Lot 68
Alson Skinner Clark(1876-1949)A Tributary of the Black River, Watertown, N.Y. 29 1/2 x 37in framed 39 x 46in
13 October 2020, 13:00 PDT
Los AngelesSold for US$21,325 inc. premium
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Aaron Bastian
Director
Kathy Wong
Senior Director, Fine Art
Alson Skinner Clark (1876-1949)
A Tributary of the Black River, Watertown, N.Y.
signed and dated 'Alson S. Clark. 02.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
29 1/2 x 37in
framed 39 x 46in
Painted in 1902.
signed and dated 'Alson S. Clark. 02.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
29 1/2 x 37in
framed 39 x 46in
Painted in 1902.
Footnotes
Provenance
Estate of the artist.
Petersen Galleries, Beverly Hills, California, purchased from the above.
Private collection, Laguna Beach, California, purchased from the above, 1986.
Exhibited
New York, 24th Exhibition of Society of American Artists, 1902.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1903.
Cincinnati, The Cincinnati Museum of Art, 1904.
Philadelphia, The Pennsyvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1904.
Santa Ana, Orange County Museum of Art, 1997.
Laguna Beach, Laguna Art Museum; Sacramento, Crocker Art Museum; Memphis, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Montclair, New Jersey, Montclair Art Museum, California Light 1900 - 1930, traveling exhibition, 1990 – 1991.
Literature
Jean Stern, Alson S. Clark, Petersen Publishing Company, 1983 ("Based on the Biography of Alson Skinner Clark by Medora Clark"), illustrated in color, p. 62, Item #2.
Patricia Trenton, California Light, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, 1990, in association with Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, 1991, illustrated in color, p. 116, pl. 113.
Deborah Epstein Solon, An American Impressionist, The Art and Life of Alson Skinner Clark, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, 2005, illustrated in color, p. 25, pl. 4.
Deborah Solon's label copy was shared with the present owner: "Clark returned to America in 1901 and set up a studio in Watertown, New York. the nearest city to his family home (Comfort Island) in the Thousand Islands, near Lake Ontario and the Canadian border. During the winter of 1902 he worked on this impressive depiction of the wash along the black river near Watertown. In the dead of winter, the spare landscape around the river and the derelict buildings in the background are enveloped in a blanket of snow. Watertown had been a prosperous city with its Victorian architecture but by the time Clark painted this picture it was in its decline. The urban deterioration evident here in this painting was also depicted by the Ashcan School of Painters like that of Robert Henri and others of that group. However, Solon claims that Clark did not invest his picture with a subtext or social agenda, but was primarily depicting the decay and pollution in the river and the buildings of Watertown. Although, Clark had studied with William Merritt Chase, less of Chase's impressionistic pastel colors are evident here. The striking difference is the dark coloring and expressionist brushwork that resembles more the Robert Henri's group of the earlier period.
