Morning Toilette

Details

FREDERICK CARL FRIESEKE (1874-1939)
Morning Toilette
signed ‘F.C. Frieseke.’ (lower left)
oil on canvas
32.¼ x 26 in. (82 x 65.6 cm.)
Painted circa 1924.

Provenance

Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York.
Stephen Richard Currier and Audrey Bruce Currier, Harvard, Massachusetts.
Estate of the above.
Christie's, New York, 1 June 1984, lot 173, sold by the above.
Private collection, New York, acquired from the above.
By descent from the above to the present owners.

Literature

M. Warner, “Art: Beauty of the Bath, Private Moments Rendered by Impressionist Masters,” Architectural Digest, February 1986, p. 101, illustrated.

Exhibition

Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Museum of Art, 31st Annual Exhibition of American Art, May 24-July 31, 1924, no. 14, illustrated.

Further details

This work is included in the draft Frieseke Catalogue Raisonné, compiled by Nicholas Kilmer, the artist’s grandson, with thesupport of the Hollis Taggart Galleries. That draft is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art.

Brought to you by

Tylee Abbott Senior Vice President, Head of American Art

Get in touch for additional information about this lot

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Lot Essay

In the summer of 1906, Frieseke settled in Giverny, France, where the landscape, sunshine and freedom to paint as he wanted inspired him to remain there for almost two decades. The richly patterned interior in Morning Toilet recalls the works of Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. Indeed, Frieseke’s style combines the decorative style of the Nabis with the Impressionist’s interest in atmosphere and light. His ability to play with light and technique and imbue his models with an air of psychological independence, makes Frieseke one of the most accomplished American Impressionist painters of the female figure.