Frederick Carl Frieseke
"Woman Dressing"
c. 1920

About the Item

Jim’s of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to offer this work by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874 – 1939). Frederick Carl Frieseke was a member of the third generation of American painters to inhabit and find inspiration from Giverny, France. His use of bright colors and light, to depict the female figure, defined the style of the Giverny group during his residence, synthesizing aspects of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Born in the United States, Frieseke studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. In 1898, he moved to Paris to enroll in the Académie Julian, where he studied under Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. During this time, Frieseke also briefly studied with James A. Whistler, who would prove to be a great inspiration in Frieseke’s early works. From Whistler, Frieseke adopted a tonalist palette and a decorative approach to figurative painting. While in Paris, Frieseke’s works were featured at the American Art Association of Paris and in several annual salon exhibitions. His painting, “Before the Mirror”, was purchased by the French Government in 1904 and, in the same year, Frieseke received the silver medal at the Saint Louis International Exhibition. In 1898, Frieseke visited Giverny, the former Impressionist art colony located on the Seine, for the first time. He would continue to take frequent trips to the village in the summer before renting the home next door to Claude Monet’s estate. Despite maintaining his studio in Paris, Giverny became Frieseke’s primary place of residence. Upon moving to the country, Frieseke abandoned the tonalist palette and started to incorporate brighter colors inspired by the Impressionists who had originally inhabited the area. In 1914, Frieseke was elected as a member of the National Academy of Design in New York despite living in France. He was awarded many honors throughout his lifetime, including the Chevalier from the Legion of Honor of France; the Fourth William A. Clark Prize at the 1908 Corcoran Biennial; the Temple Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; and the Grand Prize at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Creator:
Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939, American)
Creation Year:
c. 1920
Dimensions:
Height: 34 in (86.36 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
More Editions & Sizes:
Framed Size 34" x 30"Price: $111,875
Medium:
Board,Oil
Movement & Style:
American Impressionist
Period:
1920-1929
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Lambertville, NJ
Reference Number:
Seller: PB121217021stDibs: LU3745490872
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Shop All Frederick Carl Frieseke

Frederick Carl Frieseke

Frederick Carl Frieseke studied at the Chicago School of Fine Arts from 1884, and at the Art Students League, New York. In 1888, he went to the Académie Julian in Paris, where he worked under Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens, also receiving advice from Whistler. In Paris, he also became acquainted with the work of contemporary artists, particularly Fantin-Latour and Renoir, and discovered Giverny, which he visited frequently during the summer months. In 1906, having achieved a degree of financial and artistic success, Frieseke was able to buy Théodore Robinson's former house in Giverny, which was next door to Monet's. In 1919, he moved to the Normandy village, Le Mesnil-sur-Blangy, where, after a brief return to the United States in 1937, he died.

Frieseke primarily painted female figures and nudes, such as Woman with a Mirror, Young Girl Playing the Piano or Model in Front of a Screen, gradually progressing to intimate scenes of women and, like Renoir, voluptuous nudes posed in the open air, their bodies lit by sunlight filtered through foliage. His methods ranged from a strictly Impressionist technique of separate brushstrokes, to one approaching divisionism, as in Mrs. Whitman's Garden of about 1912, to a broader application of color, as in Ladies in a Boat in Giverny of 1910. At times, he even went beyond Impressionism to a manner inspired by Fauvism, heightening the colors – mauves, blues and pinks – to “exaggerate the effect.” At the same time, Frieseke was also concerned, like Degas, with traditional figure painting, despite often setting them in an Impressionist-style landscape, as in Hollyhocks of 1912–13.

Frieseke took part in many group exhibitions in Paris, including the Salon des Artistes Français and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he became an associate member in 1901 and a permanent member in 1907. He held a solo show at the Venice Biennale in 1909, followed by another in Rome in 1911, and a show in New York in 1912. He received a number of distinctions: 1909, a gold medal at the Munich International Exhibition; 1913, the Temple Prize from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; 1915, the Grand Prix at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, San Francisco; 1915, a gold medal at the Philadelphia Art Club; and was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

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(Biography provided by Leighton Fine Art Ltd.)