William James Glackens (American, 1870-1938) Still Life with Orange Lilies, c. 1930s

Description:

William James Glackens (American, 1870-1938)

Still Life with Orange Lilies, c. 1930s
Signed "W. Glackens" l.l. and incised "W.G." on the frame reverse.
Oil on canvas, 15 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (39.4 x 31.8 cm),in a probable Glackens or Prendergast Studio frame.
Condition: Minor craquelure, small puncture to u.l. quadrant.

Provenance: Private Cincinnati collection.

N.B. Though Glackens painted floral still lifes in his figural compositions as early as the 1900s, it was not until the mid-1910s that they appeared as an independent motif. (1) Over the next two decades, Glackens painted still lifes with greater frequency, and as a motif, they comprised his largest body of work. (2)

The present work is typical of a Glackens still life in its depiction of a casual arrangement of garden-cut flowers in a simple vase. (3) Despite the simplicity of subject, the color relationships depicted are wonderfully complex, with subtle secondary hues throughout. As a motif, their "disarming" simplicity and "camouflaged" casualness was noted in 1937 by a critic who praised their formal and expressive qualities, "…what joy in pure painting these flower pieces afford! What lusciousness of pigment, what purity of color and astounding candor of statement…" (4)

(1) Gerdts, William H. William Glackens. New York: Abbeville Press, 1996, pg. 147.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Gerdts, 149.
(4) Gerdts, 153.



Estimate $15,000-25,000

Puncture to u.l. quadrant approx. 1/4 in. length and with only partial damage to canvas fibers and resulting paint loss.

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