Figurative, Illustration

Barbara Spurr (1888-1963) English

Medium: Watercolor on paper
Image Size: 13.5” x 9”
Frame Size: 23” x 17.5”
Signature: Signed lower left
Price: $2800

Biography/Statement

BARBARA SPURR (August 6, 1888 – March 4, 1963)
Artist and painter in watercolor. Barbara Spurr was a prolific illustrator of children’s books from the 1920s through the 1940s. Though she is often mistaken as being an American artist, she was in fact British.

Barbara Spurr was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, the daughter of Ethel Mary Cropper (1858 – 1934) and George Edmondson Spurr (1858 – 1933). Her father was a milliner, dressmaker, draper and clothier based in Hitchin.

She attended the Royal Academy School in London, where she received her certificate in 1910, and the following year was still listed in the census as an art student. In 1914 her watercolor painting The Dream of Che-Yin was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, where it was noted as being admirable alongside works by several other women artists. Sadly, shortly thereafter three of her younger brothers were killed during World War I (1914 – 1918).

By the 1930s, Spurr had become one of the principal illustrators working for the publisher Renwick of Otley in Great Britain. As their books were often reissued with different covers and illustrations, it is hard to provide exact dates for the examples that were originally illustrated by Spurr. Among the books she appears to have either partially or fully illustrated are the following: The Lovesome Book for Little Folk (The Epworth Press, 1920s); Our Kiddie’s Fairystar (Renwick, c. 1929); Our Girls’ Tip Top (Renwick, c. 1930); Our Boys’ Best of All (Renwick, c. 1930); Tales of Adventure (Renwick, c. 1931); Our Girls’ Brightest (Renwick, c. 1936); Adventure (u.d.); Away We Go (u.d.); Country Days (u.d.); Growing Up (u.d.); Our Treasures (u.d.); Play With Us (u.d.); The Magic Flame (u.d.).

By 1939 Spurr was residing at 25 Field Lane, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England where she was listed as an artist and painter working on her own account. Later in her life she moved back closer to her hometown of Hitchin, settling, by 1960, in the nearby hamlet of Gosmore.

Barbara Spurr died at 2 High Street, Gosmore, Hertfordshire, England on Wednesday, the 6th of March 1963 at the age of seventy-four years. It is presently unclear from where her services were held or where she was eventually buried. Based on the value of her estate – which totaled nearly $15,000 pounds – she appears to have been successful at her chosen profession.

As an artist, she was known for her watercolor paintings, and designed both covers and interior illustrations for the books she worked on. Usually, her illustration paintings are signed “B. Spurr” at the lower left or lower right of the work.

Though there are undoubtedly other exhibitions in which Spurr participated, those presently known include the following: The Royal Academy, London, England, (1914). Her works are not known to be in the collection of any public institutions but do reside in many private collections throughout the World.

Artist Profile Page: Spurr, Barbara / Categories: Figurative, Illustration

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Illustration

Children's Book Illustrations (N/A)

Medium: Watercolor on paper
Image Size: 8” x 11.5”
Frame Size: 11” x 14.5”
Signature: Monogram lower left
Price: $2800

Biography/Statement

N/A

Artist Profile Page: Children’s Book Illustrations / Categories: Illustration

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American Woman Artist, Illustration

Stephanie Anderson (N/A) Contemporary,

Medium: Graphite on board
Image Size: 8” x 6”
Signature: Initials lower left
Price: $1500

Biography/Statement

Before the camera, artists were the interpreters of the visual world, taking oral and written descriptions of known and unknown flora and fauna and giving them form. This endeavor required a good deal of artistic license, a mixing of the true with the imagined that sometimes involved the coexistence of incompatible elements. Such artificial constructions of nature reflected the changing ideas and ideals concerning the environment, and my own drawings and paintings within this tradition often consist of scenes common to all living things – building shelter, gathering food, caring for young, and dealing with conflict and threat. They are moments outside of reality, but still recognizable in our current time as artists continue to bring into focus the real, the possible, and the fantastic around us.

Stephanie Anderson lives and works in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and is represented by Bernay Fine Art, in Great Barrington, MA.

Artist Profile Page: Anderson, Stephanie / Categories: American Woman Artist, Illustration

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Illustration, Impressionism, Modernism, Regionalist (Urban)

Ryan Schroeder (N/A) Contemporary, American

"Life Eternal" - A chapel in Troy, NY

Medium: Oil on Board
Image Size: 12” x 12”
Frame Size: 16” x 16”
Price: $2800

Biography/Statement

Artist Statement: My work is about engaging reality, including its abject elements. Responding to the impressions made during my encounter with such a place I seek to engage and examine not only its physical characteristics but my subjective response to witnessing them. I am interested in the idea of subtraction; the removal of material things from a place, or the removal of individuals from their dwellings. Using dilapidated interiors as a tableau, I seek to challenge the parameters of taste. In these works, I consider where abstraction and representation meet. I think of these disheveled domestic spaces psychological echo chambers. These paintings are relics whose surfaces have been distressed in a manner that parallels the nature of the external object to which they are referring.

Grants, Lectures, Publications, Honors, and Residencies

2017-2018

• Artist Talk at McLanahan Gallery. Penn State. Altoona, PA
• NYSCA/NYFA Artist As Entrepreneur Program at The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes/ Corning Museum of Glass
• Museum Insel Hombroich: Guest Artist. Stiftung Insel Hombroich. Neuss, Germany (January-March)
• Fulbright Commission International Leadership Conference. Ludwig-Maxmilians-Universität. Munich, Germany
• MICA Profile: Interview with Yam Chew
• Fulbright Artist Grant. Düsseldorf, Germany
• Guttenberg Arts: Fellowship. Space and Time Artist Residency (STAR). Guttenberg, NJ

2016

• Museum Insel Hombroich: Guest Artist. Stiftung Insel Hombroich. Neuss, Germany (August-October)
• Woven Tale Press: Spotlight Vol. IV #10. Relics That Reflect Reality. Interview with Emily Jaeger, Published December 12, 2016
• Or Does It Explode Magazine. Ryan Schroeder: A Conversation About Decay, Neglect, and What It Means to Be Forgotten. Interview with Tasha Mathew. Published June 4, 2016.

2015

• Elizabeth Greenshields Grant
• BMoreArt Feature Story: Silent Interiors. Review of Things Forgotten, written by Matt Klos.

2014

• Shanghai University: Resident Artist. Shanghai, China
• Conducted lecture on Edwin Dickinson. New York Academy of Art. NY

2013

• Contemporary Art Center, Artist Residency. Troy, NY
• Curated exhibition, A Hint of Mint. Troy, NY.
• Paintings published in Jet Fuel Review, Lewis University’s online literary journal, 2012 2012
• Vermont Studio Center: Artist Residency. Johnson, VT

Exhibitions

2018

• Solo: Changed Places. Ivyside Juried Exhibition. McLanahan Gallery. Penn State. Altoona, PA
• Solo: Residue of a Lived Experience. Doris Ulmann Galleries. Berea College. Berea, KY
• The Nartcan Exhibit. (Traveling Exhibition). University of Rochester, SUNY Geneseo, University at Buffalo
• Mandarin Oriental: Real Men. Juried by Brooke Shields and David Kratz
• Massephase. SPRINK, Düsseldorf, Germany
• Gleich Frucht Böden Voll Epischter Saat. Haus der Kunst Enniger. Münster, Germany

2017

• Guttenberg Arts Foundation STAR Fellowship Exhibition. Guttenberg, NJ
• Unnoticed: Recent Works by Ryan Schroeder and Jeff Feld. Curated by Alma Egger. Fresh Window Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
• Behind Narrative+Emerging Artists: Jennifer Young, Nick Gebhart, Thurston
• Belmer, Bruno Perillo, Marshall Jones and Ryan M Schroeder. Curated by Diego Ponce. One Art Space & Daniel Giella, New York, NY
• Tell Yourselves Why You Were There New Work by Ryan Schroeder and Mila Rochenner. 326 Gallery, New York, NY
• Emerging Artists. Art Mora, Curated by JeongHyun Park, and Sunny Shin. New York, NY

2016

• Debitfair (Digital Exhibition; part of Whitney Biennial). Whitney Museum, New York, NY
• Tenth Annual Summer Exhibition. Flowers Gallery, New York, NY
• Two. ARTROOM, Fort Worth, TX
• 75th Regional Art Exhibition. Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
• Art for Haiti. Saint Rock Haiti Foundation Fundraiser. ArtHelix Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2015

• Things Forgotten: Paintings by Ryan Schroeder and Andy Karnes. Galerie Françoise, Baltimore, MD
• 9th Annual Summer Exhibition. Curated by Leslie Dill, Matthew Flowers, and Martha Schwendener. Flowers Gallery, New York, NY

2014

• Forgotten Places, Richard Harrington, Matt Klos, and Ryan Schroeder. Oxford Gallery, Rochester, NY
• Mutual Interest No.3. Ryan Schroeder, Dana Kotler, Tamalin Baumgarten and Arc Niles. Fine Arts College of Shanghai University. Shanghai, China
• Artist­-in­-Residence, China, 105 & 111 Galleries, New York Academy of Art. New York, NY

Artist Profile Page: Schroeder, Ryan / Categories: Illustration, Impressionism, Modernism, Regionalist (Urban)

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Figurative, Illustration

Albert Herter (1871-1950) American

Medium: Oil on Canvas/Board
Image Size: 20” x 14”
Frame Size: 28” x 22”
Signature: Signed lower left
Price: $12500

Biography/Statement

Albert Herter is best remembered in East Hampton, New York for two reasons: as the original owner of the Creeks, the extravagant 60-acre estate on Georgica Pond, later the home of the painter Alfonso Ossorio and the dancer Ted Dragon and now owned by Ronald Perelman; and as the father of Christian Herter, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second Secretary of State.  Some might say he should be better known as an artist, for before his death in 1950, he was celebrated for his historical murals.

But time has not been kind to the Maxfield Parrish or N.C. Wyeth style that to some extent Albert Herter often emulated, probably because these painters are thought of as mere illustrators rather than true artists.  Time has its benign side as well, for nostalgia seems to envelop everything remotely interesting from the past these days, and Albert Herter is no exception.

In a new, slim volume of stories, A Dubious Lineage, the Herter family has for the first time published some reminiscences Mr. Herter wrote of his childhood and marriage and about painting, including a family genealogy as well as a beautifully written postface by Patsy Southgate.

An Artistic Family:
While the publication of these stories is not a major literary event, they do have a certain charm, especially for East Hamptoners who have an interest in the town’s cultural history. Albert Herter was the son of Christian Herter, an important interior designer and cabinetmaker whose elaborate work can still be seen in the Morgan Library and the Metropolitan Museum.  Mr. Herter, born in 1871, grew up in a home devoted to the arts.  Although his father was an extremely successful furniture designer, his secret ambition was to become a painter, and 10 years after his son’s birth, he gave up his career in New York, where he was known as “society’s darling as well as its decorator,” to move to Paris to study painting.

As a student in Paris, Mr. Herter met Adele McGinnis, the daughter of a prominent banker, whom he married soon after.  They traveled to Japan for their honeymoon where they spent much of their time painting.  The life they had settled on for themselves, to become artists, was possible because of sizable inheritances from both their families.  The Herters were therefore able to devote their time to their work and soon, Mr. Herter became known as an important artist.

His two most famous works were both murals.  One, dedicated to the memory of his son who was killed during World War I, was painted for the Gare de l’Est in Paris. The second, inspired by his second son, Christian, later the Governor of Massachusetts and Secretary of State, hangs in the House of Representatives in Boston.

Herter also formed a company to design and manufacture tapestries, upholstery and curtains; as a result, Mr. Herter became both an artistic and a financial success. Much of the money he earned and inherited went into building the Creeks, designing its extensive gardens, installing many extravagances like a Venetian gondola on the pond, and generally leading life on a grand scale. The Herters were a sophisticated couple, traveling as widely as one could in the days before jet airplanes.  They lived in California much of the time, but came back most summers to East Hampton.

When Adele Herter died in 1946, Mr. Herter moved to the Algonquin Hotel, but continued to spend his winters in Santa Barbara and summers out east.  The commentary accompanying the stories suggests that his last years were spent with his companion Willy Stevens, who was responsible for saving the texts that have now finally been published.

Source:
Excerpted from a review by Richard Dunn of the book, Herter, A Dubious Lineage, organized by his family:

Artist Profile Page: Herter, Albert / Categories: Figurative, Illustration

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