Orange and Green Fine Art Essay

Orange and Green
Fine Art by Noted Artists
Visual Essay

1
Green Pears
Milton Clark Avery (1885-1965), American
Oil on board, 13" x 5" (w x h), 1959
Grogan & Company, Boston 2023 auction, sold $18,750

Milton Avery (1885-1965) always painted in his home, never in a separate studio, and his subjects were those people and scenes close at hand. He said, "I like to seize one sharp instant in nature, imprison it by means of ordered shapes and spatial relationships. To this end, I eliminate and simplify, leaving apparently nothing but color and pattern. I am not seeking pure abstraction; rather the purity and essence of the idea-expressed in its simplest form." Although successful in his lifetime and friends with some of the leading artists of his era, he was seventy-seven years old when he was finally honored with a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1962.

2
Two Panels: Green Orange
Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015), American
Oil on canvas, 107" x 70" (w x h), 1970
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA

Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) was a noted painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, color field painting and minimalism. His works exemplify simplicity by emphasizing line, color and form, often using bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York. Kelly commented, "I realized I didn't want to compose pictures ... I wanted to find them. I felt that my vision was choosing things out there in the world and presenting them. To me the investigation of perception was of the greatest interest. There was so much to see, and it all looked fantastic to me."

3
Chinese Evergreen
Leonard Havens (1914-1973), American
Color woodcut, #1 of 12, 8" x 12" (w x h), 1941
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

Leonard Havens (1914-1973), born in Pittsburgh, attended the school of the Art Institute of Chicago and, afterward, created his woodcuts and other prints under the auspices of the W. P. A. New Deals Federal Art Project. He often found inspiration in Chicago's urban landscape before he was called to serve in the Second World War. Eventually he earned degrees from Northeastern University, in Boston. Leonard M. Havens' work, mostly linocuts, woodcuts, lithographs and watercolors have been sold at auctions with prices ranging from $140 USD to $300 USD.

4
Summer in the Garden
Roger Fry (1866-1934), British
Oil on panel, 22" x 18" (w x h), 1911
The Rollins Museum of Art, Orlando, FL

Source: Wiki (edited):
This is a painting of Vanessa Bell, an English painter and one of the most celebrated painters of the Bloomsbury Group, who was also the sister of Virginia Woolf. Vanessa Bell had intimate relationships with art critic Roger Fry and with bisexual painter Duncan Grant. See another oil study of Vanessa Bell wearing the same sweater and dress painted the following year HERE.

Roger Eliot Fry (1866-1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. As a painter Fry was experimental (his work included a few abstracts), but his best pictures were straightforward naturalistic portraits. He didn't consider himself a great artist, "only a serious artist with some sensibility and taste". Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of the recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism. He was the first figure to raise public awareness of modern art in Britain. He was described by the art historian Kenneth Clark as "incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin ... In so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry". His success lay largely in alerting an educated public to a compelling version of recent artistic developments of the Parisian avant-garde.

5
Day Lily 2
Alex Katz (1927- ), American
Lithograph, #75/90, 28" x 21" (w x h), 1969
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase

Source: Wiki  and Whitney (edited)
Since 1951, Alex Katz's work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions and nearly 500 group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally. This vibrant illustration of a large, orange lily with yellow highlights and dark spots on its petals, set against a dark green background has a stylized, almost abstract quality, with visible brush strokes.

6
Seated Woman in a Green Robe /
Femme assise dans une robe verte
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), French
Oil on canvas, circa 1890
Private Collection

Source: Archive (edited)
Renoir captured the transient effects of light and color, which is evident in this particular piece. The green of her robe contrasts to the warm, reddish-brown background, isolating and emphasizing her figure. Renoir's technique, characterized by the Impressionist movement, showcases his ability to capture the interplay of light and color, as well as the spontaneity of the moment. The brush strokes are visible and dynamic, giving the painting a sense of life and movement.

7
Entrance I / Sisaantulo I
Juhana Blomstedt (1937- ), Finnish
Serigraph, #58/100, 8" x 14" (w x h), 2001
Ateneum Art Museum, Property of the Finnish State

Juhana Blomstedt (1937- ) was one of the central figures in Finnish abstract art whose career extended over five decades. His father, Aulis Blomstedt, was an architect and his mother, Heidi Sibelius, was a ceramist, daughter of Jean Sibelius, regarded as Finland's greatest composer of symphonic music. Juhana studied under Sam Vanni at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts from 1957 to 1961. Sam Vanni had a decisive influence on Blomstedt's conception of art. Juhana belonged to the second generation of Finnish modernists. Of this group he lived and worked abroad for the longest period, living in Paris intermittently from 1966 to 1972. He was visiting professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and design in 1971-1972 and Head of painting at the Finnish Art Academy School and professor from 1989-1994.

8
Lady in a Green Jacket /
Dame in gruner Jacke
August Macke (1887-1914), German
Oil on canvas, 17" x 18" (w x h), 1913
Haubrich Collection,
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

Source: Wiki (edited)
August Macke (1887-1914) was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter). He traveled to Tunisia in April 1914 with Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet. It was fundamental for the creation of the luminist approach of his final period, during which he produced a series of works now considered masterpieces. Unfortunately, he was one of the young German artists who died in the First World War.

This painting was one of the first paintings created by Macke, after he moved to Hilterfingen, in Switzerland. Macke had developed this favorite motif, a walk in the park, since the beginning of his career. Macke said: "The generally accepted attribute of men is bowler hats, and I put bowlers on them. Women with slender necks and hips hold umbrellas in their hands to protect them from light." The woman in a green jacket at the center of the composition, presented half-turned, divides his canvas into two vertical parts. The branches of the trees extend from each other almost at right angles; their drawing was borrowed from A Treatise on Painting, compiled from the theoretical works of Leonardo da Vinci. Macke studied the book during his stay in Berlin in 1907-1908. The houses on both banks of the river are conceived in simplified forms, and the mountains in the distance are represented in the form of triangles. His reduction of familiar objects to simple geometric shapes was characteristic of early Cubism.

See his pencil sketch study for this painting at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany HERE.

 

Orange Minneola Green D'Anjou Pear...

Orange Minneola
Green D'Anjou Pear
Snowlife Study 1

painted February 2, 2025, 12" x 9" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed
$400

Some Washed Way Away

Some Washed Way Away

painted January 30, 2025, 11" x 14" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed
$600

Art Group Julie Nude Studies 1-3

Art Group Julie Nude Study 1

painted January 10, 2025, 8" x 10" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$300

Art Group Julie Nude Study 2

painted January 10, 2025, 5" x 7" (w x h)
$150

Art Group Julie Nude Study 3

painted January 10, 2025, 8" x 10" (w x h)
$300

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery Figures...

 Female Nudes
in the Collection of
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery,
Musee des Beaux Arts Beaverton,
the provincial art gallery of New Brunswick,
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery and a significant art collection were given to the people of New Brunswick by Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Max Aitken, at the opening on September 16, 1959. The son of a Presbyterian minister in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Max Aitken enjoyed early success in Canadian business. In 1910, he left Canada for England, where he was knighted and elected a Member of Parliament, eventually serving as Minister of Aircraft Production in Churchill's wartime government. In 1916, Sir Max established the Canadian War Memorials Fund to commission official war artists to paint the Canadian war effort. These artists included three future members of the Group of Seven: A.Y. Jackson, Frederick Varley, and Arthur Lismer.

In creating a world-class collection for the gallery, Sir Max consulted with international art experts to advise him on key acquisitions and encouraged colleagues and acquaintances to donate paintings. The original collection included works by J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Edwin Henry Landseer, and works by modern artists such as Augustus John, William Orpen, Graham Sutherland, and Lucian Freud. Famous Canadian artists such as Cornelius Krieghoff, Emily Carr, and members of the Group of Seven were among the collection, as were works by Salvador Dali. In 1994, the Beaverbrook was officially designated the provincial art gallery of New Brunswick.

The Museum's website is HERE.

1
Reclining Female Nude #1
Matthew Arnold Bracy Smith (1879-1959), British
Oil on canvas, 29" x 20" (w x h), circa 1925
Gift of The Beaverbrook Foundation

Sir Matthew Smith, CBE (1879-1959) was a British painter of nudes, still-lifes and landscapes. He studied design at the Manchester School of Art and art at the Slade School of Art. Smith studied under Henri Matisse in Paris and acquired an interest in Fauvism. Smith met fellow artist Gwen Salmond in 1907 in Whitby and she became his "greatest mentor". They married and had two sons together. The marriage was short. Smith left his wife and sons because he felt that they were "stifling his career." It was Gwen Salmond who raised the boys, Frederic Mark Smith and Dermott Smith, born in 1915 and 1916 respectively. They both would die while serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II.

During World War I, Smith was wounded at the Battle of Passchendaele. Early in the twenties the normal shortcomings of his health allied plus the sense of something unfulfilled in his personal life produced a serious breakdown. It wasn't until he found Vera Cuningham, the ideal model for his art, that he recovered and redoubled his ability to work. His first one-person show was at Tooth's Gallery, London, in 1926. His work reflects use of color in a bold manner echoing the Fauves. He had shows at London Group, the Carnegie International Exhibition, Lefevre Gallery, and Mayor Gallery. His works were bought by Roger Fry and the Tate Gallery. In 1944, The Penguin Modern Painters paperback series printed an illustrated biography written by Philip Hendy which included his works. In 1949, Smith was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was knighted in 1954. Smith lived, worked, and exhibited in England and France.

2
Model at Rest
Moe Reinblatt (1917-1979), Canadian
Oil on canvas, 27" x 36" (w x h), 1957
Gift of Lillian Reinblatt

Moses "Moe" Reinblatt (1917-1979) was a Canadian painter, printmaker, sculptor, and art teacher. Besides figurative and still life works, Reinblatt painted landscapes. He was associated with the Jewish Painters of Montreal. In August 1944 he was appointed an official war artist, and was sent to document the Canadian war effort in England. After the War, he studied at Art Association of Montreal's School of Fine Arts and Design and two years later he began teaching drawing and printmaking at the School alongside Arthur Lismer, member of the noted Group of Seven. It was a position Moe Reinblatt held for over twenty years. He also organized art classes at the YM-YWHA between 1946 and 1957, and taught at the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts from 1967.

A retrospective of Reinblatt's work was exhibited at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal Gallery in 1990. His paintings are represented in numerous museums across Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, the Musee National des beaux-arts du Quebec, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the McCord Museum, and the New Brunswick Museum, as well as the Bezalel Museum in Israel. Reinblatt won the Rolph-Clarke-Stone Award for the most distinguished print in the 1947 Canadian Society of Graphic Art Annual Exhibition, for his drypoint The Drinker. He won the Adrian Seguin Memorial Award for his work Girl's Head with Bow in 1958, and the C. W. Jefferys Award for his work Acrobats in 1962. He received the Canadian Centennial Medal in 1968.

3
Fisher's Maid
Christopher Pratt (1935-2022), Canadian
Serigraph on paper, 15" x 12" (w x h), 1978
Gift of Jim Coutts in memory of Peter McCain

John Christopher Pratt CC ONL RCA (1935-2022) was one of Canada's most prominent painters and printmakers. In addition to a body of highly acclaimed paintings, prints, drawings and writing, he designed the flag of Newfoundland and Labrador. He was a student of Alexander Colville (#6 below), proponent of realism, at Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick.

4
Night Nude: At Shediac
(Parlee Beach in the town of Shediac, New Brunswick)
Christopher Pratt (1935-2022), Canadian
Oil on board, 17" x 16" (w x h), circa 1970-2010
Gift of the Artist

Christopher Pratt became an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (ARCA) and a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art in 1965, at the age of 30. Eight years later, he was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada, before becoming a companion of the Order in 1983. He was awarded the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2018. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1972. In 2018, Pratt was the subject of Kenneth J. Harvey's documentary film Immaculate Memories: The Uncluttered Worlds of Christopher Pratt.

5
Seated Nude on Beach
Jack Humphrey (1901-1967), Canadian
Oil on paper, 40" x 33" (w x h), circa 1965-1966
The Leslie B. Marcus Collection

Jack Weldon Humphrey (1901-1967) was a highly prominent Canadian painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He was a Canadian landscape and figure painter, mainly in watercolor. "His works are included in most exhibitions that examine 20th Century Canadian art and Canadian modern art. Dozens of examples are also in the permanent collections of Canadian museums. Born in St. John, New Brunswick, where he lived most of his life, he died suddenly at 66 years-old of a heart attack at the height of his career. Art historian J. Russell Harper called Humphrey the "most significant eastern Canadian painter of his generation."

6
Nudes on Shore
Alex Colville (1920-2013), Canadian
Tempera on Masonite, 38" x 24" (w x h), 1950
Gift of Lord Beaverbrook

David Alexander Colville, PC, CC, ONS, LL. D. (1920-2013) was a Canadian painter and printmaker. He graduated with his BFA from Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, in 1942, He served in the second ward and in 1944 was made an Official Second World War artist. He was tasked with depicting the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Colville's painting Bodies in a Grave (1946), a scene of emaciated corpses in a Bergen-Belsen burial pit, is based on images he captured with his army-issue camera at the concentration camp. He taught art at his alma mater Mount Allison University from 1946 to 1963, influencing a generation of artists in realism during the ascendancy of abstraction including Christopher Pratt (class of 1961) #3 and #4 above.

He left teaching to devote himself to painting and print-making full-time from a studio in his home in Sackville, New Brunswick on York Street; this building is now named Colville House. The house was donated to Mount Allison by the Colville family. It now serves as a museum and gallery dedicated to Alex Colville's life and work under the auspice of the Owens Art Gallery. A 1965 acrylic on Masonite painting To Prince Edward Island is one of his most well-known paintings, now held at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. See if HERE.

In 1963 his painting Man on Verandah sold at auction for $1,287,000 setting a record for a work by a living Canadian artist at that time. See it HERE.

Swiss Artist Gustave Buchet

Swiss Artist's Art
Swiss Artist Gustave Buchet (1888-1963)

Gustave Buchet (1888-1963) was a Swiss painter from the western French part of Switzerland. He began his artistic training with four years of study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva. From 1910-11 he attended, for four months, the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris before returning to Geneva. Here he founded, along with Maurice Barraud and others, the group Le Falot. On a return visit to Paris in 1916-17, he was influenced by the Futurists and created a series of paintings in novel forms. Increasing hostility, even for his participation in Dadaist performances, led him in 1920 to leave Geneva and to move to Paris.

Buchet evolved in the 1920s towards a flat geometrical painting style, verging on abstraction. Living in Paris during the interwar years, he soon adopted the principles of Purism which Le Corbusier was championing. In painting he developed a personal palette of both forthright and muted colors, and compositions that were remarkably constructed and arranged. He expanded to sculpture and decorative arts, turning out designs for the fashion world and the theater.

While post-cubism was petering out across Europe, Buchet shifted to a moderate abstraction, going figurative. Shortly before his return to Lausanne in 1939, transparency and supple forms prevailed over fragmentation and pictorial planes. Buchet's late work abandoned the dictates of line in favor of a quest for color.

He writes: "In 1951 I judge that my laboratory work, my research, is complete and that I can begin to truly paint. . . My sources are diverse and infinite: I find escape as much in a landscape as in a nude or a simple flower . . ."

Galleries and museums such as Museum Franz Gertsch have featured Gustave Buchet's work. Gustave Buchet's work has been offered at auction selling at prices from $56 USD to $136,550 USD. His record price for a work at auction, $136,550 USD, was for Body in Movement (#7 below), sold at Sotheby's Zurich in 2010.

1
Ruines
Gustave Buchet (1888-1963), Swiss
Watercolor on paper, 10" x 15" (w x h), 1946
Christies 2001 auction sold $10,275 USD
(9,400 Swiss francs, CHF)

2
Nude from the Back / Nu de dos
Gustave Buchet (1888-1963), Swiss
Oil on board, 15" x 18" (w x h), 1937

3
Marine
Gustave Buchet (1888-1963), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 21" 18" (w x h), 1951

4
Naked at the Lake / Nu au bord du lac
Gustave Buchet (1888-1963), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 91" x 36" (w x h), 1941

Note the familiar use of orange and blue
by so many artists by Gustave Buchet
in the next two paintings.

Fabulous Painting...

5
Apples and Blue Vase / Pommes et vase bleu
Gustave Buchet (1888-1963), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 28" x 36" (w x h), 1932

6
Nude / Nu
Gustave Buchet (1888-1963), Swiss
Oil on cardboard, 15" x 21" (w x h), 1945

7
Body in Movement / Corps en mouvement
Gustave Buchet (1888-1963), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 29" x 36" (w x h), 1918
This painting is the record price for a work
of his at auction. It was sold at Sotheby's Zurich
in 2010 for $136,550 USD.

8
Nude Redhead from Behind, Arm Raised /
Rousse nue de dos, bras leve
Gustave Buchet (1888-1963), Swiss
Oil on paper on wood, 13" x 18" (w x h), 1951

Read and see more about Gustave Buchet online in English at the: Musee cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland, HERE.

Swiss Artist Felix Vallotton

 Swiss Artist Felix Vallotton

(1865-1925)

Felix Edouard Vallotton (1865-1925) was Swiss and naturalized as a French citizen when he was 35-years-old in 1900. He was a painter and printmaker associated with the group of artists known as Les Nabis.

He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut. Like many artists of his generation, he was influenced by the Japanese woodcuts which were then being noticed in Europe. His unique and innovative style, large areas of pure black and white, emphasizing outline and shapes, without using hatching for shading or modelling, led the way for others.

He painted portraits, landscapes, nudes, still lifes, and other subjects in a less than emotional, realistic style. Vallotton was also active as a writer. He published art criticism during the 1890s, and his novel La Vie meurtriere (The Murderous Life) was published posthumously. By the end of his life he had completed over 1,700 paintings and about 200 prints, in addition to hundreds of drawings and several sculptures.

1
Rocamadour Landscape /
Paysage de Rocamadour
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 1925

2
The White and the Black /
La Blanche et la Noire
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 58" x 45" (w x h), 1913
Fondation Hahnloser, Winterthour

3
La paresse / Lazy
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Swiss
Woodcut on wove paper, 9" x 7" (w x h), 1896
#40 of an edition of (circa) 180
Sold at Sotheby's 2017 Zurich auction for $85,500 USD

4
Evening on the Loire / Soiree sur la Loire
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 1923
Private Collection

5
The Purple Hat / Le chapeau violet
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Swiss
Oil on cardboard, 32" x 36" (w x h), 1907

6
Verdun
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 57" x 45" (w x h), 1917

7
Le Rayon
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Swiss
Oil on canvas, 39" x 29" (w x h), 1909
Private collection

8
Le Bibliophile / The Bibliophile
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Swiss
Woodcut, 7" x 9" (w x h), 1911

Ponte Capriasca Village Alleyways...

Ponte Capriasca Village
Alleyways of Color

painted January 26, 2025, 7" x 5" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

Narrow Swiss Ponte-Capriasca...

Narrow Swiss Ponte-Capriasca
Street Barely Bussed

painted January 20, 2025, 10" x 8" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$300

View on a Bend from a Swiss Train North

View from a Bend
on a Swiss Train North

painted January 16, 2025, 12" x 9" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$400

Swiss Sky Above Ponte Capriasca Roof Tops

Swiss Sky Above
Ponte Capriasca Roof Tops

on an afternoon walkabout on December 25, 2024, painted January 6, 2025, 7" x 5" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150