Lot Essay
RELATED WORKS:
Sun and Shadow, c. 1912, oil on canvas, 44 x 36in., location unknown
Frank Weston Benson executed Sunshine and Shadow around 1912 while living at the Benson family's summer home on North Haven Island off the coast of Maine. There on the island in the company of his family and friends Benson developed a highly personal Impressionist style. The crystalline quality of the summer light along the Maine coast as well as the opportunity to paint his family outdoors inspired the artist to create some of his most memorable Impressionist pictures. Charles H. Caffin described Benson's summer-time work environment as "a place where life and art can be consistently at one: both partaking freely of the inspiration of the surroundings and working together for good."
During this period Benson often used members of his family as models for his paintings. John Wilmerding has noted, "These paintings of Benson's family were personal works of devotion and celebration. Usually his sitters posed enjoying simple, fashionable pastimes -- fixing a bowl of flowers, pausing in meadows, watching activities on the water, reading a book in the shade, idling away the time in small boats. . . Impressionism's bright colors and breezy strokes perfectly matched both the happy mood of the belle epoque and the enduring appeal of the Maine atmosphere." (J. Wilmerding, Frank W. Benson: The Impressionist Years, New York, Spanierman Gallery, 1988, p. 15)
Sunshine and Shadow depicts Eleanor and Elisabeth (Betty), the artist's daughters, as they sit quietly beneath the shade of a tree. Betty perches on the back of the bench, while Eleanor concentrates on her handiwork. The peaceful quality of the painting reflects the close-knit family intimacy that the Bensons enjoyed.
When Benson painted Sunshine and Shadow around 1912, he had no intention of parting with the canvas. In 1913 he wrote to his patron Mr. W.J. Johnson, "I have a picture that I can now offer you -- one that I had meant to keep myself, as it is the original picture from which my 'Sun and Shadow' in the Corcoran Gallery was painted. It is much smaller than that picture, being 25 x 30 inches in size, and I have never offered it for sale. If you have seen the larger one you will know what to expect in this canvas."
'Sun and Shadow' -- an unlocated painting executed after Benson completed Sunshine and Shadow -- was exhibited as no. 54 at the fourth biennial of contemporary American painters held at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington from December 17, 1912 until January 26, 1913. The two pictures differ in that the work exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery was larger in size than Sunshine and Shadow and it included more foliage in the upper left and a hat on the ground near the foot of Eleanor.
Benson may have been willing to part with Sunshine and Shadow because 'Sun and Shadow' did not sell from the Corcoran exhibition, thus allowing him to keep a particularly successful composition that included his two daughters.
Over several years Benson and Mr. Johnson exchanged cordial correspondence. In 1913 the artist closed his letter to Johnson with appreciative words: "As I am getting more and more each year for my work it is unlikely that I shall often have canvases that I can offer you for $1000 but I assure you that I shall feel the greatest interest in being represented in your collection just the same, and I appreciate most highly your expression of feeling about my pictures."
And later in the year the artist wrote about Sunshine and Shadow, "I am very glad you like it and hope that it will give you much pleasure in the future. Be sure to come and see me if you are in these parts and if possible let me know when you are coming as I should like to see you at my studio to know you. The people who collect pictures because they are genuinely fond of them are very few, and I like to have one of my pictures go into the collection of such a man as much if it went to a museum."
Like many painters trained in an academic setting, Benson often used photographs as an aid when composing his paintings. An extant photograph of the artist's daughters (fig. a) suggests that he may have referred to this image to execute the placement of the two figures in the overall composition. Once painting in plein-air, the artist could then capture the essence of the bright, sparkling light that permeated the coast of Maine. Benson's ability to express the particular quality of summer light was recognized by his critics. In 1911, the year before Benson painted Sunshine and Shadow, William Howe Downes wrote in the journal Arts and Decorations, "He sets before us visions of the free life of the open air, with figures of gracious women and lovely children, in a landscape drenched in sweet sunlight and cooled by refreshing sea breezes."
That Benson had intended to keep Sunshine and Shadow for himself lends the painting a special place within the artist's oeuvre. And as John Wilmerding has noted, "Benson's best subjects were members of his family." (J. Wilmerding, Frank W. Benson, p. 14) In Sunshine and Shadow Benson turned to the bright colors and gestural brushwork of his Impressionist style to convey the quiet, refined lifestyle of his family as well as the beauty of the crystalline light of the coast of Maine.
A letter describing the painting from Faith Andrews Bedford, the artist's biographer, accompanies the lot.
The painting is offered with correspondence from the artist to the first owner, Mr. W.J. Johnson of Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming Frank Weston Benson Catalogue Raisonné being compiled by Sheila Dugan and Vose Galleries of Boston.
Sun and Shadow, c. 1912, oil on canvas, 44 x 36in., location unknown
Frank Weston Benson executed Sunshine and Shadow around 1912 while living at the Benson family's summer home on North Haven Island off the coast of Maine. There on the island in the company of his family and friends Benson developed a highly personal Impressionist style. The crystalline quality of the summer light along the Maine coast as well as the opportunity to paint his family outdoors inspired the artist to create some of his most memorable Impressionist pictures. Charles H. Caffin described Benson's summer-time work environment as "a place where life and art can be consistently at one: both partaking freely of the inspiration of the surroundings and working together for good."
During this period Benson often used members of his family as models for his paintings. John Wilmerding has noted, "These paintings of Benson's family were personal works of devotion and celebration. Usually his sitters posed enjoying simple, fashionable pastimes -- fixing a bowl of flowers, pausing in meadows, watching activities on the water, reading a book in the shade, idling away the time in small boats. . . Impressionism's bright colors and breezy strokes perfectly matched both the happy mood of the belle epoque and the enduring appeal of the Maine atmosphere." (J. Wilmerding, Frank W. Benson: The Impressionist Years, New York, Spanierman Gallery, 1988, p. 15)
Sunshine and Shadow depicts Eleanor and Elisabeth (Betty), the artist's daughters, as they sit quietly beneath the shade of a tree. Betty perches on the back of the bench, while Eleanor concentrates on her handiwork. The peaceful quality of the painting reflects the close-knit family intimacy that the Bensons enjoyed.
When Benson painted Sunshine and Shadow around 1912, he had no intention of parting with the canvas. In 1913 he wrote to his patron Mr. W.J. Johnson, "I have a picture that I can now offer you -- one that I had meant to keep myself, as it is the original picture from which my 'Sun and Shadow' in the Corcoran Gallery was painted. It is much smaller than that picture, being 25 x 30 inches in size, and I have never offered it for sale. If you have seen the larger one you will know what to expect in this canvas."
'Sun and Shadow' -- an unlocated painting executed after Benson completed Sunshine and Shadow -- was exhibited as no. 54 at the fourth biennial of contemporary American painters held at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington from December 17, 1912 until January 26, 1913. The two pictures differ in that the work exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery was larger in size than Sunshine and Shadow and it included more foliage in the upper left and a hat on the ground near the foot of Eleanor.
Benson may have been willing to part with Sunshine and Shadow because 'Sun and Shadow' did not sell from the Corcoran exhibition, thus allowing him to keep a particularly successful composition that included his two daughters.
Over several years Benson and Mr. Johnson exchanged cordial correspondence. In 1913 the artist closed his letter to Johnson with appreciative words: "As I am getting more and more each year for my work it is unlikely that I shall often have canvases that I can offer you for $1000 but I assure you that I shall feel the greatest interest in being represented in your collection just the same, and I appreciate most highly your expression of feeling about my pictures."
And later in the year the artist wrote about Sunshine and Shadow, "I am very glad you like it and hope that it will give you much pleasure in the future. Be sure to come and see me if you are in these parts and if possible let me know when you are coming as I should like to see you at my studio to know you. The people who collect pictures because they are genuinely fond of them are very few, and I like to have one of my pictures go into the collection of such a man as much if it went to a museum."
Like many painters trained in an academic setting, Benson often used photographs as an aid when composing his paintings. An extant photograph of the artist's daughters (fig. a) suggests that he may have referred to this image to execute the placement of the two figures in the overall composition. Once painting in plein-air, the artist could then capture the essence of the bright, sparkling light that permeated the coast of Maine. Benson's ability to express the particular quality of summer light was recognized by his critics. In 1911, the year before Benson painted Sunshine and Shadow, William Howe Downes wrote in the journal Arts and Decorations, "He sets before us visions of the free life of the open air, with figures of gracious women and lovely children, in a landscape drenched in sweet sunlight and cooled by refreshing sea breezes."
That Benson had intended to keep Sunshine and Shadow for himself lends the painting a special place within the artist's oeuvre. And as John Wilmerding has noted, "Benson's best subjects were members of his family." (J. Wilmerding, Frank W. Benson, p. 14) In Sunshine and Shadow Benson turned to the bright colors and gestural brushwork of his Impressionist style to convey the quiet, refined lifestyle of his family as well as the beauty of the crystalline light of the coast of Maine.
A letter describing the painting from Faith Andrews Bedford, the artist's biographer, accompanies the lot.
The painting is offered with correspondence from the artist to the first owner, Mr. W.J. Johnson of Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming Frank Weston Benson Catalogue Raisonné being compiled by Sheila Dugan and Vose Galleries of Boston.