Beschreibung:

Ernest Lawson American, 1873-1939 Rocky Coast, Nova Scotia, circa 1919 Signed E. Lawson (lr) Oil on canvas laid to masonite 16 x 20 inches Provenance: Hirschl & Adler Galleries Inc., New York, no. 2669 Chapellier Galleries Inc., New York ACA Galleries, New York John H. Surevek, Palm Beach, Florida Private collection, Wilkes-Barre, PA Hammer Galleries, New York, January 18, 1993, no. C24574-1 Private collection, Washington, D.C. Although Ernest Lawson avowed that he was American born, he was in fact born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Always highly regarded as a native son in Canada, Lawson returned there on a number of occasions. In June 1919, he visited Halifax, where the Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts proposed mounting an exhibition of his work. A surviving list on a sheet of Daniel Gallery notepaper identified eighteen works planned for exhibition, priced by size. [Berry Hill, Henry and Sidney, Ernest Lawson American Impressionist, 1873-1939. Leigh-on-Sea, England: F. Lewis Publishers, Ltd., 1968, p. 35] In the summer of 1924, Ernest Lawson returned to Canada to undertake a sketching trip in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He was accompanied on parts of this trip by his friend, Henry Rosenberg, former principal of the Victoria School of Art and Design. It is possible that the present work may have been painted in the course of this visit. In 1928, while teaching at the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs, Lawson again returned to Nova Scotia for his mother's funeral. He subsequently organized an exhibition at the Colorado Art Academy of twenty-four works, including at least two Canadian subjects: Peggy's Cove, and Nova Scotia Coast. The latter painting, identical in size to the present work, was priced at $350 on a handwritten list that is reproduced in Ernest Lawson American Impressionist. [Ibid, p. 42] Interestingly, the first work by Lawson purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - acquired in 1935 - was entitled Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. However, it is not clear whether this was one of the works exhibited at the Colorado Art Academy. Frank Goodyear, Jr. described the work as "typical of Lawson's landscape vision. Almost always Lawson's compositions are strongly structured and his forms solidly outlined. He rarely allowed his penchant for traditional realism to be negated by the looseness of the Impressionist style. Even in his many winter landscapes, Lawson never lost sight of form and structure." [Frank Goodyear, Jr., "The Eight," In this Academy: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 1805-1976. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1976] Nova Scotia Coast shares those same characteristics, its rocky terrain rendered with vigorous brushstrokes and its boulders boldly delineated in black. A scene that could easily have been painted with a more limited palette, it is instead described with the lush colors that inspired the art critic James Huneker to praise Lawson as the painter "of the Crushed Jewels." [Frederic Newlin Price, "Lawson of the Crushed Jewels," International Studio, 321, February 1924, pp. 367-70] Estate of a Washington, D.C. Philanthropist
Cracquelure in sky. Canvas appears to have been trimmed and secured to secondary support. 1/4 inch areas of inpaint at intervals of approximately two to three inches at edges of canvas. Not examined entirely out of metal strip frame. Wax residue visible from rear when backing removed.