Mabel Dwight - part 1

1932 Self-Portrait lithograph on stone 26.9 x 21 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

Though Mabel Dwight studied art in her youth, she emerged relatively late in life as a noted satirist of contemporary American life, particularly focused on New York, where she lived.

Mabel Jacque Williamson (1876 – 1955) was born in Cincinatti, Ohio. She spent her childhood in New Orleans and California and studied at San Francisco’s Mark Hopkins Institute of Art (now San Francisco Art Institute), after which she travelled extensively in France, Italy, India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Egypt and Java. In 1903 she settled in Greenwich Village, New York, enclave of bohemian artists and writers at the time. She married social realist painter and printmaker Eugene Higgins (1874 – 1958) in 1906 and spent much of the next decade promoting her Higgins’ art, but they separated in 1917 and divorced in 1921. Higgins is these days grouped with the famous New York “Ashcan School” style of works.

Eugene Higgins "Poor Folks" mezzotint Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Museum, Cambridge MA

Eugene Higgins untitled charcoal drawing

In  1918 Mabel became the secretary of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s newly established Studio Club, promoting contemporary American art, and evolving into the present-day Whitney Museum of American Art. Following her divorce from Higgins in 1921 Mabel adopted the surname Dwight, for unknown reasons.

1898 Sketch Club Catalogue by Mabel (Williamson) Dwight

In 1926 aged fifty-two Mabel Dwight visited Paris, where she discovered her true medium, lithography. Her first lithographs were produced at Atelier Duchâtel, and her first solo exhibition of prints and drawings took place in 1928 at the Weyhe Gallery, New York – a gallery specializing in prints, founded by Erhard Wehe (in 1919) and managed by Carl Zigrosser (see 1930 lithograph below). It was through this medium – producing 111 limted edition lithographic prints – that she was able to express her vision of the comedie humaine, recording the everyday life and foibles of her fellow New Yorkers.

During the Depression her work became more serious and politically charged, creating anti-fascist images and participating in the New Deal’’s Federal Art Project, for which she produced  twenty-five lithographs highlighting urban social and political issues. By this time she was finding success amongst both collectors and museums. Unfortunately her artistic ability declined off after 1941 due to failing health. She spent her last years writing her autobiography, which was never published.

This is part 1 of a 2 - part post on the work of Mabel Dwight:

1927 Basque Church lithograph on stone in three colours, printed on chine collé 39.6 x 32.2 cm Edition of 30 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Boulevard des Italiens (aka Cafe, Boulevard des Italiens) transfer lithograph on stone 24.6 x 32.4 cm edition of 12 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Bouquiniste(s) transfer lithograph on stone 25 x 32.4 cm edition of 20 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Bridge Paris transfer lithograph on stone 24.8 x 22.3 cm edition of 6 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Copyists at the Louvre transfer lithograph on stone 24.3 x 32.4 cm edition of 12 printed at Duchatel,Paris

1927 Guignolette (Paris) hand-coloured lithograph on stone 22.2 x 29.6 cm Edition of 75 printed by George Miller

1927 Guignolette II lithograph on stone 22.5 x 27.6 cm Edition of 12 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 In the Subway lithograph on stone 23.5 x 18.4 cm Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1927 Paris Pension lithograph on stone printed on chine collé 24.1 x 31.4 cm edition of 6

1927 Paris Sketches (aka Paris Types) lithograph on stone printed on chine collé 31.9 x 22.7 cm edition of 6

1927 Paris Street transfer lithograph on stone 29.8 x 23.2 cm edition of 6 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Toy Shop Window lithograph 23.9 x 30.6 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 "Stick 'em Up" (aka Cinema) lithograph on stone 26.2 x 25.9 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Aquarium (One of two known hand-coloured versions) lithograph on stone 28.4 x 31 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Aquarium lithograph on stone 28.4 x 31 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Brothers lithograph on zinc plate 31.5 x 24.9 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Deserted Mansion lithograph on zinc plate 28.9 x 24.5 cm Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1928 Fish (aka Aquarium) lithograph on stone in two colours 26.1 x 27.3 cm edition of 60 printed by George Miller

1928 Greetings from the House of Weyhe (Art Gallery Christmas Card) lithograph on stone 17.8 x 21.4 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Hat Sale - $1.98 lithograph on zinc plate 30.7 x 25.5 cm Edition of 25 printed by George Miller

1928 Houston Street Burlesque lithograph on stone 24.7 x 20 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 In the Park lithograph on zinc plate 27.8 x 23.2 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Mechano Marvel of the Age lithograph on stone in three colours 31.2 x 23.6 cm Edition of 50 (38 colour, 12 black) printed by George Miller

1928 Portrait of Roderick Seidenberg lithograph on stone 24.4 x 20.7 cm Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1928 The Clinch (first state) lithograph on stone 23 x 29.6 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 The Clinch (second state) lithograph on stone 23 x 29.6 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 The Family lithograph on stone 20.1 x 25.6 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 The Ocean, Coney Island lithograph on stone 22.4 x 25.5 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1932 Coney Island Beach hand-coloured lithograph 22.4 x 25.7 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.

1928 Tourists in the Crypt at Chartres lithograph on stone 23.5 x 25.5 cm Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1929 Dusk lithograph on stone 33.2 x 24.6 cm Edition of 100 printed by George Miller

1929 Harlem Rent Party lithograph on stone 26 x 30.2 cm Edition of 44 printed by George Miller

1929 Old Greenwich Village lithograph on zinc plate 24 x 23.9 cm edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1929 The Survivor, Staten Island lithograph on stone 25.3 x 35 cm Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1930 Circus lithograph on stone 34 x 23.9 cm Edition of 55 printed by George Miller

1930 Ferry Boat (aka On the Ferry Boat) lithograph on stone 23.3 x 25.7 cm Edition of 60 printed by George Miller

1930 Portrait of Carl Zigrosser lithograph on stone 33.6 x 28.7 cm Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1930 Portrait of Paul Robeson lithograph on stone in five colours 37.6 x 32.9 edition of 100 (75 colour, 25 black) printed by George Miller

1930 The Great Trapeze Act lithograph on stone 22 x 34.3 cm Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1931 Derelicts lithograph on stone 24.7 x 31.5 cm Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1931 Fishing Village lithograph on stone 23.5 x 28.1 cm Edition of 24 printed by George Miller

John Singer Sargent - part 23

Sargent's palette, oil paints and brushes Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Museum, Cambridge MA

John Singer Sargent (1866 - 1925) was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocation of Edwardian era luxury. During his career he created approximately 900 oil paintings and more than 2000 watercolours, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine and Florida, amongst others.

This is part 23 of a 23-part post on the works of John Singer Sargent. For full biographical notes see part 1. For earlier works see parts 1 - 22 also.

1921 Charles Woodbury oil on canvas 71.4 x 41.8 cm National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.

1921 Eleonora Randolph Sears charcoal on paperboard 62.9 x 47.6 cm Private Collection

1921 Renatta Borgatti charcoal on paper

1921 Sand Beach, Schooner Head, Maine watercolour on paper 33.6 x 52.7 cm Private Collection

1921 Seated Male Nude, Arms Uplifted charcoal with stumping on ivory laid paper 47.4 x 62.7 cm Art Institute of Chicago IL

1922 General Officers of World War I
National Portrait Gallery, London: “Sargent, who initially declined the commission, began work on the military group portrait on his return from America in August 1920. He found the commission particularly difficult, writing to Sir James Guthrie (who was working on the politicians portrait) in Sepember of that year: ‘But I am merely collecting material and have not yet evolved any scheme of the picture as a whole. I am handicapped by the idea that they never could have been altogether in any sort of interesting background and reduced to painting them all standing up in a vacuum’. Certainly this painting does not have the characteristic brilliance of Sargent’s other work and was described by a former director of the National Portrait Gallery as ‘Still Life with Boots’.

1922 General Officers of World War I oil on canvas 299.7 x 528.3 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London

 Studies in left to right order as in the painting:

1922c William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood chalk 59.1 x 48.3 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London

1919-22c Jan Christian Smuts oil on canvas 80.6 x 65.4 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c Louis Botha graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson of Trent graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson of Trent graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson of Trent graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1919-22c Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson of Trent oil on canvas 55.9 x 40.6 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London

1920-21 General Henry Sinclair, Baron Horne, 1861 - 1929. Soldier (Study for portrait in General Officers of World War I) oil on canvas 56 x 41 cm National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

1920-22 George Francis Milne, 1st Baron Milne, 1866 - 1948. Field-Marshal (Study for portrait in General Officers of World War I, 1914 - 1918) oil on canvas 56 x 40.7 cm National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

1922c Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Bt graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1919-22c Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Bt oil on canvas 54.6 x 39.4 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, 1861 - 1928. Soldier oil on canvas 56 x 41 cm National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

1922c John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1919-22c John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres oil on canvas 54.6 x 39.4 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

18a. 1922c Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London

1922c Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c (Frederic) Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c Sir Charles Macpherson Dobell graphite 35.6 x 21.6 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1922c Sir Charles Macpherson Dobell graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

Sir Charles Macpherson Dobell oil on canvas 55.8 x 40.6 cm Private Collection

1921 Unknown man (Haig?) graphite 35.6 x 21.9 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London.

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1922 The Artist Sketching oil on canvas 55.9 x 71.1 cm Private Collection on loan to Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Providence RI

1922 The Countess of Rocksavage, later Marchioness of Cholmondeley oil on canvas 161.3 x 89.8 cm Private Collection

1923 Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor chalk 55.9 x 38.1 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London

1923 Robert Gould Shaw III charcoal on paper 55.9 x 41.9 cm Private Collection

1923 Sir Philip Sassoon oil on canvas 95.2 x 57.8 cm Tate, London

1923-24 Abbot Lawrence Lowell oil on canvas 140.6 x 98.7 cm Harvard University Portrait Collection, Cambridge MA

1924 Captain Herbert M. Sears on deck of the Schooner Yacht Constellation watercolour and gouache on paper Peabody Essex Museum, Salem MA

1924 Charlotte Nichols Greene and her Son Stephen, 1924 charcoal on paper 44.5 x 60.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1924 Constellation: Rainy Day on the Yacht graphite and watercolour on paper 33.7 x 53.3 cm Colby College of Art ME

1924 Emily Winthrop Miles (Mrs. Corey Lucien Miles) charcoal on laid paper 61 x 46 cm Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Museum, Cambridge MA

1924 Harold Irving Pratt, Jr. (at age 20) charcoal on cream paper 60 x 45 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1924 Kate Winthrop Morse (Mrs. Darwin S. Morse) charcoal on laid paper 61 x 46 cm Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Museum, Cambridge MA

1924 Sir William Hedworth Williamson charcoal 52.7 x 27.9 cm Private Collection

1925 Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston oil on canvas 129.2 x 92.4 cm Currier Museum of Art, Manchester NH

1925 Miss Elizabeth Williamson charcoal 53.3 x 30.5 cm Private Collection

All of Sargent’s murals are to be found in the Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts area. They are in the Boston Public Library, the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, and Harvard University’s Widener Library. Sargent’s largest scale works are the mural decorations that grace the Boston Public Library depicting the history of religion and the gods of polytheism. They were attached to the walls of the library by means of marouflage (using an adhesive that hardens as it dries such as plaster or cement). He worked on the cycle for almost thirty years but never completed the final mural. The murals were restored in 2003-04.

1922-25 Atlas and Hesperides

1922-24 Sketch for Atlas and the Hesperides graphite and oil on canvas 86.4 x 86.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Atlas and the Hesperides oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Sketch for Atlas and the Hesperides graphite and charcoal on paper 47.5 x 63 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Sketch for Atlas charcoal on paper 47.6 x 63 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Sketch for Atlas and the Hesperides graphite and charcoal on paper 48 x 63 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Sketch for Atlas and the Hesperides: Hesperides charcoal on paper 47 x 63 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Sketch for Atlas and the Hesperides: Hesperides graphite and charcoal on paper 48 x 63 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Sketch for Atlas and the Hesperides: One of the Hesperides graphite and charcoal on paper 47.5 x 63 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Study for Hesperides, for "Atlas and the Hesperides" charcoal on laid paper 46.8 x 63.2 cm Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Museum, Cambridge MA

1922-25 Sketch for Atlas and the Hesperides: Two of the Hesperides charcoal on paper 47.6 x 63 cm Museum of FIne Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Sketch for Atlas and the Hesperides: Two of the Hesperides charcoal on paper 48 x 63 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

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1922-24 Sketch for Chiron and Achilles graphite and oil on canvas 87 x 79.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Chiron and Achilles oil on canvas 348 x 317.5 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Hercules and the Hydra oil on canvas 348 x 317.5 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Orestes oil on canvas 348 x 317.5 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Perseus on Pegasus Slaying Medusa oil on canvas 348 x 317.5 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-24 Sketch for Phaethon graphite and oil on canvas 89.5 x 89.5 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 Phaethon oil on canvas 307.3 cm diameter Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1921-25 Museum of Fine Arts Mural Study: The Winds I watercolour on board 24 x 59.7 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1921-25 Museum of Fine Arts Mural Study: The Winds II watercolour on board 24 x 58.7 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

1922-25 The Winds oil on canvas 327.7 x 767.1 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA