American and European Art

Property from the Collection of Walter and Nancy Lytwyn, Naperville, Illinois Provenance: Auslew Gallery, Norfolk, VA Sears Roebuck Co., acquired from the above in 1978 Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2000 Lot note: A master at imitating sunlight and capturing the textures and mood of a landscape, Walter Lamb Picknell made some of his best known paintings at the artist's colony of Annisquam on Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Although Picknell spent many years abroad studying the European tradition, he developed a distinctly American style that emphasized atmosphere and light. Like the French artist Gustave Courbet, he began using a palette knife to apply paint directly on the canvas, allowing him to cover areas with swaths of paint and create texture. Picknell lived with George Inness in Rome for several years, and it was from Inness that he learned to see and paint civilized nature, where human involvement in nature is incorporated quietly into the landscape. In Annisquam River, a small glowing church sits on a hill in the background, and several houses are nestled in the hillside. Bathed in sunlight, they are united with the landscape in a harmonious manner.