ROBERT SPENCER (AMERICAN 1879–1931) "NIGHT LIFE"
Signed 'Robert Spencer' bottom right; also inscribed with artist and title on stretcher verso, oil on canvas
14 x 12 in. (35.6 x 30.5cm)
Executed in 1931.
Provenance: Jim's of Lambertville, Lambertville, New Jersey.
Acquired directly from the above in 1999.
Collection of Bonnie O'Boyle, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
EXHIBITED:
"Earth, River and Light: Masterworks of Pennsylvania Impressionism," James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, September 21-December 29, 2002; and Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, June 28-September 28, 2003 (traveling exhibition).
"Robert Spencer: The Cities, The Towns, The Crowds: The Paintings of Robert Spencer," James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, June 5-September, 2004.
"The Painterly Voice: Bucks County's Fertile Ground," James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, October 22, 2011-April 1, 2012.
LITERATURE:
Brian H. Peterson, Pennsylvania Impressionism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, p. 266, plate 184 (illustrated).
Brian H. Peterson, Robert Spencer: The Cities, The Towns, The Crowds, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2004, p. 97, plate 58 (illustrated).
NOTE:
In stark contrast to the large-scale pictures of buildings he produced earlier in his career, Spencer turned to small, intimate images of people caught in their domestic life in the late 1920s. Most of these vignettes feature women hanging clothes or bathing by a river, but some go beyond ordinary life in Bucks County, and depict informal street scenes inspired by the artist's last trip to Europe in 1929.
Of the present work, Brian H. Peterson says: "Perhaps the most haunting of these scenes is "Night Life," which depicts two ladies of the evening greeting their clients in a dimly lit Parisian doorway with what appears to be an elderly 'madam' looking on. The heavy makeup, harsh light from a single overhead bulb and Spencer's strange, angular drawing style combine to give the two prostitutes an inhuman, animal-like quality. The sinister atmosphere is enhanced by the nearly faceless rendering of the men and the expressionless, almost skull-like head of the elderly woman. Spencer made this picture at most a few months before he killed himself, and one can't help but wonder if its dark tone reflects his mood at the time."
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Signed 'Robert Spencer' bottom right; also inscribed with artist and title on stretcher verso, oil on canvas
14 x 12 in. (35.6 x 30.5cm)
Executed in 1931.
Provenance: Jim's of Lambertville, Lambertville, New Jersey.
Acquired directly from the above in 1999.
Collection of Bonnie O'Boyle, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
EXHIBITED:
"Earth, River and Light: Masterworks of Pennsylvania Impressionism," James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, September 21-December 29, 2002; and Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, June 28-September 28, 2003 (traveling exhibition).
"Robert Spencer: The Cities, The Towns, The Crowds: The Paintings of Robert Spencer," James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, June 5-September, 2004.
"The Painterly Voice: Bucks County's Fertile Ground," James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, October 22, 2011-April 1, 2012.
LITERATURE:
Brian H. Peterson, Pennsylvania Impressionism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, p. 266, plate 184 (illustrated).
Brian H. Peterson, Robert Spencer: The Cities, The Towns, The Crowds, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2004, p. 97, plate 58 (illustrated).
NOTE:
In stark contrast to the large-scale pictures of buildings he produced earlier in his career, Spencer turned to small, intimate images of people caught in their domestic life in the late 1920s. Most of these vignettes feature women hanging clothes or bathing by a river, but some go beyond ordinary life in Bucks County, and depict informal street scenes inspired by the artist's last trip to Europe in 1929.
Of the present work, Brian H. Peterson says: "Perhaps the most haunting of these scenes is "Night Life," which depicts two ladies of the evening greeting their clients in a dimly lit Parisian doorway with what appears to be an elderly 'madam' looking on. The heavy makeup, harsh light from a single overhead bulb and Spencer's strange, angular drawing style combine to give the two prostitutes an inhuman, animal-like quality. The sinister atmosphere is enhanced by the nearly faceless rendering of the men and the expressionless, almost skull-like head of the elderly woman. Spencer made this picture at most a few months before he killed himself, and one can't help but wonder if its dark tone reflects his mood at the time."
Sale price
Estimate
Time, Location
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