Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT MIDWESTERN ESTATE
Lot 61
Frederick Carl Frieseke(1874-1939)Sun Spots 25 3/4 x 32 in. (65.4 x 81.3 cm.)
7 November 2023, 14:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$57,600 inc. premium
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Mary Manfredi
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939)
Sun Spots
signed 'F.C. Frieseke.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
25 3/4 x 32 in. (65.4 x 81.3 cm.)
Painted circa 1926.
signed 'F.C. Frieseke.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
25 3/4 x 32 in. (65.4 x 81.3 cm.)
Painted circa 1926.
Footnotes
Provenance
Private collection, Owosso, Michigan, acquired from the artist, 1927.
By descent to the present owner within the family of the above.
Exhibited
Savannah, Georgia, The Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Frederick Frieseke: 1874-1939, November 5-December 5, 1974, p. 18, no. 12, and elsewhere.
Indiana, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Images of Women from the Permanent Collection, August 12-November 5, 1995.
This work is included in the draft Frieseke Catalogue Raisonné, compiled by Nicholas Kilmer, the artist's grandson, with the support of the Hollis Taggart Galleries. That draft is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art.
Frederick Carl Frieseke is celebrated as an American Impressionist for his paintings of beautiful young women in the lush landscapes of Normandy. Sun Spots is a superb example of this and a tour de force in the artist's oeuvre that demonstrates his mastery for rendering rich textures and light. Painted at the height of his artistic abilities, the present work depicts a young woman resting meditatively on a garden chaise lounge surrounded by a vibrant landscape of trees and flowers. Behind her is a table with an afternoon tea service and placed below her on the grass is her sun hat adorned with a ribbon and florals. Dappled sunlight radiates through the canopy of trees overhead, creating sublime patterns of light and shadow throughout the composition. Frieseke's technique to employ sun spots as a method to highlight his subjects is one that he repeats in numerous works, but in the present work, Frieseke's technique is rendered so effectively that the sun spots themselves become a primary subject of the work.