford Zornes travelled throughout the United States and abroad, first as a government land surveyor then as a sailor aboard a freight ship. Along the way he developed an interest in the study of the landscape and rediscovered his childhood passion for art. After settling in Southern California, he studied at the Otis Art Institute and Pomona College, with fellow artists Millard Sheets and Tom Craig. While he painted in several mediums, Zornes garnered international attention as an inspired watercolorist.

HANSON PUTHUFF (1875-1972) Land of the Morning Signed lower right Oil on canvas 30 x 32 in. Painted circa 1925 Provenance: Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah

While most of Hanson Puthuffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works were highly atmospheric depictions of the San Gabriel foothills, Land of the Morning was probably done farther afield, likely in Malibu. With bold brushstrokes the artist depicts a rocky outcropping at the center of the composition. The lower slopes, thick with foliage, are painted in a subtle green, while the upper reaches of the mountain are painted with the warm tones of the sun-infused rock. With this painting, Puthuff skillfully captures the clear, golden light and dramatic landscape at the heart of California Impressionism. Raised in the Midwest, Hanson Puthuff began his professional career as a commercial artist, painting murals in civic buildings and churches, signs and billboards, advertisements, and theater scenery; including major works for the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He concurrently painted his own work, focusing primarily on figurative paintings before moving to Los Angeles, where he became enthralled with the Southern California landscape.

PAUL SAMPLE (1896-1947) Stockton

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 25 x 30 in. Painted circa 1935-1936 Provenance: D. Wigmore Fine Arts, New York

In this painting the viewer is given a birds-eye view of the inland port of Stockton, California. The straightforward realism of the piece contrasts with the more lyrical paintings of Sample’s later work. The sharp angle of the terminal’s dock draws the viewer into the composition, along the broad canals dotted with cargo ships transporting goods from the agricultural hub of California’s Central Valley. A patchwork of sun-washed farmland frames the flat blue water and the white clouds rising from the ships’ smokestacks further characterize the painting as a modern view of the California landscape, marked with economic activity. Regarded as one of the preeminent American painters of the mid-twentieth century, Paul Sample enjoyed much success and recognition during his lifetime, with profiles of his work appearing in popular publications such as Life, Esquire, and Art News. A talented boxer and saxophonist, Sample studied architecture at Dartmouth college and spent a year in the Navy during World War I. While recovering from tuberculosis at a sanitarium in the Adirondacks, he discovered his passion for art and went on to study at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. He taught at the University of Southern California and his own alma mater, Dartmouth, and also worked as an artist-correspondent for several magazines during World War II.

THOMAS HUNT (1882-1938) The White Sail

Signed lower right Oil on canvas 28 x 30 in. Painted circa 1928 Provenance: Private collection, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Taking a considerably modern approach to landscape painting, Thomas Hunt favored simplified compositions with larger forms and masses blocked out as broad swaths of color. The White Sail shows a waterfront scene of boats along the quay, likely in San Pedro Harbor. A group of houses line the dock behind the moored boats, their uncomplicated shapes reflected in the still water below. Huntâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s palette of bright, intense colors is a departure from the subdued tones typical of his contemporaries, with unadulterated yellows, reds and blues dominating the canvas. Thomas Hunt was born in Ontario, Canada but spent much of his early life in Cleveland, Ohio. Though his father was also an artist, Huntâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initial interest in art was as a leisure activity. However after settling in Laguna Beach, Hunt built a dedicated art studio and began to exhibit locally. He was instrumental in helping to establish the Laguna Art Museum, which opened in 1929.

JOSEPH KLEITSCH (1882-1931)

Joseph Kleitsch was born in Banad, Hungary, and began painting at the age of seven. He studied in Budapest, Munich and Paris and became an accomplished portraitist before immigrating to the United States, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. Between 1905 and 1909, he lived and painted portraits of prominent businessmen in Denver, Colorado, as well as Mexican President Francisco Madero in Mexico City. He returned to the Midwest in 1914, exhibiting at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1920, he and his wife, Edna, settled in Laguna Beach, where the village scenery — people along the eucalyptus-lined streets, flowers blooming in alcove gardens, and the pensive tranquility of the beach and isolation of the locale — became fresh subjects for him to depict on canvas. Unlike many landscapists of the time, Kleitsch was prone to reflect the spirit of the coast through its people — figures. His townscapes have the precision of photographs. “His recognition of the potential offered by buildings and people over pure landscape may be due to the fact that he was a recent immigrant without local prejudices,” Nancy Moure estimates in her book, California Art: 450 Years of Painting & Other Media (Dustin Publishing, 1998).

JOSEPH KLEITSCH (1882-1931) Sunday Morning Signed lower right Oil on canvas 40 x 36 in. Painted in 1924 Provenance: Mr. Ruben Lucero, Studio City, California Mr. Fred Bruckheimer, Roseburg, Oregon

Sunday Morning is a signature work of California Impressionism, depicting two young girls on their way to Sunday mass at the Capistrano Mission. Clad in a striped dress, the girl in the foreground stands beside her companion, who wears a traditional Spanish shawl and a stylish 1920s hairstyle. Though the shadowed figures are rendered in a more traditional painterly style, the sunlit walls of the mission in the upper left of the composition are painted with intense dabs of color more characteristic of Impressionism.

JOSEPH KLEITSCH (1882-1931) Miss Ketchum Signed lower right Oil on canvas 42 x 36 in. Painted circa 1919 Provenance: Mr. Don Crocker Ms. Penny Perlmutter, San Francisco, California Mr. Max Baril, Beverly Hills, California Exhibited: Laguna Beach, California, Laguna Art Museum, California Light: 1900 - 1930, December 10, 1990 - January 6, 1991 Literature: California Light: 1900 - 1930. Ed. Trenton, Patricia, William H. Gerdts, and Bram Dijkstra. Laguna Art Museum, 1990. 49. Trenton, Patricia. Joseph Kleitsch: A Kaleidoscope of Color. Irvine: The Irvine Museum, 2007

Miss Ketchum is one of Kleitschâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most elegant portraits, and perhaps his finest. It depicts an attractive, but not overtly beautiful, young woman confidently looking out at the viewer. Understated, yet smartly dressed, in a black jacket and beige blouse that is cinched at the waist with a red sash, Miss Ketchum is thoroughly modern. Not the typically passive female sitter; her slender hand is assertively placed on her hip as she sits slightly slouched in her chair. Set in a darkened room, the woman is dramatically lit from sunlight filtering through the richly textured window covering behind her. The figure of the woman is carefully rendered with controlled brushwork, while the patterned curtain reveals the influence of Impressionism.

JOSEPH KLEITSCH (1882-1931) Studio Interior Signed lower right Oil on canvas 30 x 40 in. Painted in 1918 Provenance: Private collection, California

In many of his studio-themed paintings executed in Chicago, Kleitsch applied the bold â&#x20AC;&#x153;brown sauceâ&#x20AC;? that he picked up in Europe. The paintings, including Studio Interior, often include the easels and the rug. Kleitsch asserts a brighter palette for his coastal California scenes.

JOHN MARSHALL GAMBLE (1863-1957) Blooming Fields Signed lower left Oil on canvas 12 x 16 in. Painted in 1903 Provenance: Christie’s Los Angeles: Wednesday, June 18, 2003, American Paintings Private collection, acquired from above sale

John Marshall Gamble had always been captivated by California’s wildflowers, and the blooms became a favorite subject for his impressionist influenced paintings. The artist is quoted as saying, “I didn’t even think of them as flowers while I was painting. They were just color patches to me. I simply liked the way they designed themselves across the field.” Blooming Fields exemplifies this aim, depicting a field of poppies carpeting a sprawling valley floor. Bold patches of golden oranges and yellows contrast with the muted greens of the surrounding chaparral; an unmistakably Californian landscape. Gamble was born in New Jersey but studied art in San Francisco and later Paris, where he was influenced by the work of Claude Monet. Upon returning from France, the artist set up a studio in San Francisco but relocated to Santa Barbara following the 1906 earthquake. Inspired by the local landscape, Gamble's work became increasingly vibrant; the artist began to gain recognition for his iconic paintings of California wildflowers, even earning the unofficial title of “Dean of Santa Barbara artists.” He achieved great professional success during his lifetime, exhibiting at the Louisiana Purchase Universal Exhibition in St. Louis in 1904 and working on large-scale commissions such as a mural for the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.

ALSON CLARK (1876-1949) From the Ramparts Signed lower left Oil on canvas 30 x 38 in. Painted in 1907 Provenance: Private collection, Glendora, California

Alson Clark painted From the Ramparts from atop Montrealâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old fort, looking down upon the famous toboggan slide and the snow-capped buildings that line the river below, a perspectival choice perhaps influenced by his service as an aerial photographer in the US army during World War I. Clark masterfully uses the dynamic sweep of the slide from the lower right hand corner to draw the viewer into the center of the composition. In the immediate foreground, a pair of female walkers head towards the viewer on the path adjacent to the slide, the details of their faces and winter coats just barely suggested. A vanguard of California Impressionism, Clark was already a seasoned painter who had lived and painted all over the world by the time he arrived in the Golden State following his service in the war. Having trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, studied with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League of New York, and briefly under James McNeil Whistler at the Academie Carmen in Paris, Clark eventually settled with his wife in Pasadena, where he taught fine art at Occidental College in Los Angeles and served as the director of the Stickney Memorial School of Art in Pasadena.

GEORGE BRANDRIFF (1890-1936) Loading Supplies Signed lower right Oil on canvas 24 x 28 in. Painted circa 1929 Provenance: Private collection, Beverly Hills, California

Loading Supplies is a scene of harbor workers stocking small boats with supplies, perhaps en route to load a larger steamer. In the foreground, a singular female figure stands before the cluster of men with her back to the viewer, while a group of anchored boats float on the motionless water in the background. The brightly painted boats and the fisherman dressed in their blue or orange slickers make for a colorful scene. The simple composition parallels the simplicity of the subject: a glimpse of everyday life and work in a coastal community. Though a painter for most of his life, George Brandriff received no formal training. He relocated from New Jersey to Orange, California, and worked as a piano salesman before studying dentistry at the University of Southern California. Brandriff later gave up his dental practice to dedicate himself to painting full-time. He moved to Laguna Beach, where he became a teacher and active member of the arts community.

ELMER WACHTEL (1864-1929) Ojai Valley

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 30 x 40 in. Painted circa 1915 Literature: Gerdts, William H. and Will South. California Impressionism New York: Abbeville Press, 1998. pl. 78.

In this large and lushly painted scene of the Ojai Valley, one of Elmer Wachtelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favorite places to paint, the artist has chosen a dry wash, also known as an arroyo, as his vantage point. The winding line of the wash takes the viewer into the rolling hillocks and copses of the valley floor. A large oak tree dominates the left foreground, with more trees scattered in the basin below. In keeping with the tradition of California Impressionism, Wachtel depicts the state as an unspoiled natural paradise. Elmer Wachtel moved from Maryland to Californiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s San Gabriel Valley at the age of eighteen. One of the first professional artists to settle in the Los Angeles area, Wachtel supplemented his painting income by playing violin, and eventually became the first violinist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He was one of the founding members of the Los Angeles Art Association, and together with his wife Marion, also a prominent artist, helped establish the tradition of California painting.

CHARLES REIFFEL (1862-1942) Topstone Farm Signed lower left Oil on canvas 34 x 37 in. Painted circa 1918 Provenance: Private collection, Rockport, Massachusetts Exhibited: Gloucester, Massachusetts, North Shore Art Association Exhibition, 1923

Topstone Farm is a felicitously composed example of Reiffel’s kinetic style of landscape painting. A dirt road winds from the foreground to the slope of the hill that rises behind the farm, guiding the viewer’s eye through the dynamic composition. An old clapboard farmhouse stands at the center of the painting, surrounded by lush foliage the artist has rendered with swirling brushwork. Dark, vertical tree trunks punctuate the undulating landscape. Bursts of oranges and reds accent the artist’s sumptuous palette of greens and blues. A studied lithographer from a young age, Charles Reiffel came to painting later in life. Although he travelled extensively throughout Europe, Reiffel received very little formal training and was mostly selftaught. He completed several pieces under the WPA’s Federal Art Project, many of which are now housed at the Smithsonian. During his lifetime, he exhibited throughout California and eventually settled in San Diego, where he was actively involved in the community’s developing art scene. Reiffel, often described as “America’s Van Gogh” by critics of his time, couples the stylization typical of lithography and textured Impressionistic brushwork with an Expressionistic intensity that has set his work apart from other California Impressionists.

ARTHUR RIDER (1885-1975) Pulling the Boats

Signed lower right Oil on canvas 24 x 30 in. Painted circa 1919

Pulling the Boats shows a scene from the Spanish coast, where oxen are used to draw fish-laden boats from the sea. The sun-bleached sails billow in the wind as the pair of oxen straddle the lapping waves and sandy beach to pull a fishing boat to shore. Seen in profile, the defined musculature of the ox is on display at the center of the composition. Quick brushstrokes of blues, greens, yellows, and whites imply reflections in the clear and calm water. Riderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s choice to crop the composition, cutting the figure at the right and the tops of the sails, gives the impression that the painting has captured a fleeting moment of everyday coastal life. Arthur Rider studied art extensively throughout the United States and Europe, and painted for the Chicago Lyric Opera and London Opera at Covent Garden. Although he lived in California for most of his life, Rider is best known for his paintings of Spain. The artist spent several summers in Valencia and befriended the artist Joaquin Sorolla, whose work was of great significance to Rider. After he settled in Laguna Beach, Rider often spoke of how Southern California reminded him of the Iberian Peninsula.

GEORGE GARDNER SYMONS (1863-1930) Winter Landscape Signed lower left Oil on canvas 50 x 60 in. Painted in 1920 Provenance: Clarke Auction Gallery, New York: c. 2003 Private collection, acquired from above sale

Winter Landscape positions the viewer directly on an icy river, the placid water filling the foreground of the composition and receding behind a gentle bend at the painting’s center. Thick strokes of blues, whites, and grays are suggestive of the snow blanketing the river banks, while the glassy surface of the river is impressionistically painted with layered tones and pops of reds and yellows that capture the rippling reflections of nearby trees. Thin sheets of floating ice appear almost diaphanous by Symons’ hand, further illustrating the artist’s unique talent for rendering the nuanced textures of the winter landscape. After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and throughout Europe, George Gardner Symons first visited California in 1894 with his friend and fellow artist William Wendt. Symons eventually settled in Southern California and split his time between Laguna Beach and New York City, where he also had a studio. A preeminent American Impressionist known for his landscapes and seascapes, Symons was awarded the Carnegie Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1909.

EDOUARD ANTONIN VYSEKAL (1890-1939) Costume, Life, and Still Life Signed lower right Oil on canvas 47 1/2 x 43 1/4 in. Painted in 1922

Edouard Vysekal was especially adept at painting figures. This example shows the looser brushstroke that he adapted after he moved to California in 1914 to paint murals. Like many other artists of the day, Vysekal turned to painting landscapes and was known to paint quirky urban scenes of Los Angeles. Born into a family of artists, Edouard Antonin Vysekal was exposed to art throughout his childhood in Prague. When he was a teenager he immigrated to the United States and studied art in Chicago before moving to California. In Southern California Vysekal and his wife Luvena, also a well-known artist, were at the vanguard of an emerging modernist aesthetic. The pair were active contributors to avant-garde groups such as the California Progressive Painters and the Group of Eight. Vysekal taught drawing and landscape painting at the Art Students League of Los Angeles and then the Otis Art Institute until his death in 1939.

JACK WILKINSON SMITH (1873-1949) Along the Pacific Coast Signed lower left Oil on canvas 33 x 42 in. Painted in 1922 Provenance: Private collection, Los Angeles, California Christieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Los Angeles: April 28, 2004, California, Western and American Paintings Private collection, acquired from above sale

This painting shows an isolated coastal inlet, the tranquil waters barely lapping at the rocky shore. Smith, a masterful landscape painter, has composed a dynamic composition, the curve of the coastline sweeping from the foreground to the monolithic rocks rising from the water at the right of the painting. Detailed rocks and trees give way to a background shrouded in mist as a wispy finger of fog descends upon the scene. Jack Wilkinson Smith was a popular figure of the California plein-air scene of the 1920s and 1930s. A specially outfitted touring car allowed the artist to travel and paint in comfort along the rugged coastlines of California and Oregon. While sketches for a significant piece such as this would have been done on location, the final painting would have been completed in Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alhambra studio, where the artist could perfect the composition and detail of a work of this scale and scope.

ROLAND PETERSEN (b. 1926) Two Figures in a Golden Land

Signed lower left Oil on canvas 68 x 56 1/4 in. Painted in 1965 Provenance: San Francisco Art Institute Fine Art Auction, 1967 Private collection, acquired from above sale Bonhams & Butterfields: Tuesday, May 22, 2007, Modern and Contemporary Art/Made in California Private collection, acquired from above sale

Two Figures in a Golden Land depicts an outdoor picnic, a subject given considerable attention throughout the artist’s oeuvre. The painting is a complex exploration in color theory, the simplified and abstracted forms rendered in brilliant tones that defy reality. The two female figures are cast in blue shadows from the treetops overhead, while the surrounding landscape and angled picnic tables are intersecting fields of bright greens, reds, yellows, blues, and whites. Born in Denmark, Roland Petersen studied painting and printmaking in the United States and Europe before settling in the Bay Area. The recipient of both Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships, Petersen’s work has been extensively exhibited, including a 2010 retrospective at the Monterey Museum of Art. His distinct blend of stylized forms and bright, complementary colors has earned the artist a reputation as one of California’s greatest living painters.

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