American Masterpieces from Dryads Green Gallery (Please Scroll Down--Catalogue is Alphabetical by Artist Last Name)

Artist Name:        Ernest Lawson       Artist Dates:        1873 - 1939       Painting Title:      Reflections of Spring Painting Date:      Undated, ca. 1911       Medium:             Oil on Canvas Signature:            Signed            Provenance:        Private Collection     Condition:           Very Good Size Unframed:    24 x 30    Frame Condition:  New  Artist Best Price:   $564,800 Offered At:          $49,000

Curator's Comments: We our pleased to have a Lawson back to offer, having sold  a view in the Colorado series focused on the Silver Dollar Mine at Cripple Creek, which we well remember and miss. Our new offering is early,  a view of the upper Bronx River, and impressive for its joyous tones that blend sky, riverbank, the stream and the meadow. Below we show two similar experiments with river reflections that continue Lawson"s study of this theme.  Lawson was born in Halifax, studied in France, but came under the influence of Twachtman at the Art Students League in New York in 1890. From 1893 to 1898, he was in France which included study in Paris at the Academy Julian* with Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant.  In Paris, he shared a studio with Somerset Maugham, who used him as the prototype for Frederic Lawson in his novel, Of Human Bondage.  Later the Weir brothers were another influence. By 1898, he had moved to the city’s Washington Heights section, where countryside and river views still dominated. Later, Lawson left New York, painting and traveling widely, until he settled in Florida at the close of his career. He participated in both the landmark exhibition of The Eight in 1908 and the Armory Show of 1913—but his work is unallied with either Ashcan Realism or the Surrealism to come. Impression remained his metier, and his support of The Eight is owing to a close friendship with Glackens.

Ernest Lawson, ca. 1920

We think of Lawson, along with Redfield and Schofield, as one of the three preeminent U.S. landscape artists of the first half of the 20th century. These painters achieved a breakthrough, going far beyond naturalism, tonalism, and even impressionism to create the unique mode of expression that we call art. Lawson’s imposto technique is layered onto the raw-side of the canvas, in what is clearly a very fine representation of what critic J.G. Huneker called coloration "made from crushed jewels." What is genuinely magical about the painting we offer is that it gleams a total pink-yellow-cobalt when illuminated by horizontal beams of daylight. Of course this impasto has led to condition problems with many Lawsons--and we have been searching for a work in the best condition possible. So we are pleased to quote a condition report on the current work preparered by the noted restorer Simon Parkes: "This painting is in perfect condition. The canvas has never been removed from its original stretcher. The paint layer is clean and is not only stable, but has not been retouched and unusually for a work by Lawson, has no disturbing cracking or distortion. The picture should be hung as is."

The Bronx River flows south from upper Westchester, past White Plains, then south-southwest through the northern suburbs, passing Edgemont, Tuckahoe, Eastchester, and Bronxville,  emptying into the East River. Lawson favored this area and further south the Harlem River that divides Manhattan and the Bronx.

River Landscape brought $60,000 in 2006

Red Rooftops also focuses on river reflection

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