HARRY VAN DER WEYDEN (American, 1868-1968). Beach and Waves in the Moonlight, 1921. Watercolor and gouache on blue-gray ...

Description

HARRY VAN DER WEYDEN (American, 1868-1968)
Beach and Waves in the Moonlight, 1921
Watercolor and gouache on blue-gray paper
11 x 15 inches (27.9 x 38.1 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: H. van der Weyden 1921

THE JEAN AND GRAHAM DEVOE WILLIFORD CHARITABLE TRUST

Harry van der Weyden was born in Boston but lived most of his life abroad in England and France. He won a scholarship to the Slade School in London at age nineteen, where a course stressing the primacy of draftsmanship had a lasting impact on his art. He also studied at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1890-1891 under Jean-Paul Laurens, Benjamin Constant, and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre. Recent research on the painter by Jean-Claude Lesage (2007) reveals that Van der Weyden associated with Max Bohm and Irving Couse. Van der Weyden established a residence at Montreuil-sur-Mer on the Normandy coast, fifteen kilometers from Etaples, a short drive in his fancy Phaeton convertible. While at Montreuil, his family grew, and he was an important member of the artists colony there. Lesage regards Van der Weyden as one of the most distinguished artists at Montreuil, "and among American painters in Pas-de-Calais, the one who practiced impressionist painting in a most affirming manner."

During the war Van der Weyden worked as a camouflage officer with the British Royal Engineers from 1916 to 1918 when Etaples was a major transit point and storage depot for the British. His tonalist works, exemplified by the present scene of moonlit water, are considered his finest efforts and have affinities with the paintings of Birge Harrison. As one writer noted, "The sun was almost below the horizon in the evening when Van der Weyden set out to paint." He died in London.


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