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拍品專文
As exemplified by White Lilies, Frederick Frieseke’s garden in Giverny provided the primary inspiration for his most dazzling compositions. The artist himself distinguished the present work as one of his best, likely choosing the painting as his exhibition piece for the 1912 Paris Salon and referring to it when he declared: “The best picture I believe to be the girl with the lilies. I think it the best thing I have done” (letter to William Macbeth, December 29, 1912, Archives of American Art, Macbeth Gallery records).
Frieseke settled in Giverny in the summer of 1906, living next door to Claude Monet. The landscape, sunshine and freedom to paint as he wanted inspired Frieseke to remain for almost two decades. While Monet’s famed garden had a significant impact on the artist, Frieseke's own home had a wonderful backyard that provided a vibrant setting for his models. A New York Times interviewer visiting the artist described, “surrounded by rows of lilies and of larkspur, the blue, clear sky of France over our heads…There is a tangle of flowers, with a pool in the center, a crooked old apple tree at one end…The house is painted yellow and its blinds are green. But it is almost hidden on the garden side by trellises of roses, clematis, and passion vines.” Continually inspired by this environment, Frieseke told the reporter, “I never paint inside unless driven in by the weather” (C.T. MacChesney, “Frieseke Tells Some of the Secrets of His Art” in The New York Times, 7 June 1914, sec. 6, p. 7).
This passion for painting en plein air reflects Frieseke’s emphasis on natural sunlight in his work. In his own words, he always chose to paint "sunshine, flowers in sunshine; girls in sunshine; the nude in sunshine" (ibid., p. 7). In White Lilies, Frieseke captures a woman shading herself with a parasol from the bright light pervading the garden scene. Enveloped by the wall of plants behind her, she almost blends into the pattern of dotted lilies and leaves. The result is a cohesive tapestry of color and light which evokes the essence of a spring day in the countryside. Frieseke reflected on his technique to achieve this effect, "I know nothing about the different kinds of gardens, nor do I ever make studies of flowers. My one idea is to reproduce flowers in sunlight. I do not suggest detail by form, [but use] strokes of color in oil 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 that way" (quoted in ibid., p. 7).
Frieseke’s high-keyed palette and thick impasto are masterfully executed in the present work. Through deft handling of short, broken brushstrokes in a jewel-like palette, White Lilies becomes a brilliant visual display of color and light. Dr. William H. Gerdts notes, "it was Frieseke who introduced into the repertory of Giverny painting the concern for rich, decorative patterns, related to the art of Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, and the other Nabi painters. There are patterns of furniture, patterns of parasols, patterns of fabric and wall coverings, patterns of light and shade, and patterns of flowers, all played off one another in bright sunshine" (Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony, New York, 1993, p. 172).
In the present work, the bright white of the lilies reverberates against the underlying green and blue tones, echoed by the pale colors of the figure’s dress and parasol. As in the smaller related composition, Lilies (by 1911, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago), the geometric shapes of the window shutters and lawn chair, by juxtaposition, highlight the picturesque disorder of the dominating organic elements in the scene. As Frieseke explained, “Often one obtains accidental notes out of doors which really construct the picture" (C.T. MacChesney, op. cit., p. 7).
White Lilies is a stunning example of Frieseke's garden paintings and conveys the full vision of the artist's lively patterned harmonies, which are reminiscent of the Post-Impressionists. The vitality of Giverny and the quiet reflection of the model are poignantly recorded as he successfully creates an idyllic image that embraces the scene in its most beautiful form.
Frieseke settled in Giverny in the summer of 1906, living next door to Claude Monet. The landscape, sunshine and freedom to paint as he wanted inspired Frieseke to remain for almost two decades. While Monet’s famed garden had a significant impact on the artist, Frieseke's own home had a wonderful backyard that provided a vibrant setting for his models. A New York Times interviewer visiting the artist described, “surrounded by rows of lilies and of larkspur, the blue, clear sky of France over our heads…There is a tangle of flowers, with a pool in the center, a crooked old apple tree at one end…The house is painted yellow and its blinds are green. But it is almost hidden on the garden side by trellises of roses, clematis, and passion vines.” Continually inspired by this environment, Frieseke told the reporter, “I never paint inside unless driven in by the weather” (C.T. MacChesney, “Frieseke Tells Some of the Secrets of His Art” in The New York Times, 7 June 1914, sec. 6, p. 7).
This passion for painting en plein air reflects Frieseke’s emphasis on natural sunlight in his work. In his own words, he always chose to paint "sunshine, flowers in sunshine; girls in sunshine; the nude in sunshine" (ibid., p. 7). In White Lilies, Frieseke captures a woman shading herself with a parasol from the bright light pervading the garden scene. Enveloped by the wall of plants behind her, she almost blends into the pattern of dotted lilies and leaves. The result is a cohesive tapestry of color and light which evokes the essence of a spring day in the countryside. Frieseke reflected on his technique to achieve this effect, "I know nothing about the different kinds of gardens, nor do I ever make studies of flowers. My one idea is to reproduce flowers in sunlight. I do not suggest detail by form, [but use] strokes of color in oil 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 that way" (quoted in ibid., p. 7).
Frieseke’s high-keyed palette and thick impasto are masterfully executed in the present work. Through deft handling of short, broken brushstrokes in a jewel-like palette, White Lilies becomes a brilliant visual display of color and light. Dr. William H. Gerdts notes, "it was Frieseke who introduced into the repertory of Giverny painting the concern for rich, decorative patterns, related to the art of Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, and the other Nabi painters. There are patterns of furniture, patterns of parasols, patterns of fabric and wall coverings, patterns of light and shade, and patterns of flowers, all played off one another in bright sunshine" (Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony, New York, 1993, p. 172).
In the present work, the bright white of the lilies reverberates against the underlying green and blue tones, echoed by the pale colors of the figure’s dress and parasol. As in the smaller related composition, Lilies (by 1911, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago), the geometric shapes of the window shutters and lawn chair, by juxtaposition, highlight the picturesque disorder of the dominating organic elements in the scene. As Frieseke explained, “Often one obtains accidental notes out of doors which really construct the picture" (C.T. MacChesney, op. cit., p. 7).
White Lilies is a stunning example of Frieseke's garden paintings and conveys the full vision of the artist's lively patterned harmonies, which are reminiscent of the Post-Impressionists. The vitality of Giverny and the quiet reflection of the model are poignantly recorded as he successfully creates an idyllic image that embraces the scene in its most beautiful form.