Frederick Carl Frieseke (American, 1874-1939). The Yellow Room (Study), circa 1910. Oil on panel. 14...

Description

Frederick Carl Frieseke (American, 1874-1939)
The Yellow Room (Study), circa 1910
Oil on panel
14 x 10-1/2 inches (35.6 x 26.7 cm)
Signed lower left: F.C. Frieseke

PROVENANCE:
The artist;
Dr. William Bernard Johnston, Giverny, France, acquired from the above;
Mrs. Janet Johnston (née Newlands), by descent, 1948;
Janet Sharon Farr, by descent, 1965;
Sheila Farr Nielson, Mill Valley, California, by descent, 1994;
By descent to the present owner.

The present work is believed to be a preparatory study for the artist's painting of the same title, The Yellow Room, completed in 1910, and currently in the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Elements of the composition are nearly identical-notably the still life of objects beside the central figure which includes a bowl of bright oranges, elegantly modeled glassware, and a Japanese painted ceramic dish. The figure's patterned yellow kimono is accented by the cheery lemon yellow of the interior-Frieseke's own living room at his home in Giverny. The artist's brushstrokes are diffused into brief, colorful stripes which strongly contrast against areas of the exposed wood panel on which he painted. As Nicholas Kilmer observes, the tentative composition and handling of the paint, suggest the work is a preparatory sketch-one that Frieseke nevertheless signed and would later develop into the finished canvas at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

Frieseke and his family maintained a close friendship with the original owner of this work, Dr. William Bernard Johnston and his wife Mrs. Janet Johnston (née Newlands), who lived alongside the artist in Giverny. The present work has descended in the Johnston family's collection since its acquisition and offers a first view at a previously unlocated work by the artist.

The Yellow Room (Study) will be included in the draft Frieseke Catalog Raisonné, compiled by Nicholas Kilmer, the artist's grandson, with the support of the Hollis Taggart Galleries. That draft is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Artists of American Art. We wish to thank Nicholas Kilmer for his assistance in cataloguing this work.


More information about Frederick Carl Frieseke. See also: Frieseke, Frederick Carl, Frieseke, Frederick C. Artist.

Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000.

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