Take A Virtual Tour of Karges Fine Art's Gallery in Carmel!

Can't quite get away right now for a visit to Carmel-by-The Sea?  No problem! Click below to take a virtual tour of our Carmel Gallery.  See what's new, zoom in on your favorites for a closer look, give us a call if you see anything you absolutely love and want to know more about.  Enjoy your self-guided tour right now, and enjoy our gallery full of Early California Art, Contemporary California Art, and Southwestern Art.  Bring joy and relaxation to your day without ever leaving home...

Visit www.kargesfineart.com to view all the paintings now available at both our Carmel and West Hollywood gallery locations.

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN YOUR VIRTUAL TOUR

Dennis Doheny - California's Premier Realist Landscape Painter

Enjoy this in-depth interview with Dennis Doheny!

A third-generation Californian, Dennis Doheny was raised in the Los Angeles area and currently resides in Santa Barbara. Instantly developing an innate love of art, he spent much of his childhood drawing and painting. Self-taught, Doheny ultimately began exhibiting his early works at the Petersen Gallery in Beverly Hills. From 1986 until 1996, Doheny focused on commercial art, until his passion for fine art painting prevailed.

Over the past two decades, Doheny has cultivated a strong local and national following, enticing collectors who are drawn to his heroic renderings of the western landscape.

Inspired by legendary California and Hudson River School artists, he has fused and reinterpreted the genres, combining rich color and finely-crafted detail to create a distinctive vision of the American West. 

Doheny’s vivid landscapes capture California at its most beautiful, with its commanding ocean cliffs, distant hazy mountains, and towering lush trees.

Doheny is the recipient of numerous awards.  In April 2016, he received "The Irvine Museum Prize" at the California Art Club's 105th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition.  In addition, the painting was purchased by the California Art Club, and it will hang permanently at the California Club in Los Angeles.  Previously, he was awarded the Irvine Museum Gold Medal at the California Art Club's 2013 Exhibition.  At the same show, he also received the American Art Collector Award of Excellence.  

"View from Nepenthe"
Oil on linen, 22 x 26
AVAILABLE NOW

In 2009 Doheny was honored to be chosen for the Edgar Payne Award for best landscape at the California Art Club's 2009 Gold Medal Juried Exhibition.  Dennis was also proud to be featured in the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition.  In both 2006 and 2008 at the Prix de West, he received the Frederic Remington Award given in recognition of "exceptional artistic merit".  Also in 2006, he was honored with the Inaugural Purchase Prize at the Eiteljorg Museum's "Quest for the West" Exhibition and is proud to be a part of their permanent collection.  In 2003, he was recognized by the Autry National Center and awarded the Masters of the American West Award.  His painting was acquired by the Autry for its permanent collection as well.  He received the Granville Redmond Memorial Purchase Prize in 2000 for his painting "New Dawn" at the California Art Club's Spring Salon and upon his return to fine art, he received First Place in the Carmel Plein Air Competition in 1998.

An integral member of Karges Fine Art, Doheny is represented at our gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Karges Fine Art is proud to be entrusted with the works of one of this generation’s greatest artists, connecting this passionate visionary with discerning fine art collectors.  For additional information, or to inquire about currently available paintings, contact William A. Karges Fine Art by calling (800) 833-9185 or emailing gallery@kargesfineart.com or visit our website at www.kargesfineart.com/dennis-doheny

"Coastal Ridges"
Oil on linen, 24 x 30
AVAILABLE NOW

Early California Painters of the Monterey Peninsula by Rob Pierce

By Rob Pierce

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the climactic landscape of the Monterey Peninsula has attracted artists from around the world, eager to try their hand at capturing the spirit of the dramatic shoreline. Over the ensuing century, hundreds of artists produced thousands of works, each a unique interpretation of the region’s natural beauty.

After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the region was inundated with musicians, writers, painters and other artists who established an artist colony after the bay city was destroyed. The new residents were offered home lots – ten dollars down, little or no interest, and whatever they could pay on a monthly basis. Among the visual artists to participate in the burgeoning arts community were Armin Hansen, Mary DeNeale Morgan, Carl Oscar Borg, Roi Clarkson Colman, William Louis Otte, Rinaldo Cuneo, William Henry Price.

San Francisco native Armin Hansen is generally considered the most significant artist to work in the Monterey Peninsula during the early-and mid-20th century. Stormy Sea (pictured below) depicts a ship struggling through stormy seas. This painting is an excellent example of Hansen’s powerful oceanographic scenes, for which he is best known.

Armin Hansen (1886 - 1957)
"Stormy Sea"
SOLD

Carmel artist Mary DeNeale Morgan was born in San Francisco in 1868, where she became a favorite pupil of William Keith. Morgan attended summer classes in Carmel that were led by William Merritt Chase and later became the Director of the Carmel School of Art from 1917-1925. Equally facile in watercolor, gouache and oil painting, Morgan’s works often feature the windblown trees and rocky coastline of the Monterey Peninsula.

Mary DeNeale Morgan (1868 - 1948)

"Lake Merritt, Oakland"
SOLD

“Monterey Places” Exhibit at the Monterey Museum of Art

An outstanding group of paintings is currently on display through August 29^th, 2016 at the Monterey Museum of Art, Pacific Street. “Monterey Places” presents works from the permanent collection that focus on the beauty and history of Monterey County. The exhibit features early California paintings by influential artists including M. Evelyn McCormick, Charles Rollo Peters, and Armin Hansen, as well as contemporary works by Johnny Apodaca and Andrea Johnson.

Click here to learn more about the exhibit and view some of the works online.

The exhibit also includes a web-based interactive virtual gallery where visitors can “explore and engage with the paintings, and learn more about the specific locations, local histories, and the artists who created them”.

Click here to see the interactive gallery now and discover the paintings and places featured in this fascinating exhibit. 

This is a great opportunity to get personally involved with the artworks on display and to discover, learn, and interact! Visitors to the various current exhibitions are encouraged to write down and share their reactions and thoughts about works on display. There are short films to watch, large-screen slide show presentations, tours given by their enthusiastic, energetic, and well-educated docents, lectures, and even stations set up where you can create your own artworks. It's nice to be reminded that visiting a museum is supposed to be fun, entertaining, inspiring, educational, and exciting! Charlotte Eyerman, hired as the Director in 2013, has been doing a spectacular job of moving the museum boldly forward into the 21^st century, and the staff has been extremely successful at engaging, entertaining, and educating visitors using a combination of technology, creative ideas, and social media.

The Monterey Museum of art is located at 559 Pacific Street, Monterey, CA (831) 372-5477. For additional information and hours, visit their website www.montereyart.org

FOUR REASONS WHY HISTORIC ART REMAINS IMPORTANT TO THE CALIFORNIA MARKET

FOUR REASONS WHY HISTORIC ART REMAINS IMPORTANT TO THE CALIFORNIA MARKET

By William A. Karges Fine Art Editorial Staff

What is it that has always attracted people to Early California painting? Works created during the period between 1870 and 1940 by artists such as Granville Redmond, Guy Rose, and William Ritschel continue to remain popular among people of all ages. With the current frenzy surrounding modern and contemporary art, why are collectors, museums and gallery visitors still so fascinated by this more traditional style of painting?

1) Traditional art is self-sustaining

Granville Redmond (1871 - 1935)
"California Landscape"
SOLD

Certainly there is ample room for all types, mediums, subjects, and talents in the art world. The nature of art is to encourage experimentation, and to open viewer's minds to new ways of thinking and experiencing the world. Art is a medium that, at its best, evokes an emotion, but it has many purposes, including breeding thoughts and ideas, and connecting us to each other through the simple fact that the works were created for humans by other humans.

However, as corporate marketing agencies spend huge sums to convince visitors of flashy art fairs, surfeit with celebrities, that it's perfectly normal for a canvas painted blue with a white line to sell for $43.8 million dollars, one begins to suspect that the contemporary art world is more about a “scene” than about the art itself.

Yet the private market for historic California art remains strong without all the fanfare and high-priced marketing of its modern, postmodern, and abstract brethren. The reason is that collectors of these prior genres tend to be more self-educating – that is, historic collectors appreciate the visual aesthetic qualities of the work, but also foster connoisseurship by seeking the historical significance of the objects themselves. The market is driven less by external trends and more by a conscious intellectual endeavor to understand the contextual whole.

2) It preserves our history

For over one hundred years, the California Art Club has existed for the exclusive purpose of fostering and preserving the rich tradition of fine art in California. One of the oldest, largest, and most active art organizations in the country, it continues to attract an increasing number of new members, and any study of the history of the art of the region will contain by necessity the history of the CAC and its members, such as William Wendt (1865–1946), Edgar Payne (1883–1947), Franz Bischoff (1864–1929)

Edgar Payne (1883 - 1947)
"Horse Packers of the Sierra"
SOLD

Other groups, such as the Traditional Fine Arts Organization, continue to grow in popularity and membership. The TFAO, a non-profit group “dedicated to furthering education in American Representational art through advocacy, publication, and research,” similarly works to preserve the history of the arts.

The CrockerArt Museum in Sacramento, established in 1885 and home to a vast and important collection of early California paintings, recently tripled its size and has become one of the leading art museums in California, and the recently opened Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, displaying a significant collection of 20th century representational art, is drawing large, enthusiastic crowds.

The history of art in California is quite literally the history of the people, places, and events that have shaped the world we live in. Without organizations and patrons dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of this artistic legacy, our own history would be lost to the fog of time.

Orrin White (1883 - 1969)
"Southern California Landscape"
Oil on canvas, 26 x 32 inches
SOLD

3) Historical art preserves our environment

In order to understand the reasons for this enduring love of paintings created in the “Golden State”, a good place to look is the California landscape itself.

California landscape paintings, plein air works in particular, call attention to the exceptional and unparalleled beauty of the hills, mountains, deserts, and farmlands of California which, in turn, remind us of the fragile nature of our unique habitat. As with John Muir, we are inspired to become better custodians of these precious lands, and to protect and nurture the environment. 

Early paintings of Yosemite, by artists such as Gilbert Munger and Thomas Hill, served to draw attention to that area, and helped to spark a new era of conservation and environmental protection for its unique and exceptional beauty. Artists and writers were extremely important in influencing Nineteenth Century trends in American conservation.

One of the great museums in the state is the Irvine Museum, which is dedicated to the preservation and display of California art of the Impressionist Period (1890-1930). In her welcoming statement for the Irvine Museum, the institution's founder, real estate heiress Joan Irvine Smith, notes that “Much of what originally made California a 'Golden Land' was directly linked to the environment, especially the land and water that nurtured and sustained a rare quality of life. Over a hundred years ago, the splendor of nature fascinated artists and compelled them to paint beautiful paintings. As we view these rare and remarkable paintings, we are returned, all too briefly, to a time long ago when the land and its bounty were open and almost limitless.”

Thomas Hill (1829 - 1908)

"Three Deer Overlooking the Valley"

Oil on canvas, 12 x 18 inches

SOLD

4) The market is strong

In spite of – and at least partially because of – a recent surge in turnover of contemporary art, current auction records for important paintings from the Early California period are remarkably strong. Today's overheated market for contemporary work with little or no proven track record is providing astute collectors with a perfect opportunity to acquire certain early California paintings on the private market at somewhat more modest prices than those seen a decade or two ago, just as Joan Irvine was able to acquire historic paintings for the museum by circumventing the contemporary art bubble of her own time.

Simultaneously, important major works by the most popular artists in the genre are commanding stronger prices than ever, proving again that the market for the most desirable first-rate works still remains bullish. A painting by William Wendt (1865-1946) “The Old Coast Road”, circa 1916, was sold in April 2015 for $1,565,000, setting a new public record for the artist. The Director of Fine Arts at Bonhams in Los Angeles, Scot Levitt, commented of the sale, "This was the most exciting sale that I have had the distinction to auction in my 30 years working with the company".  Shrewd collectors know that significant paintings from this genre continue to enjoy an enduring position in the history of art, and can comfortably count on the fact that their importance and relevance over time has been repeatedly proven.

  

While all of this may be somewhat of a simplification, it’s clear that the appeal of historical California art is multi-faceted and often rooted in deeply-felt emotions and fundamental human nature. The pieces from this halcyon era inspire us to care more about, and protect, our fragile environment. 

They can make us feel peaceful, centered and quiet, and can function as a counterpoint to the fast pace of today's world that's crowded with glowing screens, overflowing email inboxes, and ringing cell phones. 

They can bring us joy, pleasure, and memories of happy times spent with people we've loved. And, most importantly, the paintings from this special era in California history make us feel connected to the past, connected to the land and the environment around us, connected to the artists through time, and to each other.

Alson Clark - Early California Impressionist

Alson Clark - Early California Impressionist 

Alson S. Clark (March 25, 1876 to March 23, 1949) was among America’s most prominent Impressionist painters. Born to an affluent family, Clark was able to develop his artistic talent at a young age by taking night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, and through exposure to European art and painting during a two-year trip to see the world with his family in his teenage years. After graduating from high school, he left Chicago to study under William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League in New York and the Chase Summer School of painting in Shinnecock. He then studied under James Abbott McNeill Whistler at the Academie Carmen in Paris, instruction that Clark acknowledged as a life long influence.

Alson Clark
"Chicago"
Oil on canvas, 18 x 22 inches
SOLD

Returning to New York briefly in 1901, Clark met his wif Atta Medora McMullin when she modeled for his work. He spent much of his early career in Paris, taking residence in the city from 1902 until 1914. The Clarks were able to travel extensively throughout life, supported by sales through galleries such as William Macbeth in New York and William O’Brien in Chicago. The Clarks visited much of Europe and spent a year living in Giverny in 1910, where there was an active artist community surrounding Monet. Clark’s work in Europe often focused on architecture, depicting beautiful European Chateaus and historical buildings from the Middle Ages. He also served as an aerial photographer after the outbreak of World War I.

Alson Clark
"The Golden Hour"
Oil on board, 25 1/2 x 31 1/4
SOLD

Visiting the Canal Zone in 1913 to see the construction of the Panama Canal, Clark spent months painting its final construction phase. His work earned him a solo exhibition of 18 paintings at the Panama-PacificInternational Exposition in San Francisco, putting him in the ranks of such distinguished artists as Frank Duveneck, James Whistler, William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, and John Singer Sargent as the only participating Americans.

Alson Clark
"Culebra Cut, Panama Canal, 1914"
Oil on canvas, 26 x 32
SOLD

In 1919, the Clarks moved back to the states and settled in Pasadena, California. While Clark was primarily a landscape painter, he also worked on a number of mural projects in California, including the now-demolished Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles, the California Club, bank buildings, and private homes. His works—painted in plein air—often demonstrated a technically refined impressionism focusing on landscapes with figurative elements and historical architecture.

Alson Clark
"San Gorgonio"
Oil on canvas, 18 1/2 x 22
SOLD

In an exhibition at Detroit Museum of Art featuring architectural studies such as “The Pope’s Antechamber at Fountainbleau,” and “Façade of the Chateau of Blois,” one critic noted:

His colors are harmonious and one is charmed with the pictorial qualities of the scenes before him. The artist has not been so jealous of his art as to distract you with it, but has rather concealed it.

Clark and his wife spent the rest of their lives in California, although they continued to travel frequently throughout the Southwest and Mexico, where some of the artist’s favorite subjects included Mission San Gabriel and Mission San Juan Capistrano. 

Alson Clark
"San Juan Capistrano"
Oil on canvas, 26 x 32
SOLD

He befriended artist Guy Rose, joining him as a teacher at the Stickney Memorial School of Art and taking over as Director when Rose died of a stroke. Maintaining connections to the art world in New York and Chicago, the artist continued to enjoy success until his death in 1949, becoming one of the most highly-regarded California Impressionists and receiving solo exhibitions at spaces such the Stendahl Gallery.

The Irvine Museum "Sunlight and Shadow - The Tradition of Plein Air Painting"

If you're a fan of Early California Art, don't miss seeing "Sunlight and Shadow - The Tradition of Plein Air Painting" at The Irvine Museum, through September 24th, 2015. 

The exhibit features paintings by notable Early California Impressionists including Guy Rose and Alfred Mitchell, as well as works by contemporary Plein Air painters who carry on this tradition. Karges Fine Art is proud to be the exclusive representative of Dennis Doheny, whose work is included in this outstanding Exhibition.

Dennis Doheny "Early Light"

Oil on linen, 20 x 24 inches

For more information about the history of Plein Air painting in America, The Traditional Fine Art Organization website includes a series of interesting essays and articles in their extensive Resource Library.  These can be viewed at www.tfaoi.com.

The Irvine Museum offers weekly scheduled docent tours, including guided walks featuring works in their impressive permanent collection of Early California Art. Contact the museum directly to inquire about times by emailing info@irvinemuseum.org or call (949) 476-0294 for more information.

To view additional available works by traditional Early California artists, as well as new paintings by Dennis Doheny, please visit www.kargesfineart.com.

The Secret Life of Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”

- Francis Bacon

The curse of the art historian is to be forever asking questions. Where? When? How? But every so often (and generally at the most frustrating moment), we find ourselves faced with an informational hollow, a query to which there are no search results. Such it is with the enigmatic painter whom the world has come to know as Marion Kavanagh Wachtel.

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Records on the artist’s exhibition history, educational background, family, and ouvre are fairly extensive; information on her personal life, however, is not. We know that in 1904, Ms. Kavanaugh added the surname Wachtel – an understandable consequence of her marriage to fellow artist, Elmer Wachtel. Following her wedding, however, Marion chose another, somewhat more enigmatic name-change: she abandoned the fourth vowel in Kavanaugh, and it became the middle-name, Kavanagh. Scholarship on exactly what precipitated this latter change is sparse, though the move was not without precedent. Six years earlier, soon-to-be-renowned artist Granville Redmond changed his name from Grenville in a similarly befuddling move. Whether these subtle rebrandings affected the artists’ respective rises to prominence is unknown.

The events surrounding the meeting of Marion and Elmer are the matter of some debate, as well. The prevailing theory states that the two were introduced through renowned Dusseldorf-cum-Barbizon School painter, William Keith. By the turn of the century, Keith had long since established himself as a leading California landscape artist – so well known, in fact, that he was referred to as the “Dean of California painters.” It makes sense, then, that he was well acquainted with East Coast transplant and emerging Southern California landscapist, Elmer Wachtel.

Marion, for her part, had spent the last decade immersed in her painting. She studied under William Merritt Chase at the Art Institute of Chicago, taught courses for her alma mater, and traveled the Santa Fe Railway on a commission to illustrate the quintessential American Southwest. By the turn of the century she was widely regarded as one of the nation’s premier watercolorists – renowned for her bold tonalism and technical precision.

"Indian Summer" - SOLD

In late 1903, as the story goes, Marion was in San Francisco to exhibit landscapes depicting an area surrounding the estate of wealthy patron and entrepreneur, Elwood Cooper. Her pieces were well received, positively reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, and garnered the artist a measure of positive attention in the Bay Area. It is here that the artist came to the attention of the aforementioned Keith – and here that the general consensus among historians diverges.

One story says that Marion was studying directly under Keith for some period of time in San Francisco. Lacking definite bibliographic evidence, some will venture no further than to say that the two knew each other in passing. Those that assert the more intimate relationship go on to say that it is Keith who referred Marion to Elmer, the latter residing in LA at the time. Still others posit that it was of her own volition that Marion traveled to Southern California where she encountered the charming Elmer.  

  

"Santa Paula" - SOLD

Whichever story is true, it so happened that in 1904 Marion wed Elmer, and the two began their artistic lives together in Southern California. The couple settled in the Arroyo Seco near Pasadena. For the next 25 years, they would travel the region, painting the landscape as they saw it – Marion in watercolor, Elmer in oil. Marion became famous for her immaculate, deliberate washes; her vivid descriptions of the California landscape. Together with Elmer, their work was highly sought after and exhibited around the country, from San Francisco to Chicago to New York.

Though Marion received critical acclaim in her own right, watercolor as a medium was at the time still viewed as subordinate to oil (it isn’t until the 1920s that watercolor gained wide acceptances as high art). It is an interesting question, then, why an artist such as Marion – so renowned for her technical prowess – never sought the accolades afforded the medium of oil.

Although the official record on the matter is scant, historians are nothing if not happy to speculate.

It has been proposed that Marion refused to paint in oil out of deference to her husband, Elmer. Perhaps presaging the tumultuous relationship of Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner in the mid-20^th century, she was happy to avoid comparison and inevitable competition with her artist husband. This analysis gains credence through the events following Elmer’s death in 1929. For several years afterward, Marion was unable to bring herself to paint at all. When she finally picked up a brush in the early 1930s, she burst onto the scene with something the art community never expected: paintings in oil.

"Sierra Scene" - SOLD

In addition to a change in media, her palette brightened considerably. Whether this change was an homage to her late husband, or a personal expression that could only find voice after his death, remains a mystery.

Marion continued to paint and exhibit, both in watercolor and in oil, until her death in 1954. To this day, the truth behind her personal story remains largely obscured. Who was this enigmatic artist, really?

The work of Marion Kavanagh Wachtel is held in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum, the Irvine Museum, the Orange County Museum, the Santa Fe Railway Co., and the LA County Museum of Natural History.

For more information on Marion Kavanagh Wachtel, including available canvases, please visit us online at www.kargesfineart.com, or email us at wganz@kargesfineart.com

   

"Granville Redmond - Color and Silence" by Rob Pierce

    The year is 1918. A hand-cranked projector rolls, flickering black and white, as the bawdy owner of the Green Lantern grabs one of his girls and tosses her into a crowd of revelers. “If you smile and wink, they’ll buy a drink,” reads the title card. The actor plays the part with gesticulating aplomb. And, indeed, there’s a reason why this particular man is so well suited to the silent medium: He is completely unable to speak.

    The film is Charlie Chaplain’s A Dog’s Life, and the loathsome dance hall owner is none other than California’s Impressionist laureate, Granville Redmond. While short lived, the artist’s foray into silent film is notable, as it demonstrates the multiplicity that Redmond exhibited in his artistic career – moving freely between French Barbizon inspired Tonalism and the bright, high-key color of California Impressionism. The latter style would lead to Redmond’s status as one of the most coveted (and collected) of Early California painters. Today, the paintings of Granville Redmond are found in private collections, universities, and museums up and down the California coast and across the globe. Though he would reach the top echelons of the American art world, the path to Redmond’s uncommon success was marked by uncommon hardship.

    On March 9^th, 1871, Charles and Elizabeth Redmond gave birth to healthy baby boy, whom they named Grenville Richard Seymour Redmond. Sadly – though perhaps fortuitously, from an art historical perspective – young Grenville contracted scarlet fever at the age of two, rendering him completely and irreparably deaf. As a result, Redmond lost the capacity for speech, a condition which would endure for his entire life. In 1874, the family moved to the Bay Area, and the boy was enrolled in the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, one of the nation’s most renowned institutions for the hearing impaired. Redmond excelled in his classes, both academically and socially, but it was in the arts that he truly shone.  

    Under the instruction of artist Theophilus D'Estrella, he developed a keen eye for light and color, and a particular love of the outdoors and the en plein air method, which was coming into fashion among the burgeoning California art scene. It’s difficult to say to what degree Redmond’s hearing impairment influenced his art. But whatever the cause, he found himself immediately attracted to the subtle gradations and quiet isolation of the Tonalist style. A significant and meaningful part of his oeuvre that would follow him all of his life.

Granville Redmond - Grazing - SOLD

   At the encouragement of his instructors from the California School, Redmond enrolled at the San Francisco School of Design at the age of 16. It was here that he would meet perhaps the most significant instructor of his early artistic career – Director of the School of Design, Arthur Mathews, recognized by many art historians as the single most important figure in Early California painting. Mathews was responsible for the first artistic movement that can accurately be described as Californian: the eventually-termed California Decorative Style. Still, had it not been for this invention, his contribution to the arts would have been indisputable simply for his tutelage of many young Northern Californian artists.

   Even before graduating from the Academy of Design, Redmond began to receive critical acclaim. He won the W. E. Brown Medal of Excellence and a scholarship to continue his studies in Paris, the young artist’s lifelong dream. In 1893, he crossed the Pacific and enrolled at the Académie Julian, one of France’s most prestigious art schools. Here, under the professorship of such luminaries as Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurenz, Redmond honed his craft. By now, he was focusing almost exclusively on exterior landscape compositions in the Tonalist style, and in 1895 his canvas, Matin d’Hiver, was accepted into the exclusive Paris Art Salon. 

    In 1898, Redmond returned to California and settled in Los Angeles. After years of study, he was finally ready to embark on his journey as a professional artist. Perhaps in response to his new state in life, Grenville Richard Seymour Redmond decided that a nom de pinceau was in order – and thus he dropped the foremost e in favor of an a, did away with his middle names altogether, and became simply Granville Redmond.

    Granville Redmond’s early professional career in Southern California is characterized by subtle Tonalist compositions, often landscapes and seascapes of Laguna Beach, Catalina Island, and San Pedro. 

     These early works exhibit quiet, almost solemn undertones – hinting at an artist who was at the same time both extremely sensitive and somehow conflicted. Additionally, Redmond completed a number of nocturnes during this time, tenebrous pastorals reminiscent of the work being produced in Northern California at the time. 

Granville Redmond - Moonlit Pond - SOLD

Granville Redmond - Night Sailing - SOLD

   It is in Los Angeles that Redmond would eventually meet Charlie Chaplain. The two would quickly become fast friends, trading techniques in pantomime and other non-verbal cues – one educated through a lifetime of silent observation, the other through a career on the silver screen. They got along so handsomely that not only did Chaplain invite Redmond to star in three of his feature films, but the actor also independently financed a studio for the artist on his film lot.

    In 1899, Granville married Carrie Ann Jean, herself a graduate from the Illinois School for the Deaf. Over the next several years, they would have three children together. By this time, Redmond was already garnering favorable reviews as a talented and thoughtful colorist in the LA art scene.

    But the artist was soon to explore a whole new method of composition, and in 1908 he packed up his family and moved north to Monterey, where his typically moody Tonalist landscapes began to change, becoming instead more expansive, idyllic, and colorful. 

Granville Redmond - California Landscape - SOLD

Two years later, the Redmond family moved again, this time to San Mateo, where Granville firmly rooted himself in the San Francisco art establishment. He took the critical world by storm with his sweeping visions of California landscapes, hillsides on fire with golden poppies and violet lupine.

Granville Redmond - California Poppies - SOLD

     The demand for his work exploded. For the next 25 years, Redmond traveled up and down the California coast – one of the few Early Californian artists to do so – capturing its quintessential light and color. His work matured, becoming more Impressionistic, even Pointillist, as he grew to become one of the West Coast’s foremost California Impressionists.

       He drew comparisons to France’s greatest masters – Monet, Matisse, Pisarro. And though collectors, artists, and patrons had an insatiable appetite for his vivid wildflower canvases, the artist never gave up his passion for his quiet, Tonalist compositions. For the rest of his life, Redmond would continue to paint his beloved, brooding nocturnes; subtle, grey pastorals; silent, solitary coastals – even as the demand for his Impressionistic landscapes continued to skyrocket.

Granville Redmond - Solitude - SOLD

Today, Granville Redmond is remembered as a master of both California Impressionism and California Tonalism. His work continues to be bought and sold around the world, publicly and privately, and every retrospective of seminal Californian art bears his name. His work is held in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco’s de Young Museum, the Laguna Art Museum, Crocker Museum, Stanford University Museum, Oakland Museum, the Irvine Museum, the California School of the Deaf, Mills College – to name but a few.

Granville Redmond died on May 24, 1935 in Los Angeles. He was 63 years old.

For more information on Granville Redmond, including available canvases, please visit us online at kargesfineart.com, or email us at wganz@kargesfineart.com.

Current Exhibitions at the Laguna Art Museum

Special note to our readers: The Laguna Art Museum has generously offered to provide two free pairs of day passes to their wonderful facility to the first and second readers who post their comments below.  We’ll contact those readers directly to request their mailing addresses so that the passes can be sent to them by the Museum.

Early California Art collectors and admirers won’t want to miss seeing the current exhibitions on display through October 7th, 2012 at the Laguna Art Museum:

Clarence Hinkle - photo credit: Laguna Art Museum

The first exhibit is a retrospective of the work of 20^th century artist Clarence Hinkle, whose student, Millard Sheets, became one of the best known watercolorists in the Early California Art genre. To view additional examples of this artist’s work, click here  And, check out photographs of the exhibit of the museum's Flickr page here.

Modern Spirit - photo credit: Laguna Art Museum

The next exhibit not to be missed is titled “Modern Spirit and the Group of Eight”, which provides a fresh perspective on the art and culture of the 1920s in Los Angeles. Paintings by Mabel Alvarez, Clarence Hinkle, Henri De Kruif, JohnHubbard Rich, Donna Schuster, E. Roscoe Shrader, Edouard Vysekal, and Luvena Buchanan Vysekal provide a pictorial description of the Modernist Realist trend that was popular during that period in history.







Click here  to view a very informative group of videos on the Laguna Art Museum’s YouTube channel about this exciting display of paintings.

Also currently on display, continuing through October 28th, 2012, is “Abstract Classicists”, a group of paintings from the museum’s permanent collection. The featured artists include Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersly, John McLaughlin, Florence Arnold and Helen Lundeberg.

For additional information, directions, and hours, the museum’s full website can be found at www.lagunaartmuseum.org.  Their address is 307 Cliff Drive Laguna Beach, CA 92651, telephone: (949) 494-8971.