The Art of Spruce by Nine Noted Artists

How Noted Artists Paint Spruces...
The Art of Spruce
By Nine Artists
from Finland, Norway and the US born from 1870 to 1955

Maine Landscape
Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), American
Watercolor on paper, 14" x 11" (w x h), 1973
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine

2
Spruce, Soli Deo Gloria (Skowhegan)
Ashley Bryan (1923-2022), American
Oil on canvas, 24" x 48" (w x h), circa 1950
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME

3
Mørk granskog / Dark Spruce Forest
Edvard Munch, Norwegian
Oil on canvas, 24" x 36" (w x h), 1899
Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
And a conversation spruced up, eh?

4
Deer Isle, Maine
John Marin (1870-1953), American
Watercolor and charcoal on paper, 14" x 18" (w x h), 1923
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

5
Kuusi / Six
Aimo Kanerva (1909-1991), Finnish
Watercolor on paper, 22" x 26" (w x h), 1981
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland

6
Maisema, mustia kuusia / Landscape, black spruces
Magnus Enckell (1870-1925) Finnish
Watercolor on paper (Part of a sketchbook), 1894-1895
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland

7
Sunset Spruce
Jill Hoy (1955- ), American
Oil on canvas, 22" x 13" (w x h),
$2,200, Portland Art Gallery, Portland, ME

8
The Red Rock
Werner Drewes (1899-1985), American
Watercolor and graphite on paper, 12" x 15" (w x h)
Private Collection

9
Young Spruces: Maine Coast
Kent, Rockwell (1882-1971), American
Oil on canvas, 44" x 28" (w x h), 1955
Entered the Hermitage in 1964 as a gift from the artist
The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

This is likely on the east side cliffs of Monhegan Island, perhaps overlooking Burnt Head. The irony is that it's in the Russian Hermitage Collection. Kent gave it to them. He was an idealist, a Socialist, who took a Russian trip in the 1930s that never showed the millions dying from Stalin's Ukrainian famine. He was in effect kicked off Monhegan Island due to his politics. He sold his house to his painter friend James Fitzgerald, and they remained friends. Today that house is part of the Monhegan Museum of Art and History.

Spruce Up Atop Whitehead
on Monhegan Island, Maine on July 24, 2023,
Bruce McMillan (1947- ), American