Winter Watercolor Quiz
Can you match the artist to the art of each winter watercolor?
You may not think of some of these artists as watercolor artists but...
And all of these artists have watercolors in museums.
The artists in alphabetical order, with the paintings in random order below:
Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), American
Charles Demuth (1883-1935), American
Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921), American
Konstantin Kryzhitsky (1858-1911), Russian
Dodge MacKnight (1860-1950), American
John L. Pappas (1898-1976), American
Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), American
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Dutch
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Answers:
1) Abbott Handerson Thayer
2) Charles E. Burchfield
3) Vincent van Gogh
4) Fairfield Porter
5) Konstantin Kryzhitsky
6) Charles Demuth
7) John L. Pappas
8) Dodge MacKnight
The Full Answers and More, Fascinating:
1
Monadnock in Winter
Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921)
Watercolor on paper, 12" x 10" (w x h), 1912
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art,
Bentonville, Arkansas
Wiki edited:
Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921) was an New Hampshire artist, naturalist tand teacher. As a painter of portraits, figures, animals and landscapes, he enjoyed a certain prominence during his lifetime, and his paintings are represented in the major American art collections. He is perhaps best known for his angel paintings, some using his children as models.
During the last third of his life, he worked together with his son, Gerald Handerson Thayer, on a book about protective coloration in nature, titled Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom. First published by Macmillan in 1909, then reissued in 1918, it may have had an effect on military camouflage during World War I. Unfortunately, it was roundly mocked by Theodore Roosevelt and others for its assumption that all animal coloration is cryptic.
Thayer also influenced American art through his efforts as a teacher, training apprentices in his New Hampshire studio.
Read more fascinating biography notes about this noted New Hampshire artist at Wiki HERE.
2
Winter Sun
Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), American
Watercolor on paper, 20" x 14" (w x h), 1915
Burchfield Penney Archives
Wiki edited:
Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967) was an American painter and visionary artist, known for his passionate watercolors of nature scenes and town-scapes. The largest collection of Burchfield's paintings, archives and journals are in the collection of the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo. His paintings are in the collections of more than 109 museums in the USA and have been the subject of exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, as well as other prominent institutions.
3
Miners in the Snow: Winter
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Dutch
Transparent and opaque watercolor, pen in brown ink, on wove paper, 1882
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Wiki edited:
Van Gogh, in 1881 at 27-years-old, met Anton Mauve was the successful artist Van Gogh longed to be. Mauve took Van Gogh on as a student and introduced him to watercolor, which he worked on for the next month before returning home for Christmas.
In 1885 Van Gogh painted several groups of still lifes. During his two-year stay in Nuenen, he completed numerous drawings and watercolors and nearly 200 oil paintings. His palette consisted mainly of somber earth tones, particularly dark brown, and showed no sign of the vivid colors that distinguished his later work.
Van Gogh's time in Arles, 1888-1889, became one of Van Gogh's more prolific periods: he completed 200 paintings and more than 100 drawings and watercolors.
4
Landscape
Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), American
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 23" x 16" (w x h)
Farnsworth Art Museum and Painting Perceptions edited notes:
In a Fairfield Porter letter to Arthur Giardelli, written at Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, August 3, 1968 Porter said, "When I paint, I think that what would satisfy me is to express what Bonnard said Renoir told him: 'make everything more beautiful.' This partly means that a painting should contain a mystery, but not for mystery's sake: a mystery that is essential to reality."
Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) was an American painter and art critic. He was the fourth of five children of architect James Porter and Ruth Furness Porter, a poet from a literary family.
While a student at Harvard, Porter majored in fine arts; he continued his studies at the Art Students' League when he moved to New York City in 1928. His studies at the Art Students' League predisposed him to produce socially relevant art and, although the subjects would change, he continued to produce realist work for the rest of his career. He would be criticized and revered for continuing his representational style in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement.
5
Gathering Branches in Winter
Konstantin Kryzhitsky (1858-1911), Russian
Watercolor and gouache on paper, 19" x 14" (w x h), 1903
Christies 2012 British auction sold GBP 11,250 ($15,000)
Wiki edited:
Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky (1858-1911) was a Russian landscape painter and drawing teacher of Ukrainian-Polish descent. In 1877, he entered the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts. He completed his courses in 1884, receiving the title of Artist First-Class and a gold medal for his painting The Oaks. From 1884 to 1906, he taught drawing at the "Nikolaevsky Orphan Institute" in Gatchina.
In 1880, he became one of the first members of the Society of Russian Watercolorists.
In 1889, his painting "Forest Vista" was purchased by Tsar Alexander III and he was named an Academician. He visited France and Germany in the 1890s and exhibited at the Exposition Universelle (1900). That same year, he became a full member of the Academy. Later, he served as Chairman of an art society created by a bequest from his friend Arkhip Kuindzhi. He often returned to the area around Kiev to paint landscapes in oils and watercolors.
In 1910, he was accused of plagiarism by the tabloid press because one of his paintings was similar to a work by Yakov Brovar (1864-1941). Apparently, the resemblance derived from a photograph taken in the Bia?owie?a Forest, that was later used as a model by both artists, and involved a single, distinctive tree. When this was pointed out, his critics declared that using a photograph for a painting was a form of cheating. Due to the negative publicity and its effect on his reputation, he committed suicide. His maid found him in his office, where he had hung himself and left a suicide note.
6
Green Trees in Snow
Charles Demuth (1883-1935), American
Watercolor on paper, 1908
Wiki edited:
Charles Henry Buckius Demuth (1883-1935), American, was a painter who specialized in watercolors, turning to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism.
"Search the history of American art," wrote Ken Johnson in The New York Times, "and you will discover few watercolors more beautiful than those of Charles Demuth. Combining exacting botanical observation and loosely Cubist abstraction, his watercolors of flowers, fruit and vegetables have a magical liveliness and an almost shocking sensuousness."
Demuth was a lifelong resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The home he shared with his mother is now the Demuth Museum, which showcases his work. He graduated from Franklin & Marshall Academy before studying at Drexel University and at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). While he was a student at PAFA, he participated in a show at the Academy, and also met William Carlos Williams at his boarding house. The two were fast friends and remained close for the rest of their lives.
He later studied at Académie Colarossi and Académie Julian in Paris, where he became a part of the avant-garde art scene. The Parisian artistic community was accepting of Demuth's homosexuality. After his return to America, Demuth retained aspects of Cubism in many of his works.
7
Elmwood Street in Winter
John L. Pappas (1898-1976), American
Watercolor over pencil on paper,
13" x 10" (w x h), circa between 1898 and 1929
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
Ask Art edited:
John L. Pappas (1898-1976) was born in Florina, Greece to Lazaros and Sophie (Voikos) Pappas. John L. Pappas expressed his talents in two arts, painting and cooking. In Detroit he operated a restaurant, cooking, his daily occupation, while winning a degree of distinction as a painter. Probably few patrons of his restaurant were aware that his art hangs in the Detroit Institute of Arts. John and his wife, Anna, married in 1920 and had two daughters.
8
Freshly Fallen Snow
Dodge MacKnight (1860-1950), American
Watercolor on paper, 22" x 15" (w x h), 1903
Denman Waldo Ross Collection
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Ask Art edited:
The largest collections of MacKnight's works are at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, where there is an entire room dedicated to his watercolors. Visit the MacKnight Room at the Museum online HERE. And a Cape Cod winter watercolor in the room HERE.
A friend of Van Gogh and the post-impressionists, Dodge MacKnight, despite being widely admired in his lifetime, this American artist is now largely forgotten. Dodge MacKnight, born William Dodge MacKnight (1860-1950), in Providence, Rhode Island, was an American painter. MacKnight painted watercolors for most of his career. His colorful works were appreciated by amateurs in Boston, who were receptive to impressionist aesthetics. He painted mostly landscapes and was considered as the equal of John Singer Sargent.
MacKnight lived in Fontvieille at the time when Vincent van Gogh was living in Arles. In 1888, they met through the Australian impressionist John Russell. MacKnight became a friend of van Gogh. John Russell painted renowned individual portraits of both van Gogh and MacKnight. Read more about his time with Van Gogh and the post-impressionists HERE.
The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) and the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge (Massachusetts) also have collections of his paintings.
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