Misty Morning

Details

FREDERICK CARL FRIESEKE (1874-1939)
Misty Morning
signed 'F.C. Frieseke.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
26 x 32 in. (66 x 81.3 cm.)
Painted circa 1908-09.

Provenance

The artist.
Estate of the above.
Frances Frieseke Kilmer, Vienna, Virginia, daughter of the artist.
Deborah Kilmer Kadel, Lincoln, Nebraska, by descent from the above, by 1974.
Sotheby's, New York, 29 May 1986, lot 172.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Literature

E.A. Taylor, "American Artists in Paris," International Studio, May 15, 1911, pp. 270, 273, illustrated (as Misty Morn).

Exhibited

(Probably) Venice, Italy, Eighth International Biennale, 1909 (as Effetto de Nebbia).
(Probably) Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of Paintings by Frederick C. Frieseke, April 8-22, 1913, n.p., no. 11.
Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Museum of Art, Special Exhibition of Paintings by Frederick Carl Frieseke and Leonard Ochtman, N.A., March 18-April 4, 1913, n.p. no. 34.
(Probably) New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Frederick Frieseke, April 12-May 7, 1966, n.p., no. 6 (as Woman and Boat, Giverny).
Fayetteville, North Carolina, Fayetteville Museum of Art; Hickory, North Carolina, Hickory Museum of Art; Charlotte, North Carolina, The Mint Museum of Art; Asheville, North Carolina, Asheville Art Museum; Greensboro, North Carolina, University of North Carolina, Weatherspoon Art Gallery; Wilmington, North Carolina, St. John's Art Gallery, The Last Expatriate: Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939), 1980, n.p., no. 7 (as On the Bank).
Savannah, Georgia, The Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences; New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.; Raleigh, North Carolina, The North Carolina Museum of Art; St. Petersburg, Florida, Museum of Fine Arts; Columbia, South Carolina, Columbia Museum of Art, Frederick Frieseke, 1874-1939, November 5, 1974-June 8, 1975, p. 15, no. 1 (as Misty Morning on the Bank of the Epte).
San Francisco, California, Maxwell Galleries Ltd., A Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of F.C. Frieseke, May 14-June 12, 1982, pp. 13, 42, no. 9, illustrated.
Memphis, Tennessee, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens; Evanston, Illinois, Terra Museum of American Art; Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester Art Museum, An International Episode: Millet, Monet and Their North American Counterparts, November 21, 1982-April 30, 1983, p. 167, no. 65 (as Misty Morn).

Further details

This work is included in the draft Frieseke catalogue raisonné, compiled by Nicholas Kilmer, the artist's grandson, with the support of the Hollis Taggart Galleries. That draft is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

In 1911, the critic for International Studio described the present work as a uniquely Frieseke painting, declaring, "Misty Morn…shows no other than his own personality." (E.A. Taylor, "American Artists in Paris," International Studio, May 15, 1911, p. 273) William H. Gerdts furthers, "it is a perfect example of the work of the Americans who took to Impressionism in Giverny in France, under the influence of Monet who lived there. The one subject matter which all of those Americans from Theodore Robinson onward painted was the little stream, the Epte, which ran through Giverny as a branch of the Seine, and a diversion of which served Monet for his great gardens…What is particularly distinctive about [Misty Morning]…is the soft, Tonal delicacy of the palette. This is unusual for Frieseke, this marvelous misty green and silvery light. Usually, Frieseke is a very brilliant colorist but not at all a subtle one; he very, very rarely projects a sense of poetic mood as he does here, though he did early on study with Whistler (in Paris) and something of the Whistlerian quality of his early works…seems to carry over here." (unpublished letter, 1986)

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