Lot Essay
Frederick Frieseke spent the summer of 1900 in Giverny where the landscape, sunshine, and freedom to paint as he wanted inspired him to remain there for almost two decades. By 1906 the artist was living in Theodore Robinson's former house, next door to Monet. The intricate and extravagant garden of the French Impressionist painter had a significant impact on Frieseke, and Frieseke's house also had a "beautiful old garden, running riot with flowers" (W.H. Gerdts, Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony, New York, 1993, p. 172.) This blending of an American impressionist style with typically French subjects resulted in Frieseke's prominence at home and abroad; indeed the March 1932 issue of Art Digest called him "the most internationally renowned American artist."
Frieseke's interest in sunlight began in Giverny, but remained with him throughout his career. It was during these years, between 1906 and 1919, that Frieseke painted some of his most remarkable canvases. As B.L. Summerford wrote in his essay for F.C. Frieseke: A Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of F.C. Frieseke: "There is a thrilling quality to the early paintings. They have the vitalilty of youth, the feeling that anything is possible, whether the subject is a broadly brushed small landscape or a large sensuous nude....In many ways they are among his finest and freest conceptions, direct, forceful, confident and economical" (Maxwell Galleries, San Francisco, 1982, p. 17.)
The gardens and landscapes of France were significant not only for Frieseke but also for his wife Sadie, who was a gardener and frequent model for the artist. In addition to sunlight, woman herself is a central subject for Frieseke. Pictures of women in a garden-type setting, clothed or nude, either strolling or reading and absorbed in thought, became signatures of Frieseke's work. Living in France enabled the artist to paint what he wished, and for this reason he did not return to America. Yet Frieseke's pictures are clearly the work of an American impressionist painter. "My idea is to reproduce flowers in sunlight...to produce the effect of vibration, completing as I go...If you are looking at a mass of flowers in the sunlight out of doors you see a sparkle of spots of different colors; then paint them in that way...One should never forget that seeing and producing an effect of nature is not a matter of intellect but of feeling...The effect of impressionism in general has been to open the eyes of the public to see not only sun and light, but the realization that there are new truths in nature" (Frieseke in C.T. MacChesney, "Frieseke Tells Some of the Secrets of His Art", New York Times, June 7, 1914.)
This painting was executed in 1911 and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Frieseke's work being compiled by Nicholas Kilmer, the artist's grandson.
Frieseke's interest in sunlight began in Giverny, but remained with him throughout his career. It was during these years, between 1906 and 1919, that Frieseke painted some of his most remarkable canvases. As B.L. Summerford wrote in his essay for F.C. Frieseke: A Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of F.C. Frieseke: "There is a thrilling quality to the early paintings. They have the vitalilty of youth, the feeling that anything is possible, whether the subject is a broadly brushed small landscape or a large sensuous nude....In many ways they are among his finest and freest conceptions, direct, forceful, confident and economical" (Maxwell Galleries, San Francisco, 1982, p. 17.)
The gardens and landscapes of France were significant not only for Frieseke but also for his wife Sadie, who was a gardener and frequent model for the artist. In addition to sunlight, woman herself is a central subject for Frieseke. Pictures of women in a garden-type setting, clothed or nude, either strolling or reading and absorbed in thought, became signatures of Frieseke's work. Living in France enabled the artist to paint what he wished, and for this reason he did not return to America. Yet Frieseke's pictures are clearly the work of an American impressionist painter. "My idea is to reproduce flowers in sunlight...to produce the effect of vibration, completing as I go...If you are looking at a mass of flowers in the sunlight out of doors you see a sparkle of spots of different colors; then paint them in that way...One should never forget that seeing and producing an effect of nature is not a matter of intellect but of feeling...The effect of impressionism in general has been to open the eyes of the public to see not only sun and light, but the realization that there are new truths in nature" (Frieseke in C.T. MacChesney, "Frieseke Tells Some of the Secrets of His Art", New York Times, June 7, 1914.)
This painting was executed in 1911 and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Frieseke's work being compiled by Nicholas Kilmer, the artist's grandson.