Ch. 3 - American Scene

American Scene

“Many might claim that travel sketching leads only to anecdotal illustration, but I have found that every novel locale teaches something of the abstract in addition to one’s stock in trade. There is always a quality of line, form, pattern or tonal key which, even by itself, is capable of suggesting its more realistic source in nature. There are the things which really induce the artist to travel and to observe. They never will be apprehended from anecdotal records of things unfamiliar to actual experience.”

67 Midnight Landing

c. 1943 Oil on masonite Signed lower right 24 x 32 inches 29 x 37 inches, as framed Exhibited: 1943 May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art. A nighttime scene of the ferry on the harbor of Lake Michigan in Luddington, Michigan.

68 Steamboat Docking on the Ohio River

c. 1920 Oil on board 24 x 30 inches Verso French Picnic

69 The Iceboat, Cleveland, Ohio

c. 1918 Watercolor and gouache on paper Initialed lower left 14.5 x 10.25 inches

“On another occasion, an artist who was painting a frieze for the dining hall laughed at me for working out in the cold. He showed me how he worked from photographs. Personally, I regarded this as cheating.”

70 Hunting in the Cuyahoga Valley

c. 1913 Watercolor and gouache on paper Signed lower right 21 x 29 inches 25 x 33 inches, as framed

In this hunting scene, the artist depicts his father, Frank Nelson Wilcox Senior.

72 The Ice Block

c. 1914 Watercolor and graphite on paper 15 x 19 inches 22 x 27 inches, as framed

71 After the Blizzard

1959 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed and dated lower right 22 x 30 inches

“I was never fortunate enough to be present when they cut ice in the pond behind the Brick House to store in the icehouse in the big pine grove. There it would be covered with sawdust and stay well into the following fall. It served to cool the milk from dairying at both houses and to make ice cream on Sundays in the summer.” - Out in Brecksville

“On Olive Street, when we were old enough, we flew kites, viewed the wide panorama of the city with the blue lake to the North, and watched rockets and fire balloons on the night of the Fourth.”

73 Recalling the Fourth of July

date unknown Oil on board 36 x 24.25 inches Verso Study for Fruit Pickers

“Mowing, reaping, and other methods of gathering the harvest have become more mechanized and less a craft than they were in earlier days, so too less picturesque to the eye. An heroic man must have been required to set the pace with a grain cradle. Even mowing with the scythe is heavy work for the man of today.” -Out in Brecksville

74 Sharpening the Scythe

c. 1916 Watercolor, gouache, graphite on board Signed lower right, verso 30 x 20 inches

“We boys learned the skill in taking two bundles of wheat at a time, to start setting up a shock of eight pairs, which we capped by splitting two more bundles for the top. Walking around in the stubble made our shoes slippery, and it was a hard job on a hot day. The sight, however, of a field of wheat harvested by this method was very pretty.” -Out in Brecksville

75 The Hay Field

c. 1916 Oil on board 24 x 35 inches 30 x 41.5 inches, as framed

76 Reflections along the Ohio River

c. 1920 Watercolor and graphite on board Signed lower left 22 x 30 inches

77 Frosty Dawn, Upstate New York

c. 1916 Watercolor and gouache on board Signed lower right 21 x 30 inches

78 Circus Lot at Toledo

c. 1920 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches

79 Train on Horseshoe Curve, Norfolk Southern Railway’s Pittsburgh Line,

c. 1923 Watercolor on paper Signed lower left 21 x 29 inches 27 x 35 inches, as framed

“The trip Otto Ege and I made from Pittsburgh to Marietta by riverboat and then by train to Mammoth Cave, was the next high spot in my artistic explorations. We saw something of the Old Southern river life on the way - the roustabouts, the showboat and river town life at Point Pleasant, and then to the sombre tonal mysteries of the Cave. These sights added much to my pictorial vocabulary…”

80 Stevedores, Ohio River

c. 1920 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 21.5 x 29. 5 inches 27 x 35.25 inches, as framed

81 Stevedores, Ohio River

c. 1920 Contè crayon on paper Signed lower right 12 x 16.25 inches

82 Cows by Woodland Pond, Toledo, Ohio

c. 1920 Watercolor and graphite on board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches

83 Turkeys in the Trees

c. 1922 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 22 x 29 inches 26 x 35 inches, as framed “Mother used to see wild turkeys cross the road from the deep ravine behind the schoolyard.” -Out in Brecksville

84 The Milkmaid, Brecksville, Ohio

c. 1922 Gouache on paper Signed lower left 21 x 29 inches 26 x 34 inches, as framed

85 House Call (Doctor’s Buggy)

c. 1922 Watercolor on paper 21.5 x 30 inches 28 x 36.5 inches, as framed Dr. Louis Knowlton, shown in his doctor’s buggy en route to treat a patient, was a Civil War veteran with a bullet wound in his leg that never healed. It is said that he used to treat the unhealed wound with whiskey everyday. In his final years, Knowlton lived in the Stage Coach Inn in Brecksville, a place which is also shown in this exhibition. Wilcox likely painted this scene from his memory.

86 Mountaineer with Dogs

c. 1932 Conté crayon on paper Signed lower left 11 x 15 inches 20 x 23 inches, as framed “Something about this region induces our interest in American pioneer history, probably because it was, for so long, a formidable barrier to western migration, and yet retains a spirit of savage wildness.”

“I went back to etching after the first mountain trip, and did a serious descriptive of the life of the mountaineer - logging, corn harvesting, hunting, and such things.” Created as a study for a later series of prints, this drawing focuses on the composition of a mountaineer hunting with one of his dogs in the foreground.

87 Study of Mountaineer with Dogs

c. 1932 Conté crayon on paper 10 x 13.5. inches

88 Mountaineer on Mule Drawn Wagon Trail

c. 1924 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower left 15 x 21 inches 22 x 28 inches, as framed

“The effect of this mountain landscape upon both of us was such as to remark the importance of the skyline in panoramic landscape. The undulations of these near and remote peaks, we saw accentuated by the proximity of lowhanging clouds or revealed near and far by the sharpness of light along the remote horizon. We noticed the changing effect of vertical distance as shadows variously cross or filled the depths of the ravines and passes.”

“There were three trips to Hot Springs, North Carolina... On the first trip, made in October... I saw the hills at their Sunday best - great rounded masses... As we climbed the ridges, the dark pines seemed to turn a paler green against the deepening sky; and the outlines of the hills faded off into infinity. This is the country for the romantic panorama - a quality not to be compressed into a small roughly painted canvas. When I went down in winter, the peaks cast long shadows over the depths even at noon. We saw town and river veiled in blue shadow... The wintry sun was surrounded by a misty halo, presaging the heavy snowstorm the night we left for home.”

89 Peaks in the Smoky Mountains from Hot Springs in Winter, North Carolina

c.1932 Watercolor on paper 15 x 20 inches

90 Approaching Storm at Lake Erie

c. 1928 Watercolor on paper 24 x 28 inches

“I have found that my early interest in the figure, architecture and sheer picturesque anecdote changed into a more comprehensive grasp of things as a unit, in which the mood of the subject became its abstract meaning. I see no value in an abstract pattern, since such a thing cannot interpret the reaction to a comprehensive whole – rather, instead, it is towards some isolated and positive momentary experience. As one cannot successfully interpret a momentary atmospheric illusion, no more can he put much meaning into a too positive pattern and hold the interest of the beholder for long.”

91 Marine Improvisation, Atlantic Coast

c. 1957 Watercolor and gouache on Whatman board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches

92 Crashing Waves on the Atlantic Coast

1957 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed and dated lower right 22 x 29 inches 29 x 37 inches, as framed

93 Miami and Erie Canal

c. 1933 Watercolor and graphite on board Signed lower left 22 x 30 inches, board

94 Boat in Lock at the Miami-Erie-Wabash Canal, Ohio

c. 1934 Watercolor on paper 18.5 x 24 inches

95 Dual on the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail

1947 Watercolor and gouache on paper Signed and dated lower right 21 x 29 inches 29 x 37 inches, as framed

96 Study for Tree at Roanoke Island, Virginia

c. 1954 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 15 x 20 inches

97 Dune Sandscape, Roanoke Island, Virginia

1954 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 26 x 20 inches

98 Palm Trees along the Swamps of Florida

1959 Watercolor and gouache on board Signed and dated lower right 22 x 30 inches

99 Orange Grove, Florida

c. 1959 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches

100 Sheepherder in Mountains

1953 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed and dated lower right 22 x 30 inches

101 Sheep on the Pasture

1959 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 22 x 29 inches 27 x 35 inches, as framed