Lot Details
Lot 181
Walter MacEwen
American, 1860-1943
Fete Galante
Signed MacEwen-Paris (lr)
Oil on canvas
89 3/4 x 70 3/4 inches
Unframed
Provenance:
Laura Robinson (later Mrs. William A. Evans)
Sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, Apr. 17 and 18, 1964, lot 257
Acquired from the above by the artist's niece
Thence by descent to the present owner
Exhibited:
Washington, D.C., Federal Reserve Building, 1995-2007
Literature:
The American House
Around 1910, Laura Robinson (later Laura Robinson Evans) commissioned Walter MacEwen to paint two large decorative compositions to embellish her new home, Northway, in Greenwich, Connecticut. The grand residence won awards for architectural accuracy and was featured in The American House, a contemporary design publication. Intended for the dining room, the works were painted in a rococo style, in keeping with the architecture of the residence, which was modeled after the Petit Trianon at Versailles.
Walter MacEwen was the logical choice for such a commission. Miss Robinson's two elder sisters were married to the artist's brothers, Paul and Alfred. One of the most highly decorated American painters of the late nineteenth century, MacEwen produced works in various genres and styles, but was best known for his charming depictions of rural Dutch life. A Chicago native, he had studied at the Munich Academy and at the Academie Julian in Paris, where he became a regular exhibitor in the annual salon shows. He ultimately established Paris as his primary residence, remaining there until 1940, when the war forced him to return to America.
The present works depict fetes galantes, with elegantly attired figures frolicking in a pastoral setting. MacEwen chose to include his patroness in one of the paintings. Garbed in pink, Miss Robinson appears in the right foreground, playing a lute as a handsome young courtier sits nearby.
The work of Walter MacEwen is featured in two exhibitions currently on view at the Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah: Walter MacEwen: An American Expatriate Revisited and Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914. The latter exhibition will travel to the Taft Museum, Cincinnati; the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan; and the Singer Laren Museum in the Netherlands.
Captions:
Details of the dining room at Northway
Residence of Mr. and Mrs. William Evans, Greenwich, Connecticut
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