US Painting before 1940
See also : USA USA II 18th century painting Development of USA Wild West Women artists Groups Cities Flowers Alps Horse Sport in art
Chronology : 1770-1779 1870-1879 1880-1889 1905 1920-1929 1926 1928 1929 1932 1934
Chronology : 1770-1779 1870-1879 1880-1889 1905 1920-1929 1926 1928 1929 1932 1934
1779 George Washington at Princeton by Charles Willson Peale
2006 SOLD 21.3 M$ including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
On June 14, 1774, the Continental Congress creates an army to carry on the War of Independence. Its commander-in-chief is George Washington, a Virginia planter who is also an officer and a veteran of the Seven Years' War.
Washington is towering by his tall stature and by his phlegm, and surprises his assistants by his abnegation and his virtues. It is not enough. He had never exercised a command on the battlefield and his weak and inexperienced army has everything to learn.
Everything seems easy for the British in December 1776, to the point that they decide to take up their winter quarters in New Jersey, waiting for the sunny days to capture Philadelphia. George Washington will soon be unable to pay his exhausted troops. In a heroic burst, he surprises the British garrisons in Trenton and Princeton. These were the first ever victories of the American army.
The war remains undecided, and they must continue to set an example. On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania commissions a portrait of General Washington to Charles Willson Peale.
The young artist had made an early portrait of the hero at Mount Vernon in 1772. He had been part of the reinforcements from the militias of Pennsylvania who had contributed to the victories of Trenton and Princeton, and had been appreciated by the soldiers for the miniature portraits painted on the field of battle.
The work which responds to the order from Pennsylvania is a full-length standing portrait of Washington after the Battle of Princeton. The hero is displayed in his signature attitude of modesty, without the face or the clothing having been embellished. He puts his hand on a cannon. Symbols of victory include a column of British prisoners with their red coats. This oil on canvas 246 x 149 cm is kept at the museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The strengthening of the young nation also includes an international propaganda to its new French and Spanish allies. Autograph replicas are made by the artist. One of them, oil on canvas 244 x 156 cm dated 1779, was conveyed to Spain by an American diplomat. The political message gradually lost its force and the painting ended up being bequeathed to a Capuchin school in the Basque region, where it was bought around 1918 by an antiquarian dealer from New York.
This portrait of Washington at Princeton was sold for $ 21.3M including premium by Christie's on January 21, 2006, lot 547, over a lower estimate of $ 10M. Please watch the video prepared in 2015 by the auction house to remind the sale of this outstanding painting, the last of its type in private hands.
Washington is towering by his tall stature and by his phlegm, and surprises his assistants by his abnegation and his virtues. It is not enough. He had never exercised a command on the battlefield and his weak and inexperienced army has everything to learn.
Everything seems easy for the British in December 1776, to the point that they decide to take up their winter quarters in New Jersey, waiting for the sunny days to capture Philadelphia. George Washington will soon be unable to pay his exhausted troops. In a heroic burst, he surprises the British garrisons in Trenton and Princeton. These were the first ever victories of the American army.
The war remains undecided, and they must continue to set an example. On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania commissions a portrait of General Washington to Charles Willson Peale.
The young artist had made an early portrait of the hero at Mount Vernon in 1772. He had been part of the reinforcements from the militias of Pennsylvania who had contributed to the victories of Trenton and Princeton, and had been appreciated by the soldiers for the miniature portraits painted on the field of battle.
The work which responds to the order from Pennsylvania is a full-length standing portrait of Washington after the Battle of Princeton. The hero is displayed in his signature attitude of modesty, without the face or the clothing having been embellished. He puts his hand on a cannon. Symbols of victory include a column of British prisoners with their red coats. This oil on canvas 246 x 149 cm is kept at the museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The strengthening of the young nation also includes an international propaganda to its new French and Spanish allies. Autograph replicas are made by the artist. One of them, oil on canvas 244 x 156 cm dated 1779, was conveyed to Spain by an American diplomat. The political message gradually lost its force and the painting ended up being bequeathed to a Capuchin school in the Basque region, where it was bought around 1918 by an antiquarian dealer from New York.
This portrait of Washington at Princeton was sold for $ 21.3M including premium by Christie's on January 21, 2006, lot 547, over a lower estimate of $ 10M. Please watch the video prepared in 2015 by the auction house to remind the sale of this outstanding painting, the last of its type in private hands.
1878 Green River by Thomas Moran
2008 SOLD for $ 17.7M by Christie's
The railway, superseding the dangerous Oregon trail, allows the emergence of civilization into the wilderness of the Western American territories that are not yet upgraded into states.
The village of Green River in Dakota Territory is served by the Pacific section in July 1868 before the famous transcontinental junction of 10 May 1869. Green River will be part of Wyoming in the later division of states.
Green River was incorporated as a city in 1868 and became a rallying point for geological and geographical expeditions starting with Powell in 1869.
Thomas Moran arrives by train to Green River in 1871 to join the Hayden expedition. The admirer of Turner is dazzled by the variety of colors: the reflection in water adds green and lavender to the yellow and orange of the cliffs. He immediately realizes a first watercolor. He does not seek realism but idealization and the result is sumptuous.
The Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming is one of the finest western landscapes and Moran painted this scenery in different sizes without changing the composition.
An oil on canvas 64 x 122 cm painted in 1878 was sold for $ 17.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3.5M by Christie's on May 21, 2008, lot 26. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The village of Green River in Dakota Territory is served by the Pacific section in July 1868 before the famous transcontinental junction of 10 May 1869. Green River will be part of Wyoming in the later division of states.
Green River was incorporated as a city in 1868 and became a rallying point for geological and geographical expeditions starting with Powell in 1869.
Thomas Moran arrives by train to Green River in 1871 to join the Hayden expedition. The admirer of Turner is dazzled by the variety of colors: the reflection in water adds green and lavender to the yellow and orange of the cliffs. He immediately realizes a first watercolor. He does not seek realism but idealization and the result is sumptuous.
The Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming is one of the finest western landscapes and Moran painted this scenery in different sizes without changing the composition.
An oil on canvas 64 x 122 cm painted in 1878 was sold for $ 17.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3.5M by Christie's on May 21, 2008, lot 26. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1905 A Siesta by Sargent
2004 SOLD for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Influenced by impressionism, John Singer Sargent was one of the best portrait painters of his time. As he approaches fifty, he wants to live his life better. He has been traveling throughout Europe since his youth. He will now refocus his art on the landscapes of his travels and on the holiday scenes with his friends.
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004 over a lower estimate of $ 9M.
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004 over a lower estimate of $ 9M.
1910 Polo Crowd by George Bellows
1999 SOLD for $ 27.5 M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2021
Crowds in New York are one of the favorite themes with which Georges Bellows shows enthusiasm, movement, play. In 1909 he adds sport. His boxing paintings show the action in progress, in a close-up snapshot that photography was only just beginning to be able to provide. The expressive style of the young artist marks his refusal of classicism.
Polo Crowd, oil on canvas 115 x 160 cm painted in 1910, confronts sport and its spectators. The game is on, including a prancing horse. The crowd, barely contained by light barriers, is made up of well-differentiated characters, as in real life. In a very dynamic contrast, peoples and horses appear bright against a very dark sky.
Bequeathed in 1998 by the Whitney estate to the Museum of Modern Art, Polo Crowd was sold by Sotheby's on December 1, 1999 for $ 27.5M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 10M. It was purchased at that sale by Bill Gates who was to hang it in the lobby of his personal library. The image is shared by Artnet.
Polo Crowd, oil on canvas 115 x 160 cm painted in 1910, confronts sport and its spectators. The game is on, including a prancing horse. The crowd, barely contained by light barriers, is made up of well-differentiated characters, as in real life. In a very dynamic contrast, peoples and horses appear bright against a very dark sky.
Bequeathed in 1998 by the Whitney estate to the Museum of Modern Art, Polo Crowd was sold by Sotheby's on December 1, 1999 for $ 27.5M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 10M. It was purchased at that sale by Bill Gates who was to hang it in the lobby of his personal library. The image is shared by Artnet.
1922 Painting-Secession by Georgia O'Keeffe
2016 SOLD for $ 13M including premium
The movement created by Stieglitz in 1902 as the Photo-Secession is much more than a group of friends. Modern photography is born in New York. The foregrounds, angles, contrasts and choice of themes escape the realism. With his camera, the photographer is like the painter : he expresses his feelings.
Stieglitz is also linked with Europeans painters. In 1908 he exhibits at his gallery in New York some works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Cézanne. The early abstract drawings by Georgia O'Keeffe are sincere and authentic creations in which he sees the seed for an American art.
After meeting with Stieglitz, Georgia is occupied as a model for the photographer and her creative activity is slowing. Each summer they spend some time together in the Stieglitz family country house at Lake George in upper state New York. Still attentive to abstraction, Georgia observes how nature uses geometry to construct landscapes and flowers.
On May 19 in New York, Christie's sells Lake George Reflection, oil on canvas 147 x 86 cm probably painted during the summer of 1922, lot 14 estimated $ 8M.
The theme is a classic landscape whose colors are more expressive than realistic. Georgia conceived that a reflection of the mountain in the water can be perfect if the weather is fine. The shore of the lake separates the picture into two halves of identical width.
And Hop ! At its first exhibition in January 1923, the artist positions it as a vertical work. The observer sees what he wishes to see : a symmetrical abstraction, a New York street lined with skyscrapers, the inside of a flower revealing the pistil, or a sexual symbol. The double meaning is revealed by the title of the work : it is a view of Lake George.
In 1913, Kandinsky had promoted non-figurative art with his story of a watercolor viewed after a fall over. In 1912, the double meaning of the Octopus photograph by Coburn anticipated the surrealism by more than ten years. The image of Lake George by O'Keeffe is a reflection in water and a reflection on the artistic language.
Stieglitz is also linked with Europeans painters. In 1908 he exhibits at his gallery in New York some works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Cézanne. The early abstract drawings by Georgia O'Keeffe are sincere and authentic creations in which he sees the seed for an American art.
After meeting with Stieglitz, Georgia is occupied as a model for the photographer and her creative activity is slowing. Each summer they spend some time together in the Stieglitz family country house at Lake George in upper state New York. Still attentive to abstraction, Georgia observes how nature uses geometry to construct landscapes and flowers.
On May 19 in New York, Christie's sells Lake George Reflection, oil on canvas 147 x 86 cm probably painted during the summer of 1922, lot 14 estimated $ 8M.
The theme is a classic landscape whose colors are more expressive than realistic. Georgia conceived that a reflection of the mountain in the water can be perfect if the weather is fine. The shore of the lake separates the picture into two halves of identical width.
And Hop ! At its first exhibition in January 1923, the artist positions it as a vertical work. The observer sees what he wishes to see : a symmetrical abstraction, a New York street lined with skyscrapers, the inside of a flower revealing the pistil, or a sexual symbol. The double meaning is revealed by the title of the work : it is a view of Lake George.
In 1913, Kandinsky had promoted non-figurative art with his story of a watercolor viewed after a fall over. In 1912, the double meaning of the Octopus photograph by Coburn anticipated the surrealism by more than ten years. The image of Lake George by O'Keeffe is a reflection in water and a reflection on the artistic language.
1926 Reflection in the City
2018 SOLD for $ 13.3M including premium
Giving free rein to her sensibility while remaining tied to the avant-gardes through Stieglitz's circle, Georgia O'Keeffe is an authentic and pioneering artist. She had been one of the first to practice abstract art in America.
Her interest in geometry gives her an unprecedented vision for constructing a landscape. The reflection of the mountains in Lake George, painted in 1922, can be tilted orthogonally to become an abstract work centered in full symmetry. This painting was sold for $ 13M including premium by Christie's on May 19, 2016.
In 1925 Stieglitz and O'Keeffe move to the 30th floor of a brand new skyscraper in Manhattan. After some reticence about this unprecedented lifestyle, Georgia is captivated and begins to paint city views.
On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells a view titled A Street, oil on canvas 127 x 76 cm painted in 1926, lot 34 estimated $ 12M.
With its sequences of skyscrapers on both sides of the street, this composition is almost symmetrical, like the view of Lake George. The walls are geometric, plain without windows, with a pleasant variation of pastel shades,
The roadway is not visible but the curved top of a street light shows that it is not far below. This tiny element judiciously centered on the lower edge becomes an anchor point from which the gaze can make an incessant back and forth through the central breach of the sky.
In the same year Georgia's close-ups of flowers caused a sensation in New York's artistic circles by their possible interpretation as female organs. Georgia, cautiously, will comment little. Stieglitz who usually supported new trends is reluctant by the masculinity of his wife's cityscapes. Indeed if he flipped A Street up and down, he may have seen an opened pair of legs.
Her interest in geometry gives her an unprecedented vision for constructing a landscape. The reflection of the mountains in Lake George, painted in 1922, can be tilted orthogonally to become an abstract work centered in full symmetry. This painting was sold for $ 13M including premium by Christie's on May 19, 2016.
In 1925 Stieglitz and O'Keeffe move to the 30th floor of a brand new skyscraper in Manhattan. After some reticence about this unprecedented lifestyle, Georgia is captivated and begins to paint city views.
On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells a view titled A Street, oil on canvas 127 x 76 cm painted in 1926, lot 34 estimated $ 12M.
With its sequences of skyscrapers on both sides of the street, this composition is almost symmetrical, like the view of Lake George. The walls are geometric, plain without windows, with a pleasant variation of pastel shades,
The roadway is not visible but the curved top of a street light shows that it is not far below. This tiny element judiciously centered on the lower edge becomes an anchor point from which the gaze can make an incessant back and forth through the central breach of the sky.
In the same year Georgia's close-ups of flowers caused a sensation in New York's artistic circles by their possible interpretation as female organs. Georgia, cautiously, will comment little. Stieglitz who usually supported new trends is reluctant by the masculinity of his wife's cityscapes. Indeed if he flipped A Street up and down, he may have seen an opened pair of legs.
1928 View of New York by Edward Hopper
2013 SOLD 19 M$ including premium
Hopper does not want to be blinded by the foils of America, but he loves his country and New York. In reaction against his time, he developed a passion for anonymous houses in front of which he goes his way by road, rail or river. He does not know whether they are used or abandoned, but their menace of ruins are the symbol of the past that he does not wish to leave.
On May 23 in New York, Christie's sells Blackwell's Island, an oil on canvas painted in 1928, 88 x 151 cm, estimated $ 15M. It is a very good example showing the independence of Hopper against any art trend.
Blackwell's is part of Manhattan, but this district without skyscrapers chosen by Hopper to symbolize New York was known for its prison and penitentiary hospital. Always in search of the past, the artist pretends to ignore that its name was Welfare Island since 1921 (to become Roosevelt Island later).
On East River shore, buildings align with factory chimneys. A small motor boat, single direct example of a human activity, is almost out of field going to a future that does not concern us.
This is a very geometric composition with sharp colors. The sky is crossed by radiant tracks. All front sides of the buildings shine under the sun excepted one of them. The river is too blue, voluntarily, to capture all the attention. This landscape is not classical and is the opposite of impressionism. It is not far from surrealism. It is a Hopper.
POST SALE COMMENT
Hopper is always fascinating, and this painting is outstanding. It was sold $ 19M including premium.
On May 23 in New York, Christie's sells Blackwell's Island, an oil on canvas painted in 1928, 88 x 151 cm, estimated $ 15M. It is a very good example showing the independence of Hopper against any art trend.
Blackwell's is part of Manhattan, but this district without skyscrapers chosen by Hopper to symbolize New York was known for its prison and penitentiary hospital. Always in search of the past, the artist pretends to ignore that its name was Welfare Island since 1921 (to become Roosevelt Island later).
On East River shore, buildings align with factory chimneys. A small motor boat, single direct example of a human activity, is almost out of field going to a future that does not concern us.
This is a very geometric composition with sharp colors. The sky is crossed by radiant tracks. All front sides of the buildings shine under the sun excepted one of them. The river is too blue, voluntarily, to capture all the attention. This landscape is not classical and is the opposite of impressionism. It is not far from surrealism. It is a Hopper.
POST SALE COMMENT
Hopper is always fascinating, and this painting is outstanding. It was sold $ 19M including premium.
1929 Confrontation with the Modern Life
2018 SOLD for $ 92M including premium
Very francophile after a stay in Paris, Edward Hopper observes on his return to New York the differences in the art of living between the two continents. Everything is changing very quickly in the United States in the 1920s around a new organization of work that better incorporates women, respects their individuality better and gives them some freedom.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey is estimated $ 70M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 12 B. The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey is estimated $ 70M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 12 B. The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1932 The Devil's Snare
2014 SOLD for $ 44.4M including premium
The beauty of nature was the main inspiration for Georgia O'Keeffe. Painter amidst the circle of photographers led by her husband Alfred Stieglitz, she wanted to see everything from larger landscapes to tiniest details. From 1929 she regularly visited the wonderful site of Taos.
She is not a botanist but there is no need to be a scientist for being fascinated by the datura, a wild herb that is particularly abundant in New Mexico. Its trumpet flowers appear at the cool of the evening with subtle shades of colors on a white background. A powerful hallucinogen, this plant is locally called Jimson weed and most commonly Devil's snare.
Painted in 1932, Jimson weed - white flower No.1 is a beautiful portrait of a flower. Inspired by macrophotography, it is an invitation to enter full front into the intimate secrets of a disproportionately enlarged datura. This oil on canvas is measuring 122 x 107 cm, a large format for the artist at that time.
This painting is estimated $ 10 million, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 20, lot 11. It is deaccessioned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe NM with the consent of the donor.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
She is not a botanist but there is no need to be a scientist for being fascinated by the datura, a wild herb that is particularly abundant in New Mexico. Its trumpet flowers appear at the cool of the evening with subtle shades of colors on a white background. A powerful hallucinogen, this plant is locally called Jimson weed and most commonly Devil's snare.
Painted in 1932, Jimson weed - white flower No.1 is a beautiful portrait of a flower. Inspired by macrophotography, it is an invitation to enter full front into the intimate secrets of a disproportionately enlarged datura. This oil on canvas is measuring 122 x 107 cm, a large format for the artist at that time.
This painting is estimated $ 10 million, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 20, lot 11. It is deaccessioned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe NM with the consent of the donor.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
1934 Suburbs for Sale
2013 SOLD 40.5 M$ including premium
The house is for Hopper the theme that ensures the continuity of civilization. It symbolizes the past by surviving after the move or death of its residents. The 1929 crisis could only exacerbate his reluctant vision of the modern world.
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting is estimated $ 22M, for sale by Christie 's in New York on December 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
The pessimistic view of civilization expressed by Hopper in the 1930s is still relevant. This outstanding example of his art has been sold for $ 40.5 million including premium.
The image is shared by Wikimedia :
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting is estimated $ 22M, for sale by Christie 's in New York on December 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
The pessimistic view of civilization expressed by Hopper in the 1930s is still relevant. This outstanding example of his art has been sold for $ 40.5 million including premium.
The image is shared by Wikimedia :
