catalog text
OLIVE PARKER BLACK (AMERICAN, 1868-1948) ANTIQUE PAINTING, "EARLY SPRING"
Signed lower left, stretcher bars inscribed "#16187 02/8100 #4 Early Spring" in pencil
Item # 1402XDS22-S
Infused with warmth and the optimism of a new season, this fine work in oil on canvas titled en verso "Early Spring" captures a meandering stream through a thinly wooded landscape overflowing with vibrant foliage and overshadowed by the hint of mountains in the distance. A work that is clearly influenced by the Tonalism movement, Olive Parker Black works with a limited palate to render an exceptionally well detailed scene. While certainly a work of realism, accurately capturing both scale and minute details of the scene before her, the result remains dreamy and slightly out of reach - an influence of the French Barbizon school evident in her complex handling of the pigment. The work is signed lower left "Olive P. Black". This very fine example is an outstanding selection for serious collectors of investment grade works by accomplished and well listed artists.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in July of 1868, Olive Parker Black moved to New York City in 1910. She was a student of Hugh Bolton Jones at the Art Students' League, William Merritt Chase, and Edwin Blashfield at the New York National Academy of Design in New York. Under the tutelage of these masters and the influence of the Barbizon School from Hugh Bolton Jones, she developed a distinctive style of blending impressionism and realism in her landscapes with warm tones and sharp textures. She exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1897-1930, at the Art Club of Philadelphia, the Boston Art Club and at the Carnegie Institute. She was also a member of the New York Society of Painters, the National Academy of Women Painters and Sculptors, the American Artists Professional League and in 1887 became a member of the Copely Society. An exceptional landscape painter, she was particularly skilled at and enjoyed executing works featuring bodies of water: streams by roads, large ponds in pastures, cows grazing along the river, trickling brooks in summer and wooded river landscapes. Much of the body of her work focuses on the three seasons of Spring, Summer and Fall and captures scenes from West Virginia through Massachusetts, a large quantity of her landscapes focused in South Egremont, Massachusetts, where she maintained a summer home. She is incredibly well listed, being discussed in dozens of important books and studies. Her work has a very strong auction record, much of it in the five-figures and only coming to market infrequently.
Measurements: [frame] 25 1/2" wide x 29 1/2" high; [canvas] 20" wide x 24 1/4" high
Condition Report:
Original stretchers and lining. Contemporary frame with light cracking and wear (note bottom right corner has a light seam crack); light craquelure throughout, though rather attractive; light surface grime - would be more vibrant if it were professionally cleaned. [UNDER UV] Inpainting in the stream, this detailed in the slideshow of images; scattered touch ups through trees on left side, two larger (nickel and dime size) spots of inpainting in tree (right-mid quadrant), larger spot of touch up where right tree branches touch the sky. Perhaps 5% of surface with touchups. Overall rather minimal conservation, the whole remaining in exceptional condition. Please review all images in the slideshow for a full overview of condition.
