Lot 76
Edgar Payne(1883-1947)The Inyo Sierra 43 x 43in overall: 48 x 48in (in the artist's frame)
Amended
19 November 2018, 18:00 PST
Los Angeles and San FranciscoSold for US$175,000 inc. premium
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Aaron Bastian
Director
Kathy Wong
Director, US Business Development, Fine Art
Edgar Payne (1883-1947)
The Inyo Sierra
signed 'Edgar Payne' (lower left), titled on the artist's label (affixed to the reverse)
oil on canvas
43 x 43in
overall: 48 x 48in (in the artist's frame)
signed 'Edgar Payne' (lower left), titled on the artist's label (affixed to the reverse)
oil on canvas
43 x 43in
overall: 48 x 48in (in the artist's frame)
Footnotes
Provenance
Adamson Duvannes Galleries, Los Angeles, California.
Private collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Exhibited
New York, National Academy of Design, 103rd Annual Exhibition, March 20 - April 8, 1928, no. 206.
Literature
Peter Hastings Falk, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design, 1901-1950, Madison, Sound View Press, 1990, p. 403.
Scott A. Shields, Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey, Pasadena, 2012, p. 237, listed in chronology.
By 1920, Edgar Payne was fully enthralled by the solitude and grandeur of California's Eastern Sierra mountains. In fact much of California by this time was encouraged to get out into the open and enjoy nature and the great outdoors. For many, there was a strong feeling that industrialization and an increase in population growth was rapidly encroaching on nature and a worry that these pristine areas were threatened. Many of Payne's early compositions are devoid of people, as he purposely strove to portray the solitude of nature and the absence of man's presence. Along with his friend and painting companion Conrad Buff, Payne would often travel by Model T on dusty roads up to the Owens Valley. From there he would travel by horse or mule to remote locations in the high country. As these visits increased through the years, Payne chose to climb further and further into the mountains in order to seek out the most spectacular vantage points he and his party could find. Unlike many artists that only painted field sketches, with more finished paintings to be completed in their studio later, Payne dragged canvases of all sizes to the very spots at which these paintings were spontaneous sketched out and completed.
While many of his fellow artists back in Los Angeles and Laguna Beach chose to paint closer to home, Payne was exhilarated by the mountains and the scenery he found. In his book California the Wonderful, Edwin Markham summarized the California that Edgar Payne sought to discover when he wrote, 'I have been picturing the softer paths of California, 'with roses all the way'. But if, like Ulysses, you weary of lotus-land, where it seems always afternoon, you have only to dart out to the shores or fly into the Sierras to find nature still wild and elemental.'
Edgar Payne's depictions of glacier-clad mountains and emerald blue lakes became the artist's trademark and thrust him into the international spotlight as he chose to exhibit these works in major American and European art centers. The masculinity of these scenes, and the almost otherworldly views that most would never witness themselves filled viewers with endless wonder. As a self-taught artist, Payne's broad and confident brushwork became synonymous with plein air painting in Southern California and secured the artist's place in the pantheon of American Impressionism.
Saleroom notices
Provenance should read: Estate of Wolfgang Pogzeba, Denver, Colorado. Private collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
