Lot Essay
RELATED WORKS:
Afternoon Tea, oil on canvas, unlocated
A Gray Day, oil on canvas, National Academy of Design, New York
The Pool, oil on canvas, Daniel J. Terra Collection
This painting was executed in Giverny, France circa 1910-1911.
Originally from Missouri, Richard E. Miller studied at the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts and then continued his art training in France in 1899. He quickly made his reputation when a large portrait of his was accepted into the Paris Salon in 1900. Miller was a particularly accomplished figure painter, and during his fifteen-year stay in France the artist changed his painting style, moving from dark, realist portraits of elderly subjects to fresh, light-filled Impressionist images of young women. It is for these latter canvases that Miller is celebrated, and within that category, his Giverny paintings are among his finest.
Miller probably first visited Giverny in 1905, the year his good friend and colleague Frederick Carl Frieseke leased a house that was adjacent to Monet's property. In 1906 Miller was giving summer art instruction in Giverny to female students of American educator Mary C. Wheeler, who would return repeatedly to Giverny with her students, and who also had rented a house next to Monet. In the mornings Miller and his students worked indoors with the model, and in the afternoon they sketched outdoors. In 1907 Miller married one of Miss Wheeler's students, Harriette Adams, known as Billee. In June, 1909 their only child, a daughter, was born in Giverny. By this time Miller had already been made a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government for his work. Miller and his family summered in Giverny until 1912.
The year 1910 was a high water mark for Miller and a group American painters known as "The Giverny Group" that included Frederick Frieseke, Lawton Parker, and Guy Rose (Karl Anderson and Edmund Graecen were originally in the group, but had since returned to the U.S.). Critics called them "intensely modern" and praised the brilliant color and luminous light of their canvases. The Garden Room, Giverny clearly belongs to this new, more confident phase of Miller's work.
In The Garden Room, Giverny Miller depicts two young women, one seated and one standing inside open French doors of a sunroom or sunporch, examining a delicate, lacey fabric. The seated woman is most likely the artist's wife, Billee. The setting may be identified as the property of Miller's friend and colleague, Frederick Carl Frieseke, as identical green wooden chairs were among his household furnishings. Behind the figures is a bright, sunlit garden. Miller demonstrates his great technical facility in the contrast between the free and exuberant brushwork of the women's dresses and the very tight finish of the Imari bowl on the tea stand. The faces of the women are rendered in a soft, intermediary fashion, successfully bridging these two styles. The bright orange of the tea stand is a characteristic color of many Giverny Group paintings, and Miller used it to great effect to provide contrast for the cool blues and greens throughout the rest of the canvas. These vibrant colors balance the sun-drenched garden path, which draws our eye through the painting. Its rosy reflection in the women's complexions further attests to Miller's decorative impulses. The Garden Room, Giverny is a sensuous painting - a rich mix of colors, textures, and light -- deserving of the adjectives "radiant" and "jubilant" that critics bestowed on these Giverny paintings.
We are grateful to Marie Lousie Kane for her assistance in cataloguing this painting.
Afternoon Tea, oil on canvas, unlocated
A Gray Day, oil on canvas, National Academy of Design, New York
The Pool, oil on canvas, Daniel J. Terra Collection
This painting was executed in Giverny, France circa 1910-1911.
Originally from Missouri, Richard E. Miller studied at the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts and then continued his art training in France in 1899. He quickly made his reputation when a large portrait of his was accepted into the Paris Salon in 1900. Miller was a particularly accomplished figure painter, and during his fifteen-year stay in France the artist changed his painting style, moving from dark, realist portraits of elderly subjects to fresh, light-filled Impressionist images of young women. It is for these latter canvases that Miller is celebrated, and within that category, his Giverny paintings are among his finest.
Miller probably first visited Giverny in 1905, the year his good friend and colleague Frederick Carl Frieseke leased a house that was adjacent to Monet's property. In 1906 Miller was giving summer art instruction in Giverny to female students of American educator Mary C. Wheeler, who would return repeatedly to Giverny with her students, and who also had rented a house next to Monet. In the mornings Miller and his students worked indoors with the model, and in the afternoon they sketched outdoors. In 1907 Miller married one of Miss Wheeler's students, Harriette Adams, known as Billee. In June, 1909 their only child, a daughter, was born in Giverny. By this time Miller had already been made a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government for his work. Miller and his family summered in Giverny until 1912.
The year 1910 was a high water mark for Miller and a group American painters known as "The Giverny Group" that included Frederick Frieseke, Lawton Parker, and Guy Rose (Karl Anderson and Edmund Graecen were originally in the group, but had since returned to the U.S.). Critics called them "intensely modern" and praised the brilliant color and luminous light of their canvases. The Garden Room, Giverny clearly belongs to this new, more confident phase of Miller's work.
In The Garden Room, Giverny Miller depicts two young women, one seated and one standing inside open French doors of a sunroom or sunporch, examining a delicate, lacey fabric. The seated woman is most likely the artist's wife, Billee. The setting may be identified as the property of Miller's friend and colleague, Frederick Carl Frieseke, as identical green wooden chairs were among his household furnishings. Behind the figures is a bright, sunlit garden. Miller demonstrates his great technical facility in the contrast between the free and exuberant brushwork of the women's dresses and the very tight finish of the Imari bowl on the tea stand. The faces of the women are rendered in a soft, intermediary fashion, successfully bridging these two styles. The bright orange of the tea stand is a characteristic color of many Giverny Group paintings, and Miller used it to great effect to provide contrast for the cool blues and greens throughout the rest of the canvas. These vibrant colors balance the sun-drenched garden path, which draws our eye through the painting. Its rosy reflection in the women's complexions further attests to Miller's decorative impulses. The Garden Room, Giverny is a sensuous painting - a rich mix of colors, textures, and light -- deserving of the adjectives "radiant" and "jubilant" that critics bestowed on these Giverny paintings.
We are grateful to Marie Lousie Kane for her assistance in cataloguing this painting.