Guy Rose

Lot Description Guy Rose (1867-1925) July Afternoon signed 'Guy Rose' (lower right) oil on canvas 23½ x 28¾ in. (59.7 x 73 cm.) Painted circa 1907-12. Provenance Mrs. Henry A. Everett. [With]Berry-Hill Galleries, New York. Daniel J. Terra, Chicago, Illinois, acquired from the above, 1986. Sotheby's, New York, 25 May 1995, lot 14. The Redfern Gallery, Laguna Beach, California. Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1996. Literature T.A. Neff, et al., A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, exhibition catalogue, Chicago, Illinois, 1987, p. 256, pl. T-147, illustrated. W.H. Gerdts, et al., Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865-1915, Evanston, Illinois, 1992, pp. 88-89, fig. 84, illustrated. Exhibited Chicago, Illinois, Terra Museum of American Art, A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, April 21-June 21, 1987. View Lot Notes > A leading figure in American Art, Guy Rose is often considered the preeminent California Impressionist painter. Developing a highly personal style based on Impressionistic light and color, Rose's Giverny landscapes are among his greatest works. Imbued with a brilliant sense of light and spirited, broken brushwork, July Afternoon is a superb example of Rose's unique ability to capture the fleeting essence of a summer's day. A native of San Gabriel, California, Rose first traveled to France in 1888 when he enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris. During his tenure there, he visited the French countryside and specifically the village of Giverny placing him among the first American artists to explore the region and artistic community that had emerged there. In an account nearly ten years after his first visit, Rose relayed his thoughts on the landscape, "When I first saw the French country at Giverny, it seemed so queer and strange, and above all so wonderfully beautiful, that the first impression still lasts; so that whenever I think of France that is the way I always see it...Here the beautiful days come and go,--each changing season, each hour, more full of fascination than the last." (as quoted in W. South, Guy Rose: American Impressionist, Oakland, California, 1995, p. 21) Subsequent to his first visits to the region, Rose left the Académie Julian in order to free himself from academic constraints and explore a more fluid and brighter approach to painting. Reluctant to abandon all of his formal training at once, during the 1890s he gradually moved towards livelier, more feathery brushwork and focused primarily on the effects of light and atmosphere, which combined, ultimately came to define his mature style. In 1904, Rose became a permanent resident of Giverny and the effervescent light found in the landscape there inspired such canvases as July Afternoon. Here Rose captures the escaping sunlight raking across a fenced-in farm. He employs the haystacks as a vehicle to explore light and shadow. Rose adds further complexity by incorporating a long horizontal band of shade which suggests the presence of a structural element, such as a house or barn, just outside the picture plane. Through quick, varied applications of blues, greens and lavenders, Rose works up the surface of the canvas to capture the waning light and rich summer atmosphere. The spontaneity of the brushwork suggests that he was working quickly, as if racing to apply the paint to capture the transient color of the diminishing day before the setting sun was lost behind the horizon. A neighbor of Claude Monet, Rose was an admirer of his work and approach to plein air painting. In 1912 he wrote of the artist, "Monet is a wonderful man, both as a man and as an artist...Have you seen any of his 'pond lily' set, as it is called?...They are simply marvelous, showing the aspects of water lilies and their shapely pads, floating upon still pools of surfaces like mirrors, reflecting colors of ethereal beauty." (as quoted in Guy Rose: American Impressionist, 1995, p. 41) In July Afternoon, Rose's reverence for Monet's style, palette and subject matter is evident. Clearly inspired by Monet's Haystacks series completed in 1890-91, the present work similarly captures the effects of light and shadow as manifested in the haystacks of the Giverny landscape. Rose had begun to explore haystacks as compositional elements as early as 1889, in his Salon admission The End of the Day (Formerly Walter Nelson-Rees and James Coran Collection. Destroyed by fire, October 1991) though it wasn't until later that decade when he began to use them exclusively to define light effects and capture the place. A sensational depiction of the rhythms of nature captured in abstracted forms of color, July Afternoon demonstrates Rose's heightened sensitivity to the light and atmosphere of the country landscape. The brilliant palette, rapid brushwork and masterfully rendered fugitive light of July Afternoon are not only qualities that are representative of the artist's work in Giverny, but also of those that accounted for his acclaim as one of the greatest Impressionist painters of his time. This painting is recognized and authenticated by Roy Rose, descendant of Guy Rose, as by Guy Rose (1867-1925).

Guy Rose (American, 1867-1925) At Duck Cove unsigned oil on canvas 29 x 24in overall: 34 x 29in PROVENANCE: Collection of Ethel Rose's son Thence by descent through heirs of the Rose family to the present owner Private collection, Vermont EXHIBITED: Los Angeles, California, Stendahl Art Galleries, Guy Rose, Memorial Exhibition , 1926, no. 77. The Stendahl Galleries label is attached to the reverse. The painting is listed as inventory number 1758. LITERATURE: Stendahl, Earl, Guy Rose, Memorial Exhibition , Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles, 1926, p. 55, no. 77, illustrated. Duck Cove is located south of Wickford Village along the coast of Rhode Island. This landscape was painted some time after Guy and Ethel Rose returned to America from France in late 1912. For the next several months, the couple shared their time between New York and Rhode Island, probably enjoying the summers more in the latter. The works Guy Rose exhibited during this period were described as French subjects or listed as untitled landscapes so it is not known how prolific he was during this time. A number of these paintings were shown in 1913 at the Macbeth Gallery in New York City. We know that he taught an outdoor sketching class during the summers of 1913 and 1914. These were held in and around the Narragansett area just south of Wickford. In a letter written by Ray Redfern, of the Redfern Gallery, he states that "the painting was at one time owned by the son of Ethel Rose, who believes the scene was painted in the garden of his Grandmother's property. The painting was most likely painted in 1913 or 1914, along with two other major paintings titled Girl in a Wickford Garden, New England and Woman Sewing ." The same wooden gazebo can be seen in each of these paintings. At Duck Cove typifies the fresh influence that the French Impressionists had on Rose's paintings at this time, as the work is entirely made up of light, shadow and color. The foreground is restrained and masterfully composed of lavender tones with splashes of creamy yellows. This diffused light in the foreground is balanced equally by both the center glimpse of the cove and the treetops above. The scene could almost be mistaken for a corner of Monet's Giverny garden. In the Memorial Exhibition catalogue of 1926, Earl Stendahl poetically describes the painting as "Pearly grey and luscious green. River and sky shadow provide delicious notes." The work is stamped on the reverse with signatures by both Ethel Rose, the artist's wife, and Earl L. Stendahl of Stendahl Galleries.

Guy Rose (American, 1867-1925) Woman sewing oil on canvas 29 x 24in overall: 40 1/4 x 35 1/4in PROVENANCE: With Charles A. Calder Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island Collection of Mrs. Josephine P. Everett, Pasadena, California With Pasadena Art Institute, 1938, by bequest of Mrs. Josephine P. Everett (note: the Museum was renamed Pasadena Art Museum in 1954) Collection of William Barclay, Beverly Hills, California (through a deaccession from the Museum), December 1964 Collection of Lois Bentley, Beverly Hills, California, until June 1997 Private collection, Rancho Santa Fe, California, June 1997 to present According the Roy C. Rose, the grand nephew of the artist, this painting was probably executed in New England shortly after Guy and Ethel Rose returned to America in late 1912. This work resembles other paintings executed in the summers of 1913 and 1914 in Wickford, Rhode Island. In fact, the same wooden gazebo that surrounds the woman sewing is seen in Rose's painting Girl in a Wickford Garden . Woman Sewing is a signature example of early American Impressionist painting. The influence of French Impressionism is clearly exemplified in the use of diffused light through the trees and the wispy, fresh quality of brushwork throughout the background. Rose has taken this Impressionistic style an extra step by juxtaposing a truly plein-air setting with a more carefully finished sitter. The viewer's eye is drawn to the fine detail of the woman's face, hands, dress and shoes, tantalized all the while by the play of light and color throughout the trees and inlet beyond. The original purchaser of this painting is believed to be Mrs. Josephine P. Everett, an important early patron of American Impressionist painters. She believed in the importance of American artists and their place in the history of art. Most of her purchases were made directly from the artists and she prided herself on her extensive personal relationships with painters throughout the country. Her vast beneficence was later to become the foundation for the Pasadena Art Museum, The Cleveland Art Museum of Art, and to a lesser degree, the San Diego Museum. At her death, she bequeathed ten Guy Rose paintings to the Pasadena Art Museum, including Woman Sewing . Woman Sewing was previously offered at Bonhams & Butterfields in 1997 and sold under the title Lady Sewing Amongst Trees . Following the comparison with the Wickford painting and the discovery of the gazebo, the title has been altered. A letter written by Roy C. Rose, discussing this painting, accompanies the lot.

Guy Rose (American, 1867-1925) Matin de Novembre, c. 1910 signed 'Guy Rose' (lower right) and inscribed 'Guy Rose / Matin de Novembre' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 28 3/4 x 23 3/4in overall: 33 x 28in PROVENANCE: Collection of the artist Lilla Cabot Perry Thence by descent to the present family owner Guy and Ethel Rose bought a stone cottage in Giverny in 1899. They spent many summers there over the next thirteen years. Guy's painting style was deeply influenced by Claude Monet and his paintings of scenes in and around Giverny reflect this. Many American artists visited Giverny in these years in hopes of meeting and working with Monet. But Monet worked independently and interacted with only a few of these artists. One exception was Guy Rose, who probably met Monet through the artist Lilla Cabot Perry. Perry was a neighbor and became a close friend to Ethel and Guy Rose. She had moved to Giverny ten years earlier after seeing Monet's work in a Paris Gallery. She eventually developed a close relationship with Monet and went on to befriend many American artists as they traveled through Giverny. We do not know how she came to this painting, but Matin de Novembre was once owned by Lilla Cabot Perry. Monet's estate is located near a small branch of the Epte River. It is on this river that Monet painted The Boat at Giverny in 1887. The scene depicts three girls in one of Monet's rowboats. This and another boat were fixtures on the estate and many artists used them as elements in their paintings. As the years passed, the boats were left unused and gradually became unusable. But their value compositionally remained and artists such as Rose, Frederick Frieseke, Louis Ritman, Edmund Greacen and Lawton Parker used them in several of their paintings. Guy Rose painted at least four different paintings from a similar vantage point along the Epte river in 1910. Each work depicts the scene in varying casts of light and color. No doubt Rose was thinking of Monet's practice of painting the same scene at different times of the day in order to capture the changes in color and light. In Matin de Novembre , much of the focus is on the water's reflection. The painting appears monochromatic, and yet on closer inspection Rose has given the viewer a rich variety of subtle blues, greens, pinks, purple, lavender and yellows. He has no doubt captured the scene precisely as he found it on that early November morning. The stillness of the river and the absence of people add to the effect of a moody, calm morning. Rose loved the solitude of nature. As Ethel Rose wrote of her husband, he 'loved the country and was always happy when alone and occupied'. Matin de Novembre typifies the classic Impressionist style as seen through the eyes of those witnessing Giverny at its grandest and most influential.

LOT 49 PROPERTY FROM THE ROSE FAMILY, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND GUY ROSE 1867 - 1925 MOUNTAIN LAKES inscribed Mountain Lakes on the reverse; also inscribed Ethel Rose / Earl L. Stendahl and stamped Guy Rose Sale / Stendahl Galleries on the reverse oil on canvas 29 by 28 inches (73.7 by 71.1 cm)