WILLARD LEROY METCALF
American (Connecticut) 1858-1925
Pastel on paper, signed W. L. Metcalf, and dated 1919 lower right
(Purportedly painted at Woodbury, Connecticut)
Provenance: by descent, three generations in a Canadian family collection
Museums: 55, including The Metropolitan Museum; The Smithsonian, National Gallery and Freer; Boston Museum;
Florence Griswold Museum; Musée d'Art Américain Giverny; The White House
Books: 175, including, May Night: Willard Metcalf at Old Lyme, Chambers; Willard Metcalf: Yankee Impressionist.
Boyle; Sunlight and Shadow: Willard Metcalf, Life and Work, Devere;
Willard Leroy Metcalf: A Retrospective, Murphy; The Ten, Patricia Pierce
Willard Metcalf was one of the most important Impressionist landscape painters and members of "The Ten" – an early
20th century group of Boston and New York painters committed to impressionism, with whom he exhibited until 1897.
He became known as the "quintessential painter of New England landscapes", his style fusing the best of French impressionism,
gleaned from the Academy Julian, with the American spirit of realism. His short curved brushstrokes, strong composition and
clear colors depicted the New England landscapes with an enigmatic soft but powerful combination.
In 1919, Metcalf painted his second version of "Maytime", the painting achieving both the second and third places among
his auction records. "Maytime" (1919) was purportedly painted near Woodbury, CT. The offered pastel is a sketchbook
depictionof the same scene from a slightly different vantage point, signed and also dated 1919, lower right. The provenance is
with a Canadian family, for three generations.
Metcalf's works are represented in museums throughout America, as well as The White House
and the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny in France.
SOLD
For related works on paper, please click below:
Thomas P. Anshutz |
Birth place: Lowell, MA
Death place: NYC
Addresses: Boston, MA; Old Lyme, CT, 1905-07; Northwestern CT, periodically, 1910-25; NYC
Profession: Landscape painter, teacher, illustrator
Studied: Massachusetts Normal Art School, 1874; apprenticed to Geo. L. Brown, plus life classes at Lowell Institute, both in Boston, 1875; Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, 1876-79 (scholarship); Academie Julian, Paris with G. Boulanger & J.J. Lefebvre, 1883-89.
Exhibited: Boston Art Club, 1879-89; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art Annual, 1883, 1893-1919, 1924 (gold medal, 1907, 1912); Paris Salon, 1888 (prize); St. Botolph Club, 1889 (solo), 1906; Columbian Expo, Chicago, 1893 (medal; Society of American Artists, 1896 (prize); Ten American Painters, annually, 1898-1919; Paris Expo, 1900 (prize); Pan-American Expo, Buffalo, 1901 (medal); St. Louis Expo, 1904 (medal); Fishel, Adler & Schwartz Gallery, NYC, 1905 (solo); Montross Gallery, 1910, 1911; Corcoran Gallery biennials, 1907-23 (10 times, including gold medal, 1907); Corcoran Gallery, 1925 (solo); Art Institute of Chicago, 1910 (silver medal); Buenos Aires Expo, 1910 (gold medal); Montross Gallery, NYC 1910 (solo); Newport Art Association, 1912 (inaugural); Milch Gallery, NYC, 1925 (memorial); Spanierman Gallery, NYC, 1996 (retrospective); Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 1999
Member: refused membership in National Academy of Design; American Watercolor Society; Ten American Painters (a founder); National Institute of Arts & Letters; League American Artists; Players Club, NYC; Century Association; American Academy of Arts & Letters
Work: Corcoran Gallery of Art; Cincinnati Museum; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Worcester (MA) Art Museum; National Gallery; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art; Detroit Art Institute; Art Institute of Chicago; Rhode Island School of Design; Freer Gallery, Washington, DC; Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; Brooklyn Museum; Hackley Art Gallery, Muskegon, MI; Carnegie Institute; St. Louis Museum; Rochester Memorial Museum; Albright Gallery, Buffalo; New Orleans Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Britain (CT) Museum of Art; Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.
Comments: One of the most important Impressionist landscape painters and member of "The Ten." His career as an illustrator lasted from 1880-1902, including an important commission from Century magazine in 1881-82 depicting the Zuni Indians. He then studied in Paris, and painted landscapes at Grez near Barbizon, at Pont-Aven, Brittany, and at Giverny, Normandy. He also painted at East Anglia, England, and in Algeria and Tunisia (1887). He returned to Boston in 1888, then moved to NYC in 1890. In 1903 he exhibited with "The Ten," and made the first of many trips to the colony at Old Lyme (CT). He received great acclaim for landscapes painted at Old Lyme, and winter scenes at the Cornish (NH) colony (from 1909-on). He made a return visit to Paris in 1913, then on to Norway, Italy, and England, but returned in 1914 due to WWI. From 1920-24, he painted all over New England, including Cornish (NH), Chester (VT), Kennebunkport (ME), and Falls Village (CT). He taught at Cooper Union and the ASL. Signature note: From the 1870s-c.83, he signed as "W. L. Metcalf" in upper/lower case with flourishes. Although he continued to occasionally sign this way, from the mid 1880s he signed more simply in block letters; and sometimes signed with his monogram, an "M" within a circle.
Sources: WW24; P&H Samuels, 322; E. DeVeer, "Willard Metcalf in Cornish, New Hampshire," Antiques (Nov. 1984, p.1208); Eldredge, et al., Art in New Mexico, 1900-45, 203; Connecticut and American Impressionism 167-68 (w/repro.); Richard Boyle & E. DeVeer, Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard Metcalf (Abbeville, NY, 1988); Barbara J. MacAdam, Winter's Promise: Willard Metcalf in Cornish, New Hampshire, 1909-1920 (exh. cat., Hanover, NH: Hood Mus. of A., Dartmouth College, 1999); Falk, Exh. Record Series.
This biography is drawn from the 'Who Was Who in American Art’, the reference book on the cultural life in the United States.
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Museums: 55
Addison Gallery of American Art Akron Art Museum Ball State University Museum of Art Bush-Holley Historic Museum Butler Institute of American Art Chrysler Museum of Art Cornish Colony Museum Dallas Museum of Art De Young Museum Denver Art Museum Florence Griswold Museum Frederic Remington Art Museum Freer Gallery of Art Hood Museum of Art LaSalle University Art Museum Lauren Rogers Museum of Art Mead Art Museum Metropolitan Museum of Art Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Musée d'Art Américain Giverny Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts-Springfield Museum of New Mexico Muskegon Museum of Art National Gallery of Art New Britain Museum of American Art |
North Carolina Museum of Art Oklahoma City Museum of Art Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Rhode Island School of Design-Museum of Art Rochester Art Center Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College San Diego Museum of Art Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery Smith College Museum of Art Smithsonian American Art Museum Telfair Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art-Ohio The Columbus Museum-Georgia The Cummer Museum Of Art & Gardens The Currier Museum of Art The Detroit Institute of Arts The Hudson River Museum The Huntington Library & Gallery The Hyde Collection The Parrish Art Museum The University of Michigan Museum of Art The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts The White House University Of Kentucky Art Museum Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Yale University Art Gallery |
Books: 175 including all major indices and dictionaries, and the following monographs:
Chambers, Bruce W, May Night: Willard Metcalf at Old Lyme
Boyle, Richard; Bruce Chambers, Willard Metcalf: Yankee Impressionist
Spanierman, Ira (Intro), Willard Metcalf: Yankee Impressionist
MacAdam, Barbara J, Winter's Promise: Willard Metcalf In Cornish, New Hampshire
DeVere, Eliza/R J Boyle, Sunlight and Shadow: Willard Metcalf, Life and Work
Murphy, Francis, Willard Leroy Metcalf: A Retrospective
Pierce, Patricia Jobe, The Ten
American Art Review, 2006 October, The Florence Griswold House
Fine Art Connoisseur, 2006, March, Willard Metcalf: Winter's Promise
The Magazine Antiques, 2005 July. Willard Metcalf in the Southwest
American Art Review, 2005 March, Willard Metcalf at Old Lyme
American Art Review, 199 February, Willard Metcalf in Cornish
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