Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show Returns Presidents’ Day Weekend, February 17-21

West Palm Beach, FL (PRWEB) September 23, 2005

The Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show makes its much-anticipated return to the Palm Beach County Convention Center on Presidents’ Day weekend, February 17-21, 2006.

The show kicks off with an invitation-only preview on Friday, February 17 and opens to the general public the following day. Hours of operation are 11 am – 7 pm Saturday, February 18 through Monday, February 20; and 11 am – 6 pm on Tuesday, Feb. 21. Tickets are $ 15 daily or $ 25 for a 4-day pass.

The largest vetted art and antique show the United States, the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show brings together more than 50,000 visitors and over 200 top-tier exhibitors. “The energy and excitement have carried over each year” said event co-organizer Kris Charamonde, “and we expect it to be even bigger and better this year.” By comparison, Charamonde said, most shows of this kind attract around 80 exhibitors. “It’s definitely on par with the largest, most prestigious shows in the world.”

New Exhibitors Added

Charamonde said in addition to the returning dealers, the show’s success has attracted a number of first-time exhibitors; among them some of the most prestigious names in the world of art and antiques. That list includes art dealer Peter Tillou (Litchfield, CT); A.E. Betteridge Jewelers (Greenwich, CT); China Gallery (NY); Questroyal Fine Art (NY) and Macklowe Gallery (NY). “We’re happy to welcome back our exhibitors from last year,” commented Charamonde, “and we’re very excited about our new exhibitors as well.”

Charamonde credited the show’s continual success to the quality of its dealers and the knowledge and enthusiasm of the attendees. He added that many of the attendees were themselves dealers, and said he had received a great deal of positive feedback from exhibitors and attendees alike. “The show attracts not only private collectors and dealers, but also museum curators, interior designers and investors,” Charamonde continued.

One dealer in particular who visited the show before signing on as an exhibitor is famed art dealer Peter Tillou. “Peter Tillou came to the show the first year as an observer,” Charamonde said, “and graciously agreed to serve on the vetting committee the following year. This year, we’re happy to say, he will be exhibiting at the show.” Reached at his home in Litchfield, Connecticut, Tillou said he was looking forward to taking part in the event. “The Palm Beach community has such a sophisticated understanding of fine art, it is with great pleasure that we look forward to presenting our collection of American and European masters,” he stated.

Among the works Tillou plans to exhibit are rare 17th Century paintings by Dutch artists Herman Doucher, Jean P. Gilleman and others, all in excellent condition. Tillou will also be exhibiting rare antique furniture, including a 16th century cassone from Northern Italy inlaid with ivory and mother of pearl.

Simon Teakle of A. E. Betteridge Jewelers echoed Tillou’s comments, adding, “Palm Beach is just a natural place for us in the winter. Many of our customers are there, so we are very excited about being part of the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show.” A. E. Betteridge is among the leading names in estate jewelry, with roots that can be traced back to Birmingham England, “where the Betteridge name has been synonymous with silversmithing and fine jewelry since the 1700s,” said Teakle, former head of the jewelry department for Christie’s.

Leading Dealers Returning to Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show

Among the more well-known exhibitors returning to the show this year are Alexander Acevedo (Alexander Gallery, NY); W. Graham Arader III of Philadelphia; Ralph M. Chait of NY; Mark J. West of London; Hyland Grandy of Hyannisport, MA; Daphne Alzakari of NY; Talisman Antiques and Guinevere Antiques, both from London; and Camilla Dietz Bergeron of NY.

South Florida Area Art, Antique and Jewelry Dealers to Exhibit

“We are very happy to welcome a number of exhibitors from right here in our own backyard,” said show co-founder Rob Samuels. “This show gives them an opportunity to meet many new potential customers, who are traveling from around the world to attend.” Samuels said the list of exhibitors from in and around Palm Beach County include, among others: art and antiques dealer Levy & Dweck; East Coast Jewelers; Joe Rubinfine American Historical Autographs; Proarte Gallery; Robert Slack Fine Art; and The Meissen Shop.

Also exhibiting this year are Palm Beach residents Mars and Ron Jaffe, who will be offering a collection of art and antiques that have not been on the market in over 30 years. The Jaffe collection features items from the couple’s home in Potomac, Maryland, which they sold prior to moving to Palm Beach. When the couple purchased the 5-acre estate from the Harkness family, a legendary American family dynasty, they also purchased many of the antiques and much of the art in the home. That included linen folded tracery paneling in the library, circa 16th century, which came from a castle in Essex, England. “Edith Hartness purchased the paneling from a family friend, William Randolph Hearst, who had purchased it from a lot which was brought over from England to build San Simeon,” said Mrs. Jaffe.

Collector’s Paradise – Where Browsers are Welcome

Whether one is a serious collector, novice or museum curator – or simply a person who loves to look at rare antiques, fine art, stunning jewelry, silver and textiles – the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show “offers a chance to view a wide spectrum of precious items, from 2,000-year-old antiquities to 20th century Art Deco and Modernists pieces, all in one place and all at one time,” said Scott Diament, one of the show’s co-founders. “We have worked very hard to bring together exhibitors who offer the very best in antiques, fine art, jewelry and more, so regardless of what a person is seeking, they are sure to find it at the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show.”

Among the items exhibitors will be offering are:

    Antique & Fine Jewelry

    Objets d’Art

    Furniture

    Silver

    Paintings

        Porcelain

    Ceramics & Pottery

    Textiles

    Watches & Clocks

        Sculpture

    Asian Art & Antiques

    Art Glass

    American Historical Autographs

        Other Antiquities & 20th Century Design

American Art Remains “Hot, Hot, Hot”

Art dealers from around the world have enjoyed great success at the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show, and this year’s exhibitors are bringing with them some rare and important works. American art, which has seen a surge in popularity over the past couple of years, continues to be much sought after, show organizers said. “Last year we talked about the hot market for American art,” said show co-founder Rob Samuels. “And from what we are hearing from our exhibitors, nothing has changed: if anything, American art is now more popular than ever.”

A sampling of works by American Artists to be featured at this year’s show:

Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926). Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker who exhibited with the Impressionists of her time and is credited with fostering the acceptance of Impressionism in the U.S. She studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and then traveled extensively in Europe, finally settling in Paris in 1874. In that year, she had a work accepted at the Salon and in 1877 made the acquaintance of Degas, with whom she was to be on close terms throughout his life. His art and ideas had a considerable influence on her work.

Andrew Wyeth (American Contemporary Realist Painter, born in 1917). Among the paintings on display at the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show will be an Andrew Wyeth original, “Flour Mill,” 1947 – Watercolor Drybrush, priced at $ 1 Million.

Andrew Wyeth is one of the most celebrated living artists in history. Several galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Art, display his work (galleries, it should be noted, which had never before featured the work of a living artist).

This “painter of the people,” as he is often called, holds no high school diploma, formal training or college degree. Until he reached the age of eighteen, Wyeth’s father home-schooled him and trained him in the arts. (He attended public school until the third grade).

Museums and galleries over the years held Andrew Wyeth’s work in the highest regard and continue to do so even today. In 1964, the Farnsworth museum in Rockland, Maine paid $ 65K for a Wyeth painting entitled “Her Room.” At that time, this was the highest price paid by a gallery for a living artist’s work. In 1987, the National Gallery of Art exhibited the “Helga” paintings. As previously mentioned, this was the first time the National Gallery featured the work of a living artist.

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882–1945). This American painter and illustrator was the head of several generations of important American artists: he was the father of Andrew, Henriette and Carolyn Wyeth, the grandfather of Jamie Wyeth, the father-in-law of Peter Hurd. An inveterate “drawer” as a child, Wyeth began his formal art training very sporadically, jumping from school to school (including a short stay at the Eric Pape School) and instructor to instructor until, at age 20, when he was accepted into the Howard Pyle School for the 1902 sessions. Among his many well-known murals are those in the Missouri state capitol and the altar panels for the National Episcopal Cathedral, Washington, D.C. He also illustrated numerous adventure stories, histories, and classics for children. He taught his son, the painter Andrew Wyeth.

William Merritt Chase (1849 – 1916). Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He was born in Williamsburg (now Nineveh), Indiana, and became a pupil of B. F. Hays in Indianapolis, of Eaton in New York, and subsequently of A. Wagner and Karl von Piloty in Munich.

In New York he established a school of his own, after teaching with success for some years at the Art Students League. A worker in all media – oils, watercolor, pastel – etching and painting with distinction the figure, landscapes, and still lifes, he is perhaps best known for his portraits, his sitters including some of the most important men and women of his time.

Chase won many honors at home and abroad, became a member of the National Academy of Design, New York, and for ten years was president of the Society of American Artists. Among his important canvases are Ready for the Ride (Union League Club, N.Y.), The Apprentice, and Court Jester. He became a member of the Ten American Painters after John Henry Twachtman died.

Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839 – 1924). Knight was born in Pennsylvania and attended

the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1858 – 1861, before traveling to Paris to study at the Atelier Gleyre and with Cabanel at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (1861 – 1863). He returned to America to serve in the Army and married Rebecca Webster. In 1871, he and his bride returned to France -where they remained for the rest of their lives. It was this ability to portray the human figure so naturally that made Knight so popular – not only in his own lifetime, but today.

William Mason Brown (1828 – 1898). Brown, along with Martin Johnson Heade, was among a very elite group of artists equally adept at landscape painting as well as still-life painting. He was born in upstate New York in 1828, in the city of Troy, where he also began his art studies under Thomas Grinnell and later with the portraitist, Abel B. Moore. His work can be found in over a dozen museums, and his paintings are much sought after.

Hovsep Pushman (1877 – 1966). Born in Armenia, Hovsep Pushman became known for still lifes of exotic subjects, featuring antique objects with Oriental motifs, Nubian princesses, or Spanish gypsies. His paintings had soft lighting and quite often tapestries as backgrounds and were harmonious in tone with refined, delicate brushwork. He studied at the Constantinople Academy of Art, at the Chicago Art Academy, and in Paris under Jules Joseph Lefebvre, Tony Robert-Fleury, and Adolphe Dechenaud.

Samuel Colman (1832- 1920). one of the earliest American artists to paint the Spanish landscape, Colman’s interest in Spanish painting was perhaps sparked by a widespread American attraction to Spain’s past. Beginning in the early 1800s, Americans had become increasingly interested in the Spanish history. The discoveries of Christopher Columbus, the paintings of Goya and Velazquez, and the prose of Cervantes, became popular elements of this nostalgic, cultural fascination. When Colman traveled to the south of Spain, he sought new and exotic material for his compositions and found it in the Moorish towns and provincial settings. He filled numerous sketchbooks with drawings of sun-baked cliffs, port cityscapes, and architectural elements. Colman paved the way for other artists seeking firsthand experience of Spanish culture. Thomas Eakins and Mary Cassatt were among the many artists who later followed his lead.

This is only a small glimpse of the important American artists who will be represented at the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show.

European artists will also be represented, including:

Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). Particularly noted for his striking use of color, Matisse is one of the very few indisputable giants of modern art, alongside Picasso and Kandinsky. His work was influenced by impressionist and post-impressionist painters including Pisarro, Cezanne, van Gogh, Gauguin and Paul Signac. Had it not been for poor health, however, the artist might never have found his true calling. At the age of 21, while working as a law clerk, he became seriously ill. It was during the phase of convalescence he started painting and discovered his love for art, which would become his life-long passion. He left behind his law career and the rest, as the saying goes, is history. After World War I, Matisse had gained a high reputation and was an internationally recognized artist. In 1917, he left Paris and settled in Nice in the South of France where he remained until the end of his life.

Joseph Caraud (French, 1821 – 1905). Caraud was born in Cluny, in the Saône-et-Loire region of France. Even before he began his artistic training at the École des Beaux-Arts, he exhibited his first work at the Salon of 1843. In October of the following year he entered the École des Beaux-Arts ateliers of Alexandre Abel de Pujol, a former student of Jacques-Louis David, and Charles-Louis Lucien Muller, a historical and religious scene painter, in Paris, both of whom influenced his early work at the Salons. In 1867, he was given France’s highest honor and named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

Paul Désiré Trouillebert (French, 1829-1900). Trouillebert was one of the French Barbizon School Painters, a group of landscape artists working in the area of the French town of Barbizon, south of Paris. The Barbizon School artists are often considered to have sown the seeds of Modernism with their individualism, and were the forerunners of the Impressionists, who took a similar philosophical approach to their art. Trouillebert’s work can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Chateau Museum, Dieppe, France; Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; the Musées des Beaux-Arts of Puy, Mulhouse, Nice, Reims, and Saumur.

Eugène Louis Boudin (French, 1824-1898). Boudin was born on the coast of Normandy and remained faithful to his native province throughout his long life. From 1847 to 1848, most of his time was spent in Paris and he returned to Paris from 1851 to 1854 for formal study, financed by a grant from the municipality of Le Havre. Although much of his early work is lost, it appears it was in Paris that he made still lifes of fish and game inspired by Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 17th century, and French paintings of the 18th century. In this effort, he was encouraged by his friend Theodule Ribot. Back in Le Havre, he met Claude Monet in 1858, and began to act as his mentor.

Horatio H. Couldery (British 1832 – 1893). Couldery was a Victorian artist who specialized in painting cats and dogs. He lived in Lewisham, Kent and was a member of a large family of artists – five in all.

Although an artist, his father had second thoughts as to Horatio’s profession and subsequently placed him in apprenticeship with a cabinet maker. However, his love for art soon won out and at the age of 25 he enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools; exhibiting his first work there in 1864. During his day, he was a popular artist and exhibited works in many of the important exhibition halls, including the Royal Academy; Royal Society of British Artists; British Institution and at the Graphic Exhibition of Animal Paintings in 1882.

In 1875 Couldery exhibited A Fascinating Tail at the Royal Academy. In the Academy Notes, John Ruskin had the following comments: quite the most skillful, minute, and Dureresque painting in the Exhibition, not to be seen without a lens: – and in its sympathy with kitten nature … and its tact and sensitivity to the finest gradations of kittenly meditation and motion, – unsurpassable.

Today examples of Couldery’s work can be seen in the collections of the Norwich Art Gallery and the Nottingham Art Gallery.

The above is but a small sampling of the wonderful European artists whose work will be on display at the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show.

Art, Antiques Spanning Many Generations

For anyone who loves to visit the world’s great museums and galleries – or has an affinity for fine art, jewelry and antiques – the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show offers a rare combination of luxury items sure to please even the most discriminating collector. The items offered at the show represent a diverse cross-section of European and Continental subject matter, ranging from very rare, historic items through 20th century pieces. Additional highlights from the upcoming show include:

-A very rare gold-gilt lacquer wood figure of Damo (a renowned Buddhist figure and the founder and first teacher of Zen Buddhism), which dates to the late Ming Dynasty, 16th – 17th century.

-A fine Sancai Glazed Terracotta Caparisoned pottery horse, which dates to the Tang Dynasty, 618 – 907 AD.

-A magnificent emerald and diamond ring, Russian circa 1800, which was given to a Russian nobleman as a present from the Czar of Russia, Alexander 1st. The emerald has a carat weight of 5.84, and the 16 diamonds weigh approximately 5.50 carats.

-A French Eighteenth Century Transitional Walnut Louis XV/XVI Commode commissioned for a marriage from the region of Nimes.

-A collection of four Italian Nineteenth century plaster Medallions depicting four Roman Emperors from the Julio-Claudian Dynasty.

-A Very Large Derby Figure of Minerva, William Duesbury, Circa 1765-70.”

-Leaf Veined Case “Transmutational” by Salvdore Dali in 18k gold with ruby nails and emerald.

Lecture Series Adds to the Cultural Experience

For those who have a passion for art history and enjoy learning about the origins of rare antiques, the show’s lecture series is sure to be a big hit, with well-known names in the world of art and antiques offering their views on a range of topics. This year’s speakers list is still being compiled as of this writing, and a complete lineup will be released soon.

Private Preview Party Benefits United Way of Palm Beach County

United Way of Palm Beach County has again been named as the beneficiary of a Private Preview Party at the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show, to be held at the Palm Beach County Convention Center on opening night, Friday February 17 from 6PM-10PM. Guests at the opening night event will have the first chance to view and purchase art and antiques from exhibitors before the show opens to the public.

Kris Charamonde, one of the co-founders of the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show, said he and his partners were happy that the United Way of Palm Beach County would benefit from the event. “The United Way does so many good things for so many people,” he stated, “it is an honor to be associated with them, and a privilege to be able to help such a wonderful organization.”

Charamonde added that he hopes others in the community will reach out to the United Way and provide the support it needs to forward its mission. “Those attending the Private Preview Party will benefit from the knowledge that they are helping a worthwhile organization in the United Way, while at the same time having the opportunity to be the first to visit with our exhibitors and view or purchase some rare items.”

For more information about the Preview Party, contact Chere Brodi at the United Way (561) 375-6600 or Judy Oppel at the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show (561) 822-5440.

For a complete list of exhibitors or other information, visit http://www.palmbeachshow.com.

EXPANDED BIOGRAPHIES FOR SELECTED ARTISTS

Samuel Colman (American, 1832- 1920)

Regatta Day, Seville

Oil on canvas

Signed lower left

26 1/4 x 39 inches

Framed – 36 x 48 1/2 inches

Provenance: Private Collection, San Francisco

Written by: Carl Eckhoff, Director of Research – Greenwich Gallery

In this romantic view of the Regatta Day, Seville, American landscape painter Samuel Colman has depicted a busy port scene enveloped by an atmospheric vapeur de l’air. The haze created by what art historians call a “view against the light,” illumination from behind by a low sun, at once unifies and romanticizes the setting. This pictorial technique reflects a seventeenth-century tradition made famous by the French master Claude Lorraine and, a generation before Colman, “the painter of light,” J.M.W. Turner.

Colman was one of the earliest American artists to paint the Spanish landscape. In Regatta Day, Seville, he chose to represent a prominent architectural monument on the banks of the Guadalquivir River. On the right is the Giralda, a twelfth-century mosque with a Renaissance bell chamber crowned by a bronze figure of Christian Faith. This building is a monuments to Seville’s glorious past and once-prominent status as a primary port for the Indies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the nineteenth century, such historical associations paralleled a growing American curiosity about the region. At the time of Colman’s arrival, however, Spanish trade centers had shifted from Seville to other ports such as Cadiz, perhaps lending to the wistfully reflective mood of the composition.

Colman’s interest in Spanish painting was perhaps sparked by a widespread American attraction to Spain’s past. Beginning in the early 1800s, Americans had become increasingly interested in the Spanish history of discovery, conquest, and colonization, which they saw as resembling their own historical legacy. The discoveries of Christopher Columbus, the paintings of Goya and Velazquez, and the prose of Cervantes, became popular elements of this nostalgic, cultural fascination.

When Colman traveled to the south of Spain, he sought new and exotic material for his compositions and found it in the Moorish towns and provincial settings. He filled numerous sketchbooks with drawings of sun-baked cliffs, port cityscapes, and architectural elements. Colman paved the way for other artists seeking firsthand experience of Spanish culture. Thomas Eakins and Mary Cassatt were among the many artists who later followed his lead.

In 1867, Henry Tuckerman wrote of Colman, “to the eye of refined taste, to the quite lover of nature, there is a peculiar charm in Colman’s style which, sooner or later, will be greatly appreciated.” Implicit in Tuckerman’s statement is his observation of a strong individualism in Colman’s style.

Samuel Colman was one of the most important figures in the American art world in the second half of the 19th century: a prolific painter of landscapes, much admired and collected; a traveler who presented a great variety of scenes in his production; and an active participant in American art politics. He was an academician of the National Academy of Design; and he was a founding member of several important artistic organizations, such as the American Water Color Society- he was its president for the first five years- The New York Etching Club, and the dissident Society of American Artists.

Colman was born and raised in Portland, Maine, and moved early in his life to New York City, where his father, a publisher and fine-art books dealer, introduced him to many of the leading artists and writers of the time. He studied with Asher B. Durand, a leader of the Hudson River School of painters, and by the time he was eighteen was exhibiting at the National Academy of Design and by age twenty-two was elected an Associate.

He and Thomas Moran are considered the two most important 19th-century painters to visit Arizona where Colman did panoramic views including the Grand Canyon (1882). They were some of the few Hudson River painters that ever went West. Colman first went to the West in 1871 and painted in Utah and Wyoming, and he also did numerous Oregon Trail depictions. One of his most noted is “Ships of the Plains,” 1872, now in the Union League Club in New York. In 1870, he painted Yosemite in Northern California, and in 1887-1888, visited Pasadena as a tourist.

With the younger painter, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Colman went to California in the summer of 1870; the result was a series of western scenes. Still eager to travel and to extend his repertoire, Colman went back to Europe with his wife (he had married in 1862) for an extended stay of four years. He visited Holland and France, and set up a studio for a while in Rome. In addition, he went on another trip to North Africa, visiting Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco. Colman did many sketches, both in pencil and watercolor, on this his second near eastern voyage; they furnished material for a number of paintings after he returned to America in the mid-summer of 1875.

Although he did not consider himself a Luminist in style, he manipulated light to create a glittery, silvery atmosphere, and others have called him a Luminist. Unlike his contemporary, Albert Bierstadt, he was not trying to create a sense of drama or of the grandiose; his works were sensitive and suggested quiet beauty.

As a painter Colman reached such a level of commercial success that he was able, in 1882-83, to have a house in Newport, Rhode Island, built by McKim, Meade and White, the architectural firm that built the houses of millionaires whose estates surrounded him. He continued to travel, both to the American Far West and to Europe. Before he died

he wrote two books on aesthetic theory: “Nature’s Harmonic Unity” and “Proportional Form.” He was also an etcher, art collector, an authority on oriental art and porcelains, and an interior designer, working with John La Farge and Louis Tiffany. He died in New York City in 1920.

Mary Cassatt (American 1844 – 1926)

Excerpt from The Dictionary of Art (Grove: Oxford, 1996)

Daughter of a Pittsburgh banker, Mary Cassatt received a cultured upbringing and spent five years abroad as a child (1851-5). In 1860, at the age of 16, she began classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and in 1866 sailed again for Europe. During the next four years she studied in Paris with Jean-Leon Gerome and Charles Chaplin, in Ecouen with Paul Soyer, in Villiers-le-Bel with Thomas Couture and in Rome with Charles Bellay. Cassatt also spent time painting and studying in the museums of Parma, Madrid, Seville, Antwerp and Rome, finally settling in Paris in 1874. Until 1878 she worked mainly as a portrait and genre painter, specializing in scenes of women in Parisian interiors. She exhibited regularly in the USA, particularly in Philadelphia, and had paintings accepted in the Paris Salons of 1868, 1870 and 1872-6. Cassatt’s study of Velazquez and Rubens, coupled with her interest in the modern masters Thomas Couture, Courbet and Degas, caused her to question the popular Salon masters of the 1870s and to develop her own increasingly innovative style. This led to rejection of some of her Salon entries in 1875 and 1877 but also prompted Degas to invite her to exhibit with the Impressionists. She made her debut with them at their fourth annual exhibition (1879), by which time she had mastered the Impressionist style and was accepted as a fully-fledged member by artists and critics alike. She went on to participate in the Impressionist exhibitions of 1880, 1881 and 1886.

In 1877, when her parents and older sister Lydia arrived to settle with her in Paris, she exchanged her youthful lifestyle, living alone in her studio, for a more family-orientated existence. Family members often figure in Cassatt’s Impressionist portraits and scenes of daily life during this period. Cassatt began to revise her Impressionist style in the 1880s, and after the last Impressionist exhibition (1886) she developed a refined draughtsmanship in her pastels, prints and oil paintings. After exhibiting with the new societe des Peintres-Graveurs in 1889 and 1890, she had her first individual exhibition of colour prints and paintings in 1891 at the Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris. Cassatt’s first major retrospective exhibition took place in 1895 at Durand-Ruel’s gallery in Paris and later moved to his New York gallery. Cassatt’s success in Europe and the USA was such that in 1894 she was able to purchase the Chateau de Beau-fresne in Le Mesnil-Theribus (c. 90 km north-west of Paris) from the sale of her work. Thereafter she alternated between Paris and the country, with a few months every winter in the south of France.

She increasingly concentrated on the mother-and-child theme and on studies of women and young girls, often turning to the Old Masters for inspiration. For this work she was recognized on both continents, and, in addition to receiving a number of awards, including the Legion d’honneur in 1904, she was called “the most eminent of all living American women painters” (Current Lit., 1909, p.167). She spent much of her time during these years helping her American friends build collections of avant-garde French art and works by Old Masters. Cassatt painted until 1915 and exhibited her latest work that year in the Sujfrage Loan Exhibition of Old Masters and Works by Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt at the Knoedler Gallery, New York; but soon afterwards cataracts in both eyes forced her into retirement. She continued to be actively interested in art, however, and until her death she vigorously expressed her own views and opinions to the many young artists who visited her seeking advice.

Cassatt’s own experimentation and her openness to new ideas caused her style to change many times during her long career. As a student and young artist, Cassatt avoided the academic emphasis on drawing and concentrated instead on painting techniques. But as her career progressed, particularly after 1879 when she took up pastels and printmaking, she developed a refined and original drawing style that blended European and oriental effects.

Cassatt’s pastels are recognized as one of the most important aspects of her oeuvre. Although she used pastel as a sketching tool from the first, after joining the Impressionist circle she began to produce major finished works in this medium. Pastel became increasingly popular in both Europe and the USA in the 1870s and 1880s, and Cassatt was one of the first to exploit the properties of pastel in conveying the vibrancy of ‘modern’ life. As in oil, she tailored her application of the pastel pigment to fit her changing style: exuberant strokes and rich colours during her Impressionist phase gave way to a calmer, more monumental style as she matured. In the 1890s she returned often to the study of pastel techniques of 18th-century masters, particularly Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. In the late 1880s Cassatt began to specialize in the mother-and-child theme. This developed from her interest in the monumental figure and the depiction of modem life and was also in tune with late 19th-century Symbolism. She soon became identified with the theme and continues to be considered one of its greatest interpreters.

Andrew Wyeth (1917 – )

Andrew Wyeth was born July 12, 1917 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of five children. Andrew was a sickly child and so his mother and father made the decision to pull him out of school after he contracted whooping cough. His parents home-schooled him in every subject including art education.

Newell Convers Wyeth (Andrew’s father) was a well known illustrator whose art was featured in many magazines, calendars, posters and murals. He even painted maps for the National Geographic Society.

Painting Style

Andrew had a vivid memory and fantastic imagination that led to a great fascination for art. His father recognized an obvious raw talent that had to be nurtured. While his father was teaching him the basics of traditional academic drawing Andrew began painting watercolor studies of the rocky coast and the sea in Port Clyde Maine.

He worked primarily in watercolors and egg tempera and often used shades of brown and grey. He held his first one-man show of watercolors painted around the family’s summer home at Port Clyde, Maine in 1937. It was a great success that would lead to plenty more.

He married at the age of twenty-two to a local girl named Betsey James and had two boys, Nicholas who became an art dealer, and James who became the third generation artist in his family. Interestingly, although James’ father was the most popular artist in his family history, he was greatly inspired by his grandfather’s illustrations.

He was featured on the cover of American Artist as well as many other famous magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post that displayed his painting “The Hunter.” His first solo museum exhibition was presented in 1951 at the Farnsworth Art Museum. Since then he has seen many more successes and is considered one of the most “collectable” living artist’s of our time.

“With watercolor, you can pick up the atmosphere, the temperature, the sound of snow shifting through the trees or over the ice of a small pond or against a windowpane. Watercolor perfectly expresses the free side of my nature.” – Andrew Wyeth

Museum Collections

Wyeth’s first solo exhibition in 1937 at the Macbeth Gallery in New York was a sell out show! This was the beginning of an impressive career of exhibitions and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1964 The Farnsworth museum in Rockland, Maine paid sixty-five thousand dollars for a painting entitled “Her Room.” At that time this was more money than any gallery had ever paid for the work of any living artist. Andrew Wyeth paintings have been displayed at the National Gallery of Art where no living artist had ever had an exhibit.

Today Andrew Wyeth prints inspire people everywhere as his colorful career has not seen an end. He is eighty-three years of age and still manages to come up with works of art that inspire and excite the art community.

Andrew Wyeth’s work is held by museums and private collections around the world.

The Joslyn Art Museum located in Omaha, Nebraska features works from three generations of artists in the Wyeth family. It carries the following Wyeth artworks;

Andrew Wyeth watercolour entitled Half Bushel painted in 1959.

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945)

Newell Convers Wyeth was born on October 22, 1882 in Needham, Massachusetts. Growing up on a farm near Walden Pond, Wyeth developed a love of nature, and he became interested at a young age in romantic literature and painting.

Wyeth’s mother nurtured his artistic talent and encouraged him to pursue it. His father took a more practical approach and urged young Wyeth to use his talent for drafting rather than painting. He began his studies in drafting at the Mechanic Arts High School and also attended the Massachusetts Normal Art School and the Eric Pape School in Boston, where he eventually took all art courses.

By 1902, when he was accepted to the Howard Pyle School of Art in Wilmington, Delaware, Wyeth had studied under several masters, including Charles W. Reed. Leaving his home in Massachusetts, the he moved to Delaware and quickly became enamored of the Brandywine Valley countryside which he would later make his home.

Having grown up on a farm, Wyeth had an affinity for the West and an appreciation of its rustic beauty. He was intrigued by the “rough and tumble” lifestyle of the West and in fact, his first published illustration, that of a bronco buster, appeared in February 1903 on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

Howard Pyle felt that to depict the West accurately in his art, Wyeth had to experience it firsthand. After The Saturday Evening Post cover was published, Pyle encouraged Wyeth to take a trip to the West to strengthen his Western art. The publishing house of Charles Scribner’s Sons sponsored Wyeth’s Western trips in 1904 and 1906. As a result of his forays into Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, Wyeth produced several illustrations for Scribner’s.

On April 16, 1906, N.C. Wyeth married Carolyn Bockius of Wilmington, Delaware. The couple moved to the countryside of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where Wyeth attended Howard Pyle’s summer school. In 1911, N.C. Wyeth completed his first major commission for Scribner’s: the illustrations for Treasure Island.

After the Treasure Island series, Wyeth went on to illustrate many other popular novels, including Kidnapped, Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe, The Boy’s King Arthur and The Last of the Mohicans. He also illustrated many volumes for Houghton Mifflin, David McCay, and Little Brown and did serial cover illustrations for magazines such as McClure’s and Scribner’s. N.C. Wyeth became disenchanted with illustration after completing The Last of the Mohicans. He had always been interested in landscape and still-life painting, and when he stopped illustrating professionally, he began to focus on these two types of art.

In the 1930s, Wyeth began painting large-scale murals. In 1939, he began a series of murals for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The paintings were based on American pilgrim life and how it related to his ancestry. Unfortunately, he never completed the murals. In October 1945, Wyeth and his grandson were killed in a tragic car accident near his home in Chadds Ford. Wyeth’s son Andrew and his son-in-law John McCoy finished what became N.C. Wyeth’s last work.

N.C. Wyeth was a member of the National Academy, the Society of Illustrators, the Philadelphia Water Color Club, the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Chester County Art Association and the Wilmington Society of Fine Arts. In June of 1945, he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College.

Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839 – 1924).

Daniel Ridgway Knight’s works represent so many aspects of Nineteenth Century painting, including history, genre, landscape, portrait, and floral themes. In each work, all that is aesthetic is recorded with fine detail and skill.

In order to faithfully record the scenery, Knight studied the different phases of the day and their effects on the environment. Knight built a glass studio outside of his home, enabling him to paint outdoors, even in the dead of winter. Whether he was concentrating on the evening with the glow of moonlight upon the Seine River or on a young woman in a brightly colored flower garden at midday, each scene is depicted with great detail and with specific attention to a realistic portrayal of the landscape.

Daniel Ridgway Knight was born on March 15,1839 in Pennsylvania. He studied and exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, were he was a classmate of Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins. In 1861, he went to Paris to study at l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Cabanel, and to apprentice in the atelier of Charles-Gabriel-Gleyre.

He returned to Philadelphia in 1863 to serve in the Union Army. During the war, Knight practiced sketching facial expressions and capturing human emotion in his work. He sketched battle scenes, recording the war for history. He founded the Philadelphia Sketch Club, where he showed works that dealt with the Civil War, mythology, and scenes from opera. In 1871 Knight married Rebecca Morris Webster and after the wedding he began working as a portrait painter in order to make enough money to return to France.

In 1872, once settled in France, Knight befriended Renoir, Sisley, and Wordsworth, all of whose influences can be seen in his work. He also enjoyed a close relationship with Meissonier. In 1875 he painted a painting called Wash Day (35 ½” x 51 ¼”) after a sketch by Meissonier for which he received critical acclaim. Knight was also strongly affected by the works of Jean-Francois Millet. In 1874 while painting in Barbizon, Knight went to visit Millet and found his view of peasant life to be too fatalistic. As opposed to Millet, Knight focused on depicting the rural classes during their happier moments. Other important influences were Bastien-Lepage, with whom he is most often compared, and Jules Breton for his plein-air style.

Knight’s works during the 1870’s and 1880’s focused on the peasant at work in the field’s or doing the day’s chores – collecting water or washing clothes at the riverside. His painting Hailing the Ferry, painted in 1888 and currently in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, depicts two peasant girls calling for the ferryman on the other side of the river. This work, considered one of the artist’s masterpieces, captures all the elements of his pre-Rolleboise period – the subdued light and color, the finely detailed figures and the artist’s acute attention to detail.

By the late 1890’s, Knight established a home in Rolleboise, some forty miles west of Paris. Here he began to paint the scenes that were to make his work so sought after by contemporary collectors – views of his garden. His home had a beautiful garden terrace that overlooked the Seine – a view he often used in his paintings. Collectors from across the globe vied for these works, which featured pretty local girls in his garden. Works from this period include The Roses currently in the collection of the J.B. Speed Museum and The Letter in the Joslyn Art Museum – both of which feature pretty young women surrounded by lush flora.

Knight received a third class medal at the Salon in 188 8 for Hailing the Ferry and a Gold Medal at the Munich Exhibition that same year. In 1889 he was awarded a Silver Medal at the Paris Exposition and was knighted in the Legion of Honor, becoming an officer in 1914. In 1896 he received the Grand Medal of Honor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Daniel R. Knight died in Paris on March 9, 1924.

HOVSEP PUSHMAN (1877-1966)

By the time Hovsep Pushman opened his own studio in New York in 1921 he was devoted to one subject, oriental mysticism. These paintings typically featured oriental idols, pottery and glassware and were imbued with symbolism and spirituality. Often times they were accompanied by readings, which helped to explain their allegorical significance. It has been stated that “always there is age-old wisdom and symbolism of oriental culture in his pictures. Each object in the composition has its own inevitable place, its own special meaning which, blended with the whole, creates one single impression of great spiritual quality and of eternal beauty. Nothing could possibly be subtracted from any of his paintings; nothing added.” Pushman was not an artist who looked to others for inspiration, with the exception of Chardin. Like Chardin’s paintings there is a musical quality in Pushman’s harmonious use of color, form, composition and brushwork.

Pushman, who was born in Armenia, later became a naturalized American citizen. He began his artistic career at an early age when he went to the Constantinople Academy of Art on a scholarship at the age of 11. By the time he was 17, Pushman had come to the United States and began teaching art in Chicago. He also studied in Paris with Lefebvre, Robert-Fleury and Dechenaud. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris, winning a bronze medal in 1914 and silver in 1921. He was also awarded the California Art Club’s Ackerman Prize in 1918. Pushman had annual exhibitions at Grand Central Art Galleries beginning in the late 1920’s and continuing until his death in 1966. His exhibitions always proved to be a significant event and gained him great notoriety with the public, in fact at his 1932 solo exhibition, his sixteen paintings were sold by the end of opening day, one of which was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Excerpt from April 15, 1941 Chicago Sunday Tribune article “Pushman’s 1941 Exhibit to Open Tuesday” by Edith Weigle.

Paul Désiré Trouillebert (French, 1829-1900)

Trouillebert was born in Paris in 1829. In addition to being a landscapist, he also painted portraits and nudes. The great influence of Corot is very much evident in his works. In fact, Trouillebert first came into the limelight when one of his paintings was sold to Alexandre Dumas’s son as a work by Corot. The younger Dumas was misled by the similarities of composition and style of the two painters techniques.

After studying with Jallabert and d’Herbert, Trouillebert made his Salon debut in 1865 and exhibited his first landscape in 1869. He continued to enter paintings for many years thereafter. Despite the many comparisons made to Corot’s work, Trouillebert was an artist of great talent whose landscapes, bathed in a soft light achieved by the use of delicate tonal values, were sought after across Europe and America during his lifetime.

In Le Pecheur et le Bateau, Trouillebert shows his adeptness at the use of subtly varying tonal values to create soft shifts in light and atmosphere and distinctions between image and reflection. At right, a fisherman emerges from shadowed trees into the sunlight along a river’s edge. The white highlights of his fishing pole, cap and shirt stand out against the dark foliage behind him and are repeated in the white bark of three young birch trees that stand along the river in the sun. He looks down toward his boat, tied to a steak on the bank of the river. The lush greenery and white flowers along the bank are reflected in tones of green and umber in the smooth water. Green tones shift to silver and gray as the river recedes into the distance at the left of the composition, revealing Trouillebert’s sensitivity to natural effects.

Museum collections include: Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Chateau Museum, Dieppe, France; Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; Hickory Museum of Art, NC; the Musées des Beaux-Arts of Puy, Mulhouse, Nice, Reims, and Saumur.

Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954)

Matisse is regarded by many art historians as the most important French painter of the 20th century. The leader of the Fauvist movement around 1900, Matisse pursued the expressiveness of color throughout his career. His subjects were largely domestic or figurative, and a distinct Mediterranean verve presides in the treatment.

The art of our century has been dominated by two men: Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. They are artists of classical greatness, and their visionary forays into new art have changed our understanding of the world. Matisse was the elder of the two, but he was a slower and more methodical man by temperament and it was Picasso who initially made the greater splash.

Matisse, like Raphael, was a born leader and taught and encouraged other painters, while Picasso, like Michelangelo, inhibited them with his power: he was a natural czar.

Matisse’s artistic career was long and varied, covering many different styles of painting from Impressionism to near Abstraction. Early on in his career Matisse was viewed as a Fauvist, and his celebration of bright colors reached its peak in 1917 when he began to spend time on the French Riviera at Nice and Vence. Here he concentrated on reflecting the sensual color of his surroundings and completed some of his most exciting paintings.

In 1941 Matisse was diagnosed as having duodenal cancer and was permanently confined to a wheelchair. It was in this condition that he completed the magnificent Chapel of the Rosary in Vence. Matisse began working on this four-year project in the late 1940s. In 1941, he had undergone an operation, and he wanted to thank the nuns who took care of him during his convalescence.

The chapel is small and modest, embracing light as its main and purest feature. All the art forms in the building — drawing, sculpture and architecture — were subordinated to a spiritual opening through stained glass to the light outside. His chief aim “was to balance a surface of light and color against a solid wall with black drawing on a white background.” He used paper cutout maquettes for the windows and vestments according to the notion that this material was “form filtered to its essentials.” The simplicity characteristic of this chapel, mixed with the profound emotion with which Matisse viewed its creation, made the building his masterpiece. Both in philosophy and craftsmanship, Matisse saw the chapel as his “revelation.”

Matisse’s art has an astonishing force and lives by innate right in a paradise world into which Matisse draws all his viewers. He gravitated to the beautiful and produced some of the most powerful beauty ever painted. He was a man of anxious temperament, just as Picasso, who saw him as his only rival, was a man of peasant fears, well concealed. Both artists, in their own fashion, dealt with these disturbances through the sublimation of painting: Picasso destroyed his fear of women in his art, while Matisse coaxed his nervous tension into serenity. He spoke of his art as being like “a good armchair”– a ludicrously inept comparison for such a brilliant man– but his art was a respite, a reprieve, a comfort to him.

Matisse initially became famous as the King of the Fauves, an inappropriate name for this gentlemanly intellectual: there was no wildness in him, though there was much passion. He is an awesomely controlled artist, and his spirit, his mind, always had the upper hand over the “beast” of Fauvism.

“Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better. “

– Henri Matisse

Joseph Caraud (1821 – 1905)

Early in his career Joseph Caraud was inspired, like many other artists, by Italy and Algeria, basing his early Salon entries on his experience in these countries. But as his career progressed he became more interested in anecdotal, genre scenes in which elegant women in their luxurious clothing with sumptuous patterning recalled the eighteenth-century style and rendering of details found in paintings by Fragonard, Greuze, and Watteau.

Joseph Caraud was born on January 5th, 1821 in Cluny, in the Saône-et-Loire region of France. Even before he began his artistic training at the École des Beaux-Arts, he exhibited his first work at the Salon of 1843: La Bonne Maman et La Petite Fille (The Good Mother and the Little Girl) and Portrait de M.G. (Portrait of M.G.). In October of the following year he entered the École des Beaux-Arts ateliers of Alexandre Abel de Pujol, a former student of Jacques-Louis David, and Charles-Louis Lucien Muller, a historical and religious scene painter, in Paris, both of whom influenced his early work at the Salons. From 1843 to 1846, he submitted several portraits to the Salon, perhaps to earn money for a trip to Italy since starting in 1848 he began submitting imagery based on Italian themes. As both of his masters were also portrait painters, he was first introduced to portraiture while he studied with these artists. His first work based on Italian life was his entry for 1848 entitled Jeune Fille Italienne à la Fontaine (Young Italian Girl at the Fountain) and Italien Offrant un Bijou à une Jeune Fille (An Italian Offering Jewelry to a Young Girl). After absorbing the influence of Italian life, he traveled to Algeria, exhibiting at the Salon of 1853 Intérieur d’une Maison Maure à Alger (Interior of a Moorish House in Algiers) and Femme d’Alger Agaçant une Perruche (Algerian Woman Irritating a Parakeet), and Baigneuses Mauresques (Moorish Bathers) thereby maintaining the romantic interest in such themes largely initiated earlier by Eugène Delacroix.

These two journeys, when examined together, interestingly reveal that during his early period Caraud was influenced by several elements. On one hand he traveled to Italy, perhaps under the influence of his École des Beaux-Arts teacher Abel de Pujol – who was interested in mythological and biblical scenes – since Italy was still where many artists went to study the old Italian masters and learn about landscape painting. The Prix de Rome given by the Académie continued to encourage students to seek out this country for artistic inspiration. Additionally, he went to Algeria, thus linking himself with Orientalism, or the craze for everything “oriental”. As France became more interested in establishing herself as a colonial power it encouraged artists to travel to North Africa. Here artists would find an entirely new environment and culture, and many would remain consistent painters of this theme throughout their career.

While Caraud initially dabbled in many other sources of inspiration, it is clear that by the Salon of 1857 he had left Italy and Algeria behind him and had started working more on the scenes for which he would be remembered – historical and anecdotal paintings heavily influenced by the period of Louis XV and the life of Marie Antoinette. In 1857 he exhibited La Reine Marie-Antoinette au Petit-Trianon (Queen Marie Antoinette at the Petit Trianon), among others, showing a scene directly inspired by this historical period. He received his first medal, third-class, at the salon of 1859 when he exhibited Representation d’Athalie devant le Roi Louis XIV par les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr (Representation of Athalie before King Louis XIV by the Young Girls of Saint-Cyr), among two others, and received another medal, this time a second-clas s award, in 1861 for works which included those based on religious activities.

His works, reminiscent of the eighteenth century themes and style, are in sharp contrast to the prevailing sense of Realism imbued in many works of this period in France which sought to document daily life in the country. These Realists artists based their compositions around a dark palette and did not shy away from depicting even the gloomiest scenes of Parisian existence. For Caraud, his decadent images focus on the pomp of the upper bourgeoisie, rendering each detail in a precise fashion, taking great care to picture the fabrics worn by his subjects, a preoccupation that stems from earlier masters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was written of this work that, “He marvelously renders the dress, furniture, looks and types. All of his powdered, musk-scented, and ribboned subjects seem to come out of the Trianon.” (Annales de l’Académie de Mâcon, 1881, quoted in Le Base Joconde) Caraud may have also been influenced by the Realists, but until more of his work is brought to light, further exploration of his themes remains conjectural.

In spite of any possibility of his work on Realist themes, he still became best known for anecdotal scenes based on the eighteenth century. These themes resonated with both Salon juries and the public. The demand for his images became so great that they would later be reproduced as engravings for dissemination among the masses, so that each person, who wanted one, could have a Caraud hanging in their home. His interest in the beautiful woman is similar to his contemporary James Tissot, who, early in his career painted fashionable women in historical costume pieces. Philip Hook (Popular 19th Century Genre Painters: a dictionary of European Genre Painting, Woodbridge: Antique Collector’s Club, 1986, pg. 295) wrote that:

The eighteenth century assumed an almost mythic significance for bourgeois Europe of a hundred years later…The artist G.A. Storey claimed ‘There can be no doubt that want of taste in dress and other surrounding often obliges the artist to present his fancies in the costumes of periods when articles of clothing were in themselves works of art, instead of in the shifting fashions of the day that in a year or two not only look out of date, but stand forth in all their native ugliness and vulgarity.’

In 1867 he was given France’s highest honor and named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. He also participated in the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris where he earned a bronze medal. Caraud continued his involvement in the Parisian Salons and exhibitions until 1902 when he exhibited Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden) for his final showing. He died in 1905 – the exact date is unknown.

In his work inspired by eighteenth century genre scenes, Caraud found a sympathetic audience and became a very ”in-demand” artist attested to by the fact that many of his most popular paintings were widely reproduced to meet public anticipation. But more of his work will need to be brought to light before a fuller assessment of the possible diversity of his oeuvre can take place. Nevertheless, his placement in the annals of nineteenth century anecdotal painting is assured.    

Much of his work is in private collections but can also be found in the following museums: Musée Ochier à Cluny – Portrait de Madame Fauconnier (Portrait of Madame Fauconnier); Musée de Tessé in Le Mans – Jeune Fille Tricotant (Young Girl Knitting); Musée des Ursulines in Macon – La Lettre (The Letter); and the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi – The Letter.

Eugène-Louis Boudin (1824-1898)

Eugène-Louis Boudin, French painter, was born in Honfleur, the son of a harbor pilot. In 1835, he settled in Le Havre, where he was apprenticed to a printer. In 1838, he started to work in an art supplies store and drew in his spare time. Paintings by Couture, Millet, Troyon and other artists who visited the city were exhibited in the store. They gave young Boudin valuable help and advice. Soon he gave up the store, to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to painting. In 1847-48, he traveled to Paris, visited northern France. In 1850, he exhibited two pictures in Le Havre, after which the town granted him a three-year scholarship to study in Paris (1851-1853).

Boudin first exhibited at the 1859 Salon and then at the 1863 Salon des Refusés. After his return to Le Havre he spent many summers on the farm of Saint Siméon, in the environs of Honfleur. He traveled widely in Normandy and Brittany, and visited Holland, Belgium and Venice. Wherever he went, he invariably painted harbor and beach scenes. In the 1850s, Boudin met Claude Monet and did much to help the young painter find his true artistic self. In the 1860s he frequently saw Edouard Manet and worked with him in Boulogne and Deauville.

In the 1870s, the Impressionists, in their turn, began to exert an influence on Boudin. His land- and seascapes of that period are filled with a constantly changing iridescent light; his palette grows lighter and the brushstrokes assume the aspect of soft, blurred patches of color. In 1874, Boudin took part in the 1st Impressionist Exhibition. He also frequently exhibited with the Impressionists later. His pictures of the sea made him one of the precursors of the Impressionists.

Source: Eugиne Boudin, 1824-1898 by Eugиne Boudin. Editions Anthèse, 1992.

William Merritt Chase (1849 – 1916)

In his early career, Chase was hailed as a genius bound to transform American art upon his return from his training in Munich in the 1870s. But by 1885, critics were assailing Chase’s work as too closely aligned with Munich style and lacking truly American subjects. The artist was also working at a time of heightened attention to declining morals among city dwellers. His audience demanded art that reinforced its nationalist sentiments and desire to preserve social order.

Chase answered his critics by appropriating the French avant-garde concept of the flâneur, or the detached observer of modern life, and applying this method to American urban landscapes. He chose as his subjects the parks and harbors of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Chase deliberately focused on this subject matter with the aim of underscoring the civility of modern American culture.

MAGNIFICENT EMERALD AND DIAMOND RING / RUSSIAN CIRCA 1800

Given to a Russian nobleman as a present from Czar of Russia, Alexander 1st , in Erfurt.

( as written in the original letters )

The square step-cut emerald framed by a closed back yellow gold leaf and flower motif set with rose-cut diamonds, surrounded by 16 old mine-cut diamonds and a second line of rose-cut diamonds.

The mounting is in silver and 14K gold (typical in the Russian work at the time), set as well with rose-cut diamonds and reproducing the leaf and flower motif.

The emerald weighs 5.84 carat and is of Colombian origin.

The 16 diamonds weigh circa 5.50 carat.

The ring is in the original fitted box.

Length : 32mm                 width : 20mm                 height : 24mm                 size : 14 / 54

Historical background

When Bonaparte is appointed first French consul, conflict with England is close, which brings him to search alliance with Russia. He lost no time to establish bond of friendship with Czar Paul 1st. However, on 11 March 1801, Czar of Russia, Paul 1st is assassinated at “ château Saint Michel”. His son, Alexander 1st is crowned Emperor the next day. He sincerely intends to devote himself to the public good and suggests England to re-establish harmony and understanding between Russian and Great Britain. Being a wise diplomat he subtracts himself to the agreement of an alliance with France, confined himself to sign a peace treaty.

At the end of 1803, worried about Napoleon’s success, Alexander feels he is obliged to take the command of the anti-French coalition which is in preparation. On 2 December 1804, Napoleon is crowned Emperor of France. In Autumn 1805, the third coalition decides to put an end to the arbitrary of Bonaparte, but the Austro-Russian army sustains a considerable defeat in Austerlitz.

The Prussia Russian army sets up the hard core of the fourth coalition. Nonetheless, Napoleon will beat the Prussians at Iena and Auerstadt and will enter Berlin on 27 October 1805. His army stands before the doors of Russia. Alexander has no choice, he convinces Napoleon to agree on a new alliance.

The famous encounter of the two emperors will conclude to the peace Treaty of Tilsit, for which consequence will lead Russia to follow into the wake of France’s politics. Having concluded an unpopular peace, however necessary, Alexander makes every effort to get all the possible profit from it. Each party needs to watch over vigilantly to the respect of the mutual agreements, which are always susceptible of being transgressed. It is in this context that Napoleon insists to obtain a new meeting with Alexander, which will take place in Erfurt in Autumn 1808. A series of conferences will lead to the signing of the Erfurt Convention, consolidation of the Franco-Russian alliance. This will be there last meeting. Five years after the Tilsit agreement, France and Russia will confront each other again.

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