Laura Coombs Hills (American, 1859-1952) Yellow Zinnias and Larkspur

Description:

Laura Coombs Hills (American, 1859-1952)

Yellow Zinnias and Larkspur
Signed "Laura Hills" in pencil u.l., identified on a label from Doll & Richards,
Boston, on the reverse.
Pastel on paper/board, sight size 17 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (44.5 x 34.3 cm),in original black frame.
Condition: Not examined out of frame.

Provenance: Mr. Eliot Wadsworth (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Harding),Boston, Massachusetts; then by descent within the family.

N.B. Laura Coombs Hills' favored mediums were watercolor and pastel. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1859, Hills studied at the Art Students League and later established her studio in Boston. Her first solo exhibition featured 16 pastels at the J. Eastman Chase Gallery in Boston in 1889. After visiting England in 1893, Hills became fascinated with miniature painting on ivory, which was enjoying a renaissance during the Arts and Crafts movement. Always gifted at working in tiny scale, Hills entered a successful period of painting miniature portraits on commission that would last almost 30 years. She returned her focus to rendering flowers in pastel after 1920. Using bouquets picked from the garden of her summer home in Newburyport, Hills painted floral still life arrangements set against textured backdrops based on scarves and fabrics she had collected on her travels. These works earned for her the critical distinction of Boston's leading pastelist of the early 20th century.

Literature: Laura Coombs Hills, A Retrospective, Historical Society of Old Newbury, 1996, with essays by Erica E. Hirshler, Sandra B. Lapore, and Martha D. Hamilton.

Estimate $6,000-8,000

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