American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists Featuring the Collection of Charles and Virginia Bowden

Note

One of the largest body of works by Emma Fordyce MacRae was produced on Cape Ann, where the artist sojourned with her family (in a house that would become hers when her father passed in 1925). As Karen E. Quinn states however, "unlike most artists who were drawn to Gloucester or Rockport for the season, her connection to the Cape was first forged by her family tied and may even predate her aspirations to be a professional painter." Yet, MacRae largely partook in the art scene, and often met with fellow women artists Fern Coppedge, Cecilia Beaux, Teresa Bernstein, as well as John F. Sloan, Max Kuehne, Harry Leith-Ross and Antony Thieme. She painted alone, and further distanced herself from her friends by painting a side of the peninsula that was largely overlooked along Ipswich Bay. The present painting likely depicts Half Moon Beach, on the Western shore of Rockport. Although the beach is crowded with figures, the scene appears calm. That is because there is little movement in the painting - a timeless quality further accentuated by the tapestry-like effect of the painting, which differentiates it from the smoother, richer and warmer harbor views and beach scenes which Fern Coppedge or Martha Walter executed at the same time.

Please note proceeds of the painting's sale will go directly to Alzheimer's Research UK, Britain's leading dementia research charity, and will consequently help research Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia.