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American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
|
- Sale 6384
Live
| Philadelphia
Dec 7 | 1:00 PM EST
Live
| Philadelphia
Sale 6384
| Philadelphia
| Philadelphia
Estimate$30,000 – $50,000
Provenance:
The Artist.
Gifted to Quita Brodhead, c. 1938.
The Estate of Quita Brodhead.
By descent to the present owner, South Carolina.
Exhibited:
Philadelphia, Ingersoll Barn, "Arthur Beecher Carles" (exhibition and sale), 1939.
Philadelphia, Peale House Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, "Students of Arthur B. Carles," March 31 – May 1, 1988, no. 10.
New York, Hollis Taggart Galleries, "The Orchestration of Color: The Paintings of Arthur B. Carles," February 10 – March 18, 2000.
Literature:
Quita Brodhead, "Remembering Arthur B. Carles," Arts Magazine, vol. 62, no. 7 (March 1988), p. 70, illustrated.
Lot Note:
The present lot, characteristic of Carles's mature modernist period, represents a decisive break from descriptive realism in favor of chromatic expression. The canvas is a rich convergence of saturated, non-local hues—magentas, deep violets, and fiery oranges—which construct and suggest form rather than merely depicting it. The brushwork is highly expressive and energetic, actively dissolving the boundaries between objects, such as the central fruit bowl and the cascading background drapery, pushing the composition to the threshold of abstraction. The composition's flattened perspective and the powerful juxtaposition of warm and cool complementary tones result in a dynamic surface tension.
Still Life with Fruit was gifted to artist Quita Brodhead, Carles's protégé, in gratitude for her assistance with organizing an exhibition of his work in 1938. Brodhead had been Carles's student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and studied in Paris at the Académie Julian, ultimately leaving PAFA in 1925 to study under Carles. Her own prolific career in the Philadelphia area, where she served on the PAFA board, included periods spent painting and exhibiting abstractions in Europe alongside figures like Kandinsky, underscoring the deep, influential connection between the two American modernists.
Framed: 35 3/4 x 45 3/4 in.
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Adam Veil
VP, Head of Department, American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
