17
Maria Oakey Dewing
(American, 1845-1927)
Still Life with Irises, Poppies, and Mignonettes in a Blue Vase, c. 1880s
Estimate: $100,000-$150,000
Passed
Live Auction
American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
Size
62 1/4 x 30 in.
Description
Maria Oakey Dewing
(American, 1845-1927)
Still Life with Irises, Poppies, and Mignonettes in a Blue Vase, c. 1880s
oil on canvas
inscribed Mrs. Thomas Dewing with the address of her studio (stretcher)
62 1/4 x 30 in.
Condition
The unlined canvas in overall fine condition. With hairline craquelure (crazing) throughout, which is relatively flat and stable (likely a result from varying temperatures). We notice a series of thin horizontal creases running across the upper tier, the center and the lower tier of the canvas, roughly corresponding to stretcher bars verso. When unframed, we notice the canvas has been cut down at the top edges and at bottom (by the artist herself). The edges of the canvas overlapping onto the stretcher are more dull, not as shiny, since obstructed by the frame for many years. With slight abrasions along the outer edges, only visible when unframed. The work is covered by a heavy layer of varnish, which indicates it might benefit from a light clean. Under UV light, the varnish appears greenish, and leaves, in contrast, purples areas which are not automatically considered as restoration. Examination under UV light reveals a large repair at bottom left, which corresponds to a patch verso (about 6 x 6 in). With pinpoint inpainting above, at lower left quadrant, and below, parallel to the bottom edge. With minor touches of inpainting at center right (most likely from old scraping/scratching) across the poppies. With broader inpainting around the edge of the stretcher and in the background at upper right. Dot of restoration up top, at center, on one of the irises. Two other minor areas of inpainting at upper center left, close to the left outer edge and in the background across a leaf. Verso, we notice the bottom right quadrant is covered in a layer of what appears to be plaster, which doesn’t necessarily correspond to any inpainting on the front. We believe it was likely done by the artist’s hand. Additional images available upon request.
Signature
inscribed Mrs. Thomas Dewing with the address of her studio (stretcher)
Provenance
Provenance:Private Collection, Florida.Lot Essay:The present monumental still life is by Maria Oakey Dewing, an American painter best known for her depictions of flowers. Born in 1845 in New York City, she was as well trained as most of her male peers and one of the few women of her generation to successfully maintain a lifetime career as an artist. She studied at the Cooper Union School of Design for Women (1868-71) then enrolled at the National Academy of Design but, in 1875, left with a group of fellow students to form the Art Students League of New York. Maria took private lessons with John La Farge and in 1876 she studied briefly in Paris with Thomas Couture. After her return, she resumed her position in New York art circles, becoming a regular exhibitor at the National Academy as well as the newly formed Society of American Artists. Along with her architect brother, Alexander F. Oakey, Maria also became an advocate of the Aesthetic movement, writing essays on dress and the domestic arts.In April 1881, Maria wed the Boston-bred painter, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, with whom she had a daughter. She helped introduce her husband to the New York art world and collaborated with him by providing the foliage backgrounds on several paintings. It was at their summer home in the artists’ colony at Cornish, New Hampshire, that Maria began painting works such as Irises at Dawn, 1899 (Hood Museum of Art) and Garden in May, 1895 (Smithsonian American Art Museum), which present close-up, cropped views of the flowers in their garden. She often worked en plein air and her distinctive view of subtly defined and delicately colored blossoms against a painterly screen of foliage established her as one of the leading flower painters in an age enthralled by gardens.When returning to New York City from summers at the family country home, Maria would turn her painterly attention to depictions of lush flower arrangements in beautiful vases. Still Life with Irises, Poppies, and Mignonettes in a Blue Vase perfectly encapsulates the artist’s affinity for floral subject matter. Set in an unusually shaped canvas, the narrow composition focuses the attention upon the overflowing blue vessel. With its turquoise glaze, the vase that holds the arrangement may very well be one of the Aesthetic movement objects championed by Maria and her brother. Within it, tall, stately irises rise to create an overall structure, with the round blossoms of the poppies and luxuriant mignonettes underneath creating a soft counterpoint. Brushy, almost transparent strokes of paint describe the petals, and along many of the petal edges, the artist has added small highlights of white, pink, or yellow, which make them appear to glow against the dark background. The leaves themselves are a marvel, executed with a thicker paint application in a multitude of greens ranging from vibrant emerald to rich teal. The effect overall is one of beauty for its own sake, the central tenant of the Aesthetic movement. As Maria herself stated, “The flower offers a removed beauty that exists only for beauty, more abstract than it can be in a human being, even more exquisite. One may begin with the human figure at the logical and realistic, but in painting the flower one must even begin at the exquisite and distinguished.” (Maria Oakey Dewing, “Flower Painters and What the Flower Offers to Art, Art and Progress, vol. 6, June 1915, no. 8, p. 255) The present painting is a powerful testament to the artist’s mastery of both her subject and her brush.