Lot Essay
Charles Courtney Curran was born in 1861 in Hartford, Kentucky, before settling in Ohio with his family. While he primarily worked in New York, Curran also studied in Paris in the 1880s, and his introduction to French Impressionism informed his style for the rest of his career. After returning to America, Curran spent forty summers at the artist's colony in Cragsmoor, New York, inspired by the beautiful landscape around him.
The present work was painted in 1890, during Curran's stay in Paris while studying at the Académie Julien. Depicting two delicately rendered figures in a greenhouse, "This work is one of the first times that Curran included flowers as an important part of a composition. Eventually they would become integral to many of his pictures." (J.W. Faquin, Charles Courtney Curran: Seeking the Ideal, exhibition catalogue, Memphis, Tennessee, 2014, p. 46) The woman at left was likely modeled on the artist's wife Grace, who appears in a number of works from this period.
Further, the present work reflects the fascination with Japanese art that permeated 19th-Century Europe following the end of isolationism. "In Chrysanthemums, Curran's understanding of the formal principles of Japanese prints is evident in the bold diagonal thrust of the composition...the Japanese print was crucial to a translation of three-dimensional reality into two-dimensional pattern." (R.J. Frank, in A Private View: American Paintings from the Manoogian Collection, exhibition catalogue, New Haven, Connecticut, 1993)
The present work was painted in 1890, during Curran's stay in Paris while studying at the Académie Julien. Depicting two delicately rendered figures in a greenhouse, "This work is one of the first times that Curran included flowers as an important part of a composition. Eventually they would become integral to many of his pictures." (J.W. Faquin, Charles Courtney Curran: Seeking the Ideal, exhibition catalogue, Memphis, Tennessee, 2014, p. 46) The woman at left was likely modeled on the artist's wife Grace, who appears in a number of works from this period.
Further, the present work reflects the fascination with Japanese art that permeated 19th-Century Europe following the end of isolationism. "In Chrysanthemums, Curran's understanding of the formal principles of Japanese prints is evident in the bold diagonal thrust of the composition...the Japanese print was crucial to a translation of three-dimensional reality into two-dimensional pattern." (R.J. Frank, in A Private View: American Paintings from the Manoogian Collection, exhibition catalogue, New Haven, Connecticut, 1993)