Charles Whedon Rain (American, 1911-1985)

Charles Whedon Rain (American, 1911-1985) , "Glass", 1965, oil on masonite, signed lower right, signed, titled, dated and inscribed "New York" en verso, 12 in. x 18 in., framed Provenance: Banfer Gallery, New York; Collection of Dr. Isidore Cohn, Jr. (1921-2015), New Orleans. Exh.: Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University, New Haven, Remembering Charles Rain, Selected Works from 1933-1973, March 25 -May 25, 2004, and listed in the accompanying catalogue as no. 27, p. 38. Note: Charles Rain’s artistic career spanned over five decades with an oeuvre that often defies traditional art historical categorization. His most celebrated works are photorealistic paintings of landscapes and still lifes, which he injected with his own imprint of surrealism to become quintessential examples of the magic realist style. He was quoted as saying: “My aim is to record…the view of one individual – what I see and what I imagine – in the methods of what may be called romantic or magic realism.” Born in Tennessee, Rain was raised in Nebraska and attended the Art Institute of Chicago for several years prior to traveling to Europe in 1933. While in Berlin, he was greatly inspired by a viewing of “Portrait of Ugolino Martelliof” by Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), and Bronzino’s classic technique of under-painting and glazing would stay with Rain throughout his life. Upon returning to New York, Rain was featured in a 1935 solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery, which was not well received by critics and led to the artist undertaking a short break from painting. While designing costumes for the New York City Ballet during this time period, Rain met photographer George Platt Lynes, who, along with Lincoln Kirstein, Monroe Wheeler and Paul Cadmus, became part of Rain’s sophisticated and artistic circle of friends. Curator Daphne Anderson Deeds described the assemblage as: “…members of a closely knit homosexual group…much of their work includes encoded imagery referring to their private cliquish world.” In “Prophecy” offered here, one can see the linear precision and realistic rendering indicative of Rain’s style merging with otherworldly imagery. An all-seeing eye at the center of the composition radiates with light from a pyramid of tarot cards, surrounded by astrological signs. The faces of the tarot cards are painted in meticulous detail so that each one could be interpreted as an individual work of art. Rain presents an original, surrealistic vision by combining his interests in the symbology that permeates popular culture with his own ideology and placing them within a mysterious context. As a result of the artist’s desire for perfection, his surviving body of work is smaller than most – each a treasured and complex glimpse into Rain’s unique ideas and endless imagination. Ref.: Deeds, Daphne Anderson. “Charles Rain: A Singular Realist.” Remembering Charles Rain: Selected Works from 1933-1973. New Haven: Yale University, 2004, pp. 7-15.