Adelson Galleries Presents Show & Sale Of American Works On Paper May 9

NEW YORK CITY

:Nearly 40 important works on paper, including watercolors, pastels and pencil drawings, by leading American artists will be shown at Adelson Galleries May 9-June 30. "Light Impressions: American Works on Paper, 1875-1925" will exhibit works for sale, many of which are available for the first time.

The exhibition will feature works by Frank Benson, Robert Frederick Blum, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Childe Hassam, Phillip Leslie Hale, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, Everett Shinn, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and others.

Among the highlights of the exhibition are two significant works by Hassam (1859-1935). "Summertime," 1891, a pastel on canvas, is one of the bucolic scenes in a series of pastels that the artist probably executed around Lexington, Walden Pond and the surrounding areas of Boston. This beautiful and serene work, with its vigorous strokes of pastel throughout the picture, gives the effect of immediacy and movement that was the hallmark of the artist's Impressionist approach honed when Hassam and his wife lived in Paris from 1887 to 1889.

Another of the important Hassam pictures to be featured is "A Favorite Corner," 1892, a watercolor on paper. Hassam was one of the regulars in poet and gardener Celia Thaxter's summer circle on Appledore Island off the coast of New Hampshire.

Many of his works are outdoor scenes set in and around her flower garden. "A Favorite Corner" is a study for Hassam's most famous picture, "The Room of Flowers," 1894, oil on canvas, which illustrates Thaxter's parlor on Appledore Island and sold in 2001 to a private collector for $20 million. This picture is one of only two that Hassam painted of Thaxter's parlor and, as such, it is an especially rare subject and a highly significant work in the body of the artist's production.

Sargent (1856-1925) will be represented in this show with five pictures, the most significant of which is the watercolor on paper "Palazzo Labia with Campanile of San Geremia," 1903. Among Sargent's most vibrant and sought-after works are his watercolors of Venice. This picture, a prized watercolor of the artist, was painted from the Grand Canal, typical in the artist's working method in Venice in which he painted from his gondola that served as a floating studio. This "water-level" perspective provided the backdrop for the brilliant light and resonant color in Sargent's works of this magical city and offered an intimacy in both the oils and watercolors that he painted there.

Another Venice scene in the exhibition is brilliantly executed by Robert Frederick Blum (1857-1903) in "On the Lagoon, Venice," circa 1880-81. This painting by the Ohio-born artist is an excellent example of Blum's watercolor technique, which proved to influence the development of the medium in America. "On the Lagoon, Venice," a picture executed on a grained paper, is saturated with paint, a style of the artist's choosing. The artist's inscription on this watercolor, "R Blum/To Portfolio/Pedestal Fund Exhibition/On the Lagoon" identifies this picture as being part of the portfolio that was created for the Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition, which opened in early December 1883 at the National Academy of Design in New York for the purpose of raising money for the base of the Statue of Liberty. "On the Lagoon, Venice" has remained in a private collection until the present.

A fully illustrated color catalog with an essay by Jay E. Cantor, director of the Mary Cassatt Catalogue Raisonne Committee, will accompany this exhibition and sale and will be available for $20 exclusively through Adelson Galleries.

Adelson Galleries is in The Mark Hotel, 25 East 77th Street, Third Floor. For information, 212-439-6800 or www.adelsongalleries.com.