museums and institutions:
Attributed works:
I. Untitled, by Fernand Léger. 1937. 65.1 by 93.7 cm. Bequest of Ellen Hunt Harrison, 1996.8.14. This painting combines the flattened forms of Cubism with the organic, biomorphic shapes of Surrealism (a movement in which Léger professed no interest). While characteristic of the artist's work of the late 1920s and 1930s, it represents an interesting departure for Léger, turning from depictions of urban and mechanical objects to natural forms. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
II. Confidences, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. c. 1873. 81.3 by 60.3 cm. The Joan Whitney Payson Collection at the Portland Museum of Art, Maine; gift of John Whitney Payson, 1991.62. A favourite theme for Renoir in the late 1860s and early 1870s was intimate moments between contemporary men and women - common in magazine illustrations at the time, but still an unfamiliar subject for Salon painting. Confidences reflects a shift in Renoir's art from diminutive to large-scale figures which merge with the natural surroundings of gardens and countryside. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
III. La Leçon de danse (The dancing lesson), by Edgar Degas. c.1877. Pastel over monoprint on paper, 58.4 by 72.7 cm. The Joan Whitney Payson Collection at the Portland Museum of Art, Maine; partial gift of John Whitney Payson, 15.1991.11. This beautiful example of Degas's practice of working in pastel over a print relates to several paintings of c.1873-74 of dance classes in the ground floor rehearsal room of the old Paris Opéra in the rue Pelletier (destroyed by fire in October 1873). All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
IV. Anne and her nurse (or Sketch of Anne and her nurse), by Mary Cassatt. c.1897. 68.6 by 58.4 cm. Gift of Elizabeth B. Noyce in honour of Roger and Katherine Woodman, 1996.12. After studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Mary Cassatt went to Paris in 1866 and in the following decade became an important exhibitor with the Impressionist group. Her first images of mothers and children were made in 1880, establishing the theme as a constant motif in her art for the rest of her career. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
IX. Dark Harbor fishermen, by Newell Convers Wyeth. 1943. Tempera on panel, 88.9 by 96.5 cm. Bequest of Elizabeth B. Noyce, 1996.38.63. A highly successful illustrator, N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945) sought to endow his narrative paintings with a deeper resonance. Here he paints fishermen as mythic figures symbolising sustenance. Dark Harbor fishermen was greatly admired in its time and was selected in 1944 by a jury that included Rockwell Kent and Fernand Léger for Portrait of America, an exhibition organised by Artists for Victory. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
V. Mount Katahdin from Millinocket Camp, by Frederick Edwin Church. 1895. 66 by 107.9 cm. Gift of Owen and Anna Wells in memory of Elizabeth B. Noyce, 1998.96. This painting marked Church's return to depicting the landscape of Maine after a gap of more than twenty years. Between 1876 and 1881, he had travelled annually to a camp in the remote Katahdin region and during that time had made a small oil, Mount Katahdin from Upper Togue Lake (c.1877-78, Olana Historic Site, Hudson, New York), on which this later painting is based. He began it in 1891 at his studio at Olana, completing it four years later, in time to give it to his wife Isabel on her fifty-ninth birthday. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
VI. Moret-sur-Loing, by Alfred Sisley. 1888. 38.4 by 56.2 cm. The Joan Whitney Payson Collection at the Portland Museum of Art, Maine; partial gift of John Whitney Payson, 15.1991.9. By the early 1880s Sisley had moved from the environs of Paris to the area of Moret-sur-Loing, south-east of the capital near Fontainebleau, and remained there until his death in 1899. He painted numerous views of outlying villages and countryside as well as several series of the picturesque town of Moret itself, its church, bridge and mills reflected in the river Loing. This characteristic work is no.669 in the Daulte catalogue raisonné. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
VII. La Seine à Vétheuil (The Seine at Vétheuil), by Claude Monet. c.1880. 58.4 by 73 cm. Gift of Mrs Stuart Symington, 1998.95. Monet lived in Vétheuil, a town on the Seine forty miles north-west of Paris, for three years from August 1878. In this crucial period of transition, he stopped painting Paris and, except for a few images of family and friends, no longer depicted large-scale figures. Instead, he devoted himself to landscape and fully developed his characteristic Impressionist brushwork. This is no.610 in the Wildenstein catalogue raisonné. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
VIII. Matinicus, by George Wesley Bellows. 1916. 81.3 by 101.6 cm. Bequest of Elizabeth B. Noyce, 1996.38.1. During the years 1911 and 1913-16, Bellows spent the summers painting along the coast of Maine, strongly drawn to the vitality of the landscape and the harshness and honesty of the lives of its residents. In autumn 1916 he travelled to the remote island of Matinicus where he established a studio on the waterfront. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
X. Wreck of the D. T. Sheridan, by Rockwell Kent. c. 1949-53. 69.5 by 111.4 cm. Bequest of Elizabeth B. Noyce, 1996.38.25. This powerful image dates to Kent's return to Monhegan Island, off Maine's mid-coast, after a thirty-year absence. It exemplifies his mature style in its intense palette, crisp forms, and emphatic two-dimensionality. The painting depicts the rusting hull of a steel tugboat that ran aground on Monhegan's Lobster Point in a dense fog in November 1948. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XI. Castine Harbor, by Fitz Hugh Lane. 1852. 51.1 by 76.5 cm. Bequest of Elizabeth B. Noyce, 1996.38.29. Fitz Hugh Lane is especially identified with 'luminism', the American landscape style that emerged in the 1850s. Characterised by meticulous realism and a precise rendering of atmospheric effects, it sought to unify the image in an envelope of light. Lane was at the height of his career in the 1850s when he began making annual cruises to Maine's Penobscot Bay region from his home in Massachusetts, and Castine Harbor is the product of one these sojourns. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XII. Isles of Shoals, by Frederick Childe Hassam. 1915. 63.5 by 76.2 cm. Bequest of Elizabeth B. Noyce, 1996.38.19. This view of Appledore, one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire, was painted after a fire in 1914 had destroyed most of the buildings on the island, including Hassam's studio and the home and garden of his friend and muse, the poet Celia Thaxter. The forlorn remains of a gateway to the hotel grounds, coupled with the barrenness of the still beautiful terrain, evoke a pervasive sense of loss. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XIII. Sharpshooter, by Winslow Homer. 1863. 31.1 by 40.6 cm. Gift of Barbro and Bernard Osher, 3.1993.3. Although Sharpshooter is Homer's first major oil painting, the hallmarks of his later style are all present in its tight composition, sophisticated use of colour, and distillation of a narrative into one evocative image - the sniper rather than his victim. The subject grew from Homer's employment as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly, documenting action during the Civil War. Sharpshooter focuses on the rôle new technology (specifically the accuracy given to rifles by the addition of telescopic sights) played in heightening war's brutality and its dehumanising detachment. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XIV. Girl seated on a hillside overlooking the water, by Winslow Homer. 1878. Water-colour and graphite on paper, 22.2 by 28.9 cm. Gift of Lily W. Russell, 1998.28. This sensitive study dates from Homer's 1878 stay at Houghton Farm in Mountainville, New York. Throughout the summer and into the autumn, Homer executed a series of water-colours and sketches of rural children. Unlike his earlier, exuberant images of boys and girls at play, in these paintings they appear pensive and withdrawn, perhaps reflecting the artist's frame of mind during his protracted retreat to the countryside. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XIX. New Mexico sky, Dixon, by Paul Caponigro. 1982. Gelatin silver print, 27.6 by 20 cm. Museum purchase with support from the Friends of the Collection and The Photography Fund, 1998.94.3. ©Paul Caponigro. Since the late 1950s, Paul Caponigro (b.1932) has been capturing in his meticulous photographic prints the still, poetic beauty of the landscape. A number of recent acquisitions of his work have considerably deepened his representation in the collection. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XV. Summer day, by Andrew Wyeth. 1957. Water-colour and gouache on paper, 35.2 by 50.4 cm. Gift of Phillips and Marion Payson, 1998.113. Summer day is a good example of Wyeth's early water-colour technique, with its fluid washes and expressive brushwork. The model for the figure was Buzzy Stone, a member of the Finnish community which Wyeth frequently portrayed during his summers on the coast of Maine; the sitter is pictured here in the garden of the Wyeth home in South Cushing. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XVI. Untitled, by Louise Nevelson. c.1975-76. Painted wood, 157.4 by 96.5 by 20.3 cm. Museum purchase with support from the Friends of the Collection, the Bernstein Acquisition Fund, The Peggy and Harold Osher Acquisition Fund, the Benefit of the Collection, a gift from The David Rockefeller Fund, and individual gifts from Mr and Mrs Charlton H. Ames, Joan B. Burns, Mr and Mrs Peter W. Cox, Judith and Albert Glickman, Susan K. Hamill, William D. Hamill, Mr and Mrs Harry W. Konkel, Claude P. Maher, Henry and Joanna McCorkle, Leonard and Merle Nelson, Mr and Mrs Peter L. Sheldon, John and Gale Shonle, and one anonymous donor, 1996.29. As a sculpture that hangs on a wall like a painting, this work represents a variation on Nevelson's characteristic sculptural box-like forms which are freestanding or placed on the floor against a wall. Akin to Abstract Expressionist painting, the piece also reflects the artist's abiding interest in Cubism, assemblage, and dramatic impact. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XVII. Standing figure, by Alexander Archipenko. 1916. Faïence, 33 by 7.6 cm. Partial gift of Frances Archipenko Gray and Museum purchase with support from the Friends of the Collection, the Bernstein Acquisition Fund, The Peggy and Harold Osher Acquisition Fund, and individual gifts from Rosalyne and Summer Bernstein, Dr and Mrs Jerome Collins, Nelson Rarities, Dr and Mrs Joseph Schenkel, and John and Gale Shonle, 1998. 148a, b. The bright, glossy white surface and curvilinear, undulating pose of Standing figure embody Archipenko's chief interests while he was living in Nice during the First World War: the development of a Cubist idiom and the intense light and sensuality of the French Riviera. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XVIII. Dancing Bedouins, south of Baghdad, Iraq, by Inge Morath. 1956. Gelatin silver print, 21.9 by 33 cm. Ernst Haas Memorial Collection, gift of Inge Morath, 1998.22. ©Inge Morath. Inge Morath (b.1923) worked with Ernst Haas in post-War Vienna, where they were budding photojournalists. Both joined Magnum Photos in 1949, Haas as a member photographer, and Morath as a picture editor, writer and researcher. Morath became a skilled photographer herself, creating dynamic works such as this dizzying image of Bedouins in a wild open-air dance. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XX. Untitled (Plant form) from the series Planten und Formen, by Albert Renger-Patzschc. 1928. Gelatin silver print, 22.8 by 17.4 cm. Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg, 1997.13.2. A leading proponent of the 'objective' aesthetic in Germany in the 1920s, Albert Renger-Patzsch (1897-1966) used his camera to record the precise forms and inherent beauty of natural and industrial subjects. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XXI. The garden, by Marguerite Zorach. 1914. Oil and charcoal on canvas, 76.2 by 91.4 cm. Museum purchase with a major gift from an anonymous donor and with support from the Friends of the Collection, the Bernstein Acquisition Fund, The Peggy and Harold Osher Acquisition Fund, and individual gifts from Mrs Alexander R. Fowler, Barbara M. Goodbody, Mr and Mrs Harry Konkel, David and Sandra Perloff, John and Gale Shonle, and Roger and Katherine Woodman, 1998.111. Marguerite Zorach (1887-1968) and her husband William were newly returned to the United States from studying in Paris when she painted this work. Both had embraced French modernism and, having joined the avant-garde community of New York's Greenwich Village, worked towards their own personal styles. With its vibrant palette and abstracted forms, The garden is chiefly indebted to Fauvism. It was exhibited in the 1916 Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters, which also featured the work of Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley and John Marin. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XXII. Black scarf, by Alex Katz. 1996. Silkscreen on Arches paper (6/75), 116.9 by 78.7 cm. Printed and published by Simca Print Artists. Gift of the artist, 1998.24.9. Alex Katz is best known for portraits such as this, an image of Ada, his wife and frequent model. While her features are easily recognisable to those familiar with Katz's work, it is also an anonymous image revealing little of her personality, an impression underlined by the smooth commercial surface of the silkscreen medium. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
Attributed works:
XXIII. Electi, by Robert Indiana. 1960-61. 195.7 by 113.8 cm. Gift of the artist, 1997.5. ©Robert Indiana. Electi marks an important change of direction in Indiana's work from abstraction to images of American life, including popular culture, politics, literature, and history. It was inspired by the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy for the Presidency of the United States. Originally entitled Election, it was damaged in the artist's studio and subsequently cut down. The revised version, now called Electi, assumed a tragic association after Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. All reproduction photography by Melville D. McLean, with the exception of Figs. II, III and VI by Bernard C. Myers.
