THEODORE WENDEL (American, 1859-1932). Ipswich, Marshes, circa 1900. Oil on canvas. 38-1/2 x 31-1/2 inches (97.8 x 80.0 ...

Description

THEODORE WENDEL (American, 1859-1932)
Ipswich, Marshes, circa 1900
Oil on canvas
38-1/2 x 31-1/2 inches (97.8 x 80.0 cm)
Signed lower right: Theo Wendel

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Florida, circa 1905.

EXHIBITED:
Sofia, Bulgaria, "Exhibition of American Paintings in the Residence of United States Ambassador to Bulgaria," 2003;
Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, "The Summer Impressionists Show," 2013 (label verso).

LITERATURE:
W.H. Gerdts, American Impressionism, New York, 1984, pp. 63, 65;
Exhibition of American Paintings in the Residence of United States Ambassador to Bulgaria, exhibition catalogue, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2003, p. 12, illustrated.

Theodore Wendel is reputed as the premier Impressionist landscape painter of the Boston School, and is often considered the "most French" of American painters alongside Theodore Robinson and Childe Hassam.

Wendel grew up in Midway, Ohio, enrolling at the University of Cincinnati's School of Design in 1876. While there, he met Joseph DeCamp, and the two artists traveled to Germany in 1878 to study at the Munich Academy, where Wendel's academic style won him a medal. The artist then went on to Pölling, Bavaria to join Frank Duveneck's artist colony, traveling with the group to Florence and Venice where he was exposed to the Tonalist work of James McNeill Whistler. In 1887 Wendel visited Giverny, France, where he became heavily influenced by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet. While in Giverny Wendel adopted the French master's bright color and sketchy technique that he applied to the landscapes he subsequently painted when he settled in Boston. Dr. William H. Gerdts writes: "He [ a critic in 1891] concluded that 'Mr. Wendel comes the nearest of the Bostonian Impressionists to handling the Monet style with effect. Wendel continued to exploit Impressionist color in his paintings of Gloucester and Ipswich, and he came to be regarded more as a devoted interpreter of the New England scene than as a stylistic innovator, though he remained faithful to the new aesthetic he had pioneered.' He [Wendel] was named the foremost Boston artist working in the style of Monet."1

1: American Impressionism, New York, 1984, pp. 63, 65.




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