G. HARVEY (American, b. 1933). Powell Street Cable Cars. Oil on canvas. 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm). Signed lower ri...

Description

G. HARVEY (American, b. 1933)
Powell Street Cable Cars
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Signed lower right: G. Harvey ©
Titled and signed verso: KDGE / Powell Street / Cable Cars / San Francisco / G. Harvey
Titled on stretcher: KDGE / Powell Street Cable Cars (San Francisco)

PROVENANCE:
Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale (label verso);
The Duffy and Tina Oyster Foundation, Dallas.
G. Harvey (Gerald Harvey Jones) was born in the Hill Country north of San Antonio and grew up with strong western traditions. His grandfather had been a trail boss who had pushed cattle along the Texas trails to northern rail heads. His stories of those adventurous, as well as arduous, days informed the early days of the artist and helped inspire his early artistic leanings. After graduating with honors from the University of North Texas and a short tenure teaching at the University of Texas at Austin, Harvey turned his attention to painting on a full time basis. He has established himself as one of the most successful and versatile artists in America today. His subjects range from the landscapes of his native Texas to the cattle drives and ranch life of the Old West to contemporary cityscapes. He has been honored with exhibitions at such major museums as the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Smithsonian Institution.
One of his most popular themes is the depiction of life at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in major American cities, such as New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Dallas. These scenes depict either early morning or evening rain slicked streets which gives Harvey ample opportunity to show his skill at depicting light, shadow, reflection, and atmosphere. A common motif is the juxtaposition of symbols of an earlier day, such as mounted cowboys wearing their rain slickers against the emerging urbanism of modern America as represented by bustling street scenes complete with such new modes of transportation as automobiles and street cars. Occasionally, he departs from a purely historical motif and presents his impression of a contemporary city. In Powell Street Cable Car, Harvey presents modern day San Francisco, but in a way that is evocative of its historic past. The scene presented was inspired by a recent trip to that city. The painting with its blend of colors, textures, and different sources of light, also blends the old and the new. The figures here are modern city dwellers and visitors, but by focusing on the cable cars that wind their way up and down San Francisco streets, Harvey evokes an earlier time when these historic modes of transportation were brand new.

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