American painter
Charles Courtney Curran
(13 February 1861 ? 9 November 1942) was an American impressionist
painter
.
[1]
He is best known for his canvases depicting women in various settings.
[2]
As well as for his leadership role at the Cragsmoor Art Colony.
[3]
Biography
[
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]
Curran was born in February, 1861, in
Hartford, Kentucky
,
where his father taught at the school. A few months later, after the beginning of the
Civil War
, the family left there and returned to Ohio, eventually settling in Sandusky on the shores of
Lake Erie
where the elder Curran served as superintendent of schools.
[
citation needed
]
Charles Curran showed an early interest and aptitude for art, and in 1881 went to Cincinnati to study at the
McMicken School
(later the Fine Arts Academy of Cincinnati). He stayed there only a year before going to New York to study at the
National Academy of Design
and the
Art Students League
where he studied under
Walter Satterlee
.
[3]
Many of the pictures he created during this period featured young attractive working-class women engaged in a variety of tasks.
[
citation needed
]
One was particularly noteworthy:
Breezy Day
(1887, collection of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts) and won the Third Hallgarten Prize for Oils from the NAD in 1888. Shortly thereafter Curran and his young bride Grace left the United States to study in Paris, where their first child Louis was born.
[
citation needed
]
After two and half years abroad, the young family returned to the United States in June, 1891. For the next ten years Curran divided his time between New York where the couple had an apartment and Curran maintained a studio, and Ohio where they had extended family and spent most summers. In 1903 the Currans visited the summer arts colony of
Cragsmoor
for the first time. Located in the scenic
Shawangunk Mountains
about 100 miles northwest of New York City, the spectacular scenery and native flora inspired Curran to build a summer home there. He died in New York City in 1942.
[
citation needed
]
Career
[
edit
]
While in Paris Curran enrolled at the
Academie Julian
where he began to concentrate on new subject matter and experimented with a variety of painting styles. Many of his pictures from this time were painted outdoors en plein air and features well dressed modern women enjoying a variety of leisure activities. Two pictures from this time spent in the French capital are
In the Luxembourg (Garden)
(1889, collection of Terra Foundation for American Art) and
Afternoon in the Cluny Garden, Paris
(1889, collection of The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco). Curran also showed three of his pictures at the
Paris Salons
.
There Curran often used family members as models when he painted on the shores of
Lake Erie
, experimenting with a variety of artistic styles including impressionism, symbolism, tonalism and naturalism.
After the Currans visited the summer arts colony of Cragsmoor, the couple and their family would summer at Cragsmoor for the next forty years, and Curran would create some of his best known paintings in the vicinity. They feature young attractive girls dressed in white or pastel colors posed in brilliant sunshine. Two examples of these pictures are
On the Heights
(1909, collection of the Brooklyn Museum) and
Hilltop Walk
(1927, collection of Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln). Curran, along with his wife, became main figures at Cragsmoor. In addition to his own artwork, he taught painting, and with the assistance of his wife, helped edit the student art publication at the colony.
[3]
Although Curran continued to paint until shortly before his death, he never accepted or practiced newer artistic styles that emerged in the U.S. after
World War I
. He remained active with a number of arts organizations, especially the
National Academy of Design
where he served as secretary for fifteen years. He also became a successful portrait artist after 1920. In addition, Curran and his wife were avid travelers, visiting Europe at least five times and even mainland China in 1936.
Works
[
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]
Charles Curran's work is represented in numerous museum collections, and his outdoor paintings of youthful women have remained popular with individual collectors. It has been estimated that he produced more than 1500 pictures during his career. Besides oil paintings, these include
watercolors
and numerous illustrations for magazines in both color and black and white.
[6]
[7]
- Charles Courtney Curran
-
Shadows
, 1887
-
-
-
-
Dans le Jardin du Luxembourg
or
In Luxembourg's gardens
, 1889. Terra Foundation for American Art
-
Hollyhocks and Sunlight
, 1902
-
On the Heights
, 1909.
Brooklyn Museum
-
Breakfast for Three
, 1909.
High Museum of Art
-
The Lanterns
, circa 1910
-
Goldenrod Curran
, circa 1910
-
The Cabbage Field
, 1914. Private collection
-
Peonies
, 1915
References
[
edit
]
- Citations
- Bibliography
- Silver, Kenneth (1974), "
At the Sculpture Exhibition
by Charles Curran",
Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin
,
35
(1), Yale University: 20?25,
JSTOR
40514165
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Charles Courtney Curran
at Wikimedia Commons
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