Roy Cleveland Nuse

(American, 1885-1975)

Three Boys at the Sheephole

oil on canvas

36 x 30 inches.

Provenance:

The Artist

By descent to his son, Jean Paul Nuse

By descent from the above to his son, Gene Nuse, Missouri

Sold: Freeman's, Philadelphia, June 27, 2004, Lot 193

Private Collection, New Jersey, acquired at the above sale

Sold: Freeman's, Philadelphia, December 6, 2015, Lot 125

Born in Springfield, Ohio in 1885, Roy Cleveland Nuse was encouraged at the age of 20 to enroll at the Cincinnati Art Academy, where he worked under Frank Duveneck. Nuse then studied with New Hope School teacher Daniel Garber at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) from 1915-18 while teaching part-time at the Beachwood School. During this period, he moved his family to rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he lived and painted for almost 60 years, working in a plein-air, impressionist style. He, with his artist wife, Ellen Guthrie Nuse, had six children that were often the subjects of some of his best paintings, especially in outdoor, rural, farm settings. In 1925, Nuse was offered a teaching position at PAFA, where he taught until 1954, after which he taught privately at his home. Although Nuse lived in Bucks County most of his life, he avoided becoming a part of the New Hope School, despite knowing many of the artists in the group, as he preferred to keep to himself and his family.

Three Boys at the Sheephole belongs to a series of canvases that depict Nuse's children in the woods, and which the artist referred to as "boys in the glen." His six children were favorite models and subjects, who he often staged in the Rushland Valley, near the Neshaminy and Mill Creeks. According to Robin Nuse, the artist's granddaughter, the two figures on the left of the painting were posed for by the artist's son Paul, with the remaining figure on the right his other son, Oliver. The “boys in the glen” series follows a long academic tradition that places a group of figures (in this case children), unclothed as nymphs, walking, or sitting near shimmering pools of water or in woodland tableaux. Additionally, although Nuse used his own children as models, he paints them almost anonymously, portraying them as innocents in a storybook setting, almost as if they are a fairy tale brought to life. The suggestion of mythological creatures gamboling in an idyllic landscape is heightened by the artist’s use of dappled sunlight and shimmering colors, as well as carefully placed compositional elements, such as the overarching branches and curving rocks. The tranquil vision, with its private, intimate setting, creates a sense of pure and innocent beauty and unsullied youth.