Lot Essay
RELATED LITERATURE:
Ernest W. Watson, Twenty Painters and How They Work, New York, 1950, pp. 35-43
This painting was executed in preparation for Costigan's first one person exhibition in 1924 at the Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery in New York. Exhibited also at the Salmagundi Club, the painting was awarded the Shaw Purchase Prize of $1,000.
Mother and Child, which depicts Costigan's wife and young son, is a prime example of the painting technique that Ivan Narodny discusses at length in his 1929 book, Twenty Painters and How They Work:
"From the very beginning, when attempting to sketch in oil pigments, he (Costigan) was drawn toward the idea of loading his paint with a palette knife in order to secure a greater body of tone and a wider range of effect. He developed a technique, based on the impasto of the palette knife, which gradually grew into an exuberant loading of the pigments with the brush in the vibratory manner of the Impressionists."
Ernest W. Watson, Twenty Painters and How They Work, New York, 1950, pp. 35-43
This painting was executed in preparation for Costigan's first one person exhibition in 1924 at the Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery in New York. Exhibited also at the Salmagundi Club, the painting was awarded the Shaw Purchase Prize of $1,000.
Mother and Child, which depicts Costigan's wife and young son, is a prime example of the painting technique that Ivan Narodny discusses at length in his 1929 book, Twenty Painters and How They Work:
"From the very beginning, when attempting to sketch in oil pigments, he (Costigan) was drawn toward the idea of loading his paint with a palette knife in order to secure a greater body of tone and a wider range of effect. He developed a technique, based on the impasto of the palette knife, which gradually grew into an exuberant loading of the pigments with the brush in the vibratory manner of the Impressionists."