Norwood MacGilvary (1874-1950), "Home"
Norwood MacGilvary
(1874-1950)
"Home"
Oil on Masonite
Signed and with the artist's fingerprint lower left: Norwood MacGilvary; signed again and titled faintly, verso; signed and titled again and with the artist's Pittsburgh, PA address on a label affixed verso
25 x 30 in.
Provenance:
Uno Langmann Limited Fine Arts, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
The Collection of Sybil Rosen and Robert Fisher, from the above, 1995
Other Notes:
Norwood Hodge MacGilvary was an American painter, illustrator, and art educator born in Bangkok, Siam (now Bangkok, Thailand). He was the son of missionaries, and his early life exposed him to travel and different cultures. According to biographical accounts, he traveled extensively during his childhood, including journeys through China. At approximately fourteen years of age, he moved to the United States and attended a private school in Virginia.
MacGilvary continued his education at Davidson College in North Carolina, graduating in 1896 as the class valedictorian. After graduating, he studied art and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1896 to 1897, and continued his artistic training at the Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco from 1897 to 1898. MacGilvary traveled to Europe to study painting and continue to refine his technique. In Paris, he studied under Jean-Paul Laurens at the Academie Julian, and between 1904 and 1906 he worked under the American painter Myron Barlow in etaples, France. While in France he exhibited at the Paris Salon.
After returning to the United States in 1906, MacGilvary pursued a professional career as a magazine illustrator, producing work for publications including "Harper's," "Pictorial Review," and "Cosmopolitan."
MacGilvary worked in several artistic genres, including landscapes, genre, portraits, figure studies, and etchings. His paintings included realistic representations of the natural world, while some of his other works explored more imaginative or unconventional subjects. Because of the combination of representational painting and more surrealistic imagery associated with his work, he was often described as an artist-philosopher.
MacGilvary exhibited at the 1915 Pan-American Exposition in San Francisco and spent an extended period working in the Bay Area. From 1921 to 1943, he was a painting instructor at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, while continuing to create his own body of work including the present painting.
The Depression-era composition "Home" is a striking and moving example of MacGilvary's work during his time living in the Pittsburgh area. Set against dramatic hillside bluffs flanking one of Pittsburgh's famous rivers, a family of four is captured in a moment of daily life. Except that life has been reduced to living in a small caravan parked in a rocky field with a pile of discarded refuse nearby. The father reads the newspaper in the shade while the mother hangs laundry and siblings play together on the caravan steps. A nod to Pittsburgh's history of steel manufacturing can be seen in the nearby industrial chimney stacks and factory buildings near the river's edge. "Home" becomes a nuanced and abstracted concept in MacGilvary's painting, one that embodies the hardship yet tenacity of Americans in their post-crash period life.
Condition
Visual: No condition issues to report.Blacklight: No evidence of restoration.Frame: 34 x 39 x 3 in.Condition reports are offered as a courtesy and are typically published in Moran's catalogue or can be made available upon request. The absence of a condition report does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of others. Buyers are responsible for determining to their own satisfaction the true nature and condition of any lot prior to bidding. Though buyers are not legally required to inspect lots prior to purchase, failure to do so may constitute a waiver of complaint that an item was not delivered in a condition equal to the existent condition at the auction.
Norwood MacGilvary
(1874-1950)
"Home"
Oil on Masonite
Signed and with the artist's fingerprint lower left: Norwood MacGilvary; signed again and titled faintly, verso; signed and titled again and with the artist's Pittsburgh, PA address on a label affixed verso
25 x 30 in.
Provenance:
Uno Langmann Limited Fine Arts, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
The Collection of Sybil Rosen and Robert Fisher, from the above, 1995
Other Notes:
Norwood Hodge MacGilvary was an American painter, illustrator, and art educator born in Bangkok, Siam (now Bangkok, Thailand). He was the son of missionaries, and his early life exposed him to travel and different cultures. According to biographical accounts, he traveled extensively during his childhood, including journeys through China. At approximately fourteen years of age, he moved to the United States and attended a private school in Virginia.
MacGilvary continued his education at Davidson College in North Carolina, graduating in 1896 as the class valedictorian. After graduating, he studied art and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1896 to 1897, and continued his artistic training at the Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco from 1897 to 1898. MacGilvary traveled to Europe to study painting and continue to refine his technique. In Paris, he studied under Jean-Paul Laurens at the Academie Julian, and between 1904 and 1906 he worked under the American painter Myron Barlow in etaples, France. While in France he exhibited at the Paris Salon.
After returning to the United States in 1906, MacGilvary pursued a professional career as a magazine illustrator, producing work for publications including "Harper's," "Pictorial Review," and "Cosmopolitan."
MacGilvary worked in several artistic genres, including landscapes, genre, portraits, figure studies, and etchings. His paintings included realistic representations of the natural world, while some of his other works explored more imaginative or unconventional subjects. Because of the combination of representational painting and more surrealistic imagery associated with his work, he was often described as an artist-philosopher.
MacGilvary exhibited at the 1915 Pan-American Exposition in San Francisco and spent an extended period working in the Bay Area. From 1921 to 1943, he was a painting instructor at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, while continuing to create his own body of work including the present painting.
The Depression-era composition "Home" is a striking and moving example of MacGilvary's work during his time living in the Pittsburgh area. Set against dramatic hillside bluffs flanking one of Pittsburgh's famous rivers, a family of four is captured in a moment of daily life. Except that life has been reduced to living in a small caravan parked in a rocky field with a pile of discarded refuse nearby. The father reads the newspaper in the shade while the mother hangs laundry and siblings play together on the caravan steps. A nod to Pittsburgh's history of steel manufacturing can be seen in the nearby industrial chimney stacks and factory buildings near the river's edge. "Home" becomes a nuanced and abstracted concept in MacGilvary's painting, one that embodies the hardship yet tenacity of Americans in their post-crash period life.
Condition
Visual: No condition issues to report.Blacklight: No evidence of restoration.Frame: 34 x 39 x 3 in.Condition reports are offered as a courtesy and are typically published in Moran's catalogue or can be made available upon request. The absence of a condition report does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of others. Buyers are responsible for determining to their own satisfaction the true nature and condition of any lot prior to bidding. Though buyers are not legally required to inspect lots prior to purchase, failure to do so may constitute a waiver of complaint that an item was not delivered in a condition equal to the existent condition at the auction.
