Friday, July 8, 2011
Project Break
Monday, May 9, 2011
Portrait of John O. Pastore
A show of recently restored gubernatorial portraits is on view at the Providence Art Club. Among them, a portrait of RI's Governor (and later Senator) John O. Pastore painted by Wilfred I. Duphiney.
Here is a B&W copy of the portrait:
For more info in the exhibition, click to see the announcement in the Providence Journal.
Here is a B&W copy of the portrait:
For more info in the exhibition, click to see the announcement in the Providence Journal.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The public contributes paintings for the project
Something very unexpected has happened with this project in the last two days! I have had two people contact me about paintings they own by my grandfather! And they wanted to share!
Nick Nerney contacted me a couple of days ago with the news that his family had a painting of his Aunt Virginia by my grandfather. He and his daughter tried taking photographs on two different days (the first was rainy and they could not get decent light). The second day however, the image came out beautiful! What a stunning portrait of a lovely young woman who died far too young. My grandfather painted the portrait from a photographic image taken to celebrate her graduation from Simmons College in 1932. Here it is:
What a beautiful portrait! What eyes! To learn more about Virginia, her family, and the portrait click on the following "hot" link to where I have uploaded the image in one of my galleries: portrait of Virginia Stanhope Nerney.
While I have been excited about this project since beginning anew, seeing COLOR images of the paintings by my grandfather -- most of the documentation photos I have were done in B&W -- has been like the difference between a being and its ghost! My sincere thanks and gratitude to the Nerney family.
For a short while, I imagined families all over RI (and maybe beyond) contacting me abut wanting to share THEIR Duphiney portraits. I thought maybe I should do a press release to encourage more contact and sharing. Then I thought, no, this was a kind gesture, but not something others might do...until tonight! I received another email from someone who had seen the gallery on www.pbase.com and also left a message. This indidual has TWO portraits she would like to share. She did not know the sitters of the portrait -- a Dr. and his wife -- but had purchased the portraits. I can't wait to see them!
My grandfather was an incredibly prolific portrait painter. And I have begun to think that reaching out to the people of RI may bring this project to a level that I never imagined in this project. It could be that the portraits of Wilfred I. Duphiney speak on a collectively intimate level that makes his work more important than, and in ways I never realized, when I started this project.
UPDATE: 4/11/2011
I received two images today taken by a cell phone camera -- she will take better photos later but just wanted to share. They are of Dr. and Mrs. Duschene and were painted in 1948. More info later, in the meantime here are images of the lovely couple.
Nick Nerney contacted me a couple of days ago with the news that his family had a painting of his Aunt Virginia by my grandfather. He and his daughter tried taking photographs on two different days (the first was rainy and they could not get decent light). The second day however, the image came out beautiful! What a stunning portrait of a lovely young woman who died far too young. My grandfather painted the portrait from a photographic image taken to celebrate her graduation from Simmons College in 1932. Here it is:
What a beautiful portrait! What eyes! To learn more about Virginia, her family, and the portrait click on the following "hot" link to where I have uploaded the image in one of my galleries: portrait of Virginia Stanhope Nerney.
While I have been excited about this project since beginning anew, seeing COLOR images of the paintings by my grandfather -- most of the documentation photos I have were done in B&W -- has been like the difference between a being and its ghost! My sincere thanks and gratitude to the Nerney family.
For a short while, I imagined families all over RI (and maybe beyond) contacting me abut wanting to share THEIR Duphiney portraits. I thought maybe I should do a press release to encourage more contact and sharing. Then I thought, no, this was a kind gesture, but not something others might do...until tonight! I received another email from someone who had seen the gallery on www.pbase.com and also left a message. This indidual has TWO portraits she would like to share. She did not know the sitters of the portrait -- a Dr. and his wife -- but had purchased the portraits. I can't wait to see them!
My grandfather was an incredibly prolific portrait painter. And I have begun to think that reaching out to the people of RI may bring this project to a level that I never imagined in this project. It could be that the portraits of Wilfred I. Duphiney speak on a collectively intimate level that makes his work more important than, and in ways I never realized, when I started this project.
UPDATE: 4/11/2011
I received two images today taken by a cell phone camera -- she will take better photos later but just wanted to share. They are of Dr. and Mrs. Duschene and were painted in 1948. More info later, in the meantime here are images of the lovely couple.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Stacy Tolman's Sleeping Angel?
Today while going through photos of a collection of drawings previously belonging to my grandfather, I found a drawing of a young woman that seemed remarkably similar to the sleeping angel found in an artwork by Stacy Tolman in my grandfather's studio. I had published a post on my blog earlier that included a close up of Tolman's work called "Sleep" (here), and I'll just include the close-up again here:
Here is the drawing with the model in question that I came across today:
What do you think? Looks like her to me.
Here is the drawing with the model in question that I came across today:
What do you think? Looks like her to me.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
An Old Friend found among Unknown Faces
I have enjoyed the face of the man in a painting I call, The Aristocrat, for many years, not knowing who he is. Here is photo of this lovely painting:
There is another face of an old man cutting leather that I enjoy, in fact, its enjoyment is deepened by the fact that it was found underneath another canvas that was being conserved. Here it is:
It didn't occur to me they might be the same man, until today.
I was going through some photos of drawings that made their way into my hands from a cousin through my brother recently. There I found a drawing that is clearly the same man as the one in the painting I call The Aristocrat. Here it is:
The cap on the man's head in the drawing is also the same style cap on the man who is cutting leather. Could this be the same man and the same cap? The more I look, the more I think, yes. He has a beard in both the drawing and in The Aristocrat.
Was the drawing a study for "The Aristocrat" painting? If so, was the tall and broad-brimmed hat added for more pizazz? It certainly adds a very nice spatial balance to the "Aristocrat" painting.
The smaller cap on the man in the drawing gave me reason to take a closer look at the man in the painting I call Leather Cutter. There he has no beard, but the direction of hairs in the mustache seem to suggest it is the same man! Geesh, I've had those two paintings since the early mid-1980s and never realized they were one and the same man until I came across this drawing!
Update March 31, 2011: Today, I found another drawing of this man, this time without the mustache. Here he is:
It was found among photos of a collection of drawings that I recently recieved. I was not signed or dated, so I am not 100% sure it was done by my grandfather (but around 99.7% sure, wink), since there were other works in the collection that were done by my grandfather's friends (like Stacy Tolman).
AND, update 4/1/2011, Just found this drawing in a photo of my grandfather's studio! (Click here for link.)
There is another face of an old man cutting leather that I enjoy, in fact, its enjoyment is deepened by the fact that it was found underneath another canvas that was being conserved. Here it is:
It didn't occur to me they might be the same man, until today.
I was going through some photos of drawings that made their way into my hands from a cousin through my brother recently. There I found a drawing that is clearly the same man as the one in the painting I call The Aristocrat. Here it is:
The cap on the man's head in the drawing is also the same style cap on the man who is cutting leather. Could this be the same man and the same cap? The more I look, the more I think, yes. He has a beard in both the drawing and in The Aristocrat.
Was the drawing a study for "The Aristocrat" painting? If so, was the tall and broad-brimmed hat added for more pizazz? It certainly adds a very nice spatial balance to the "Aristocrat" painting.
The smaller cap on the man in the drawing gave me reason to take a closer look at the man in the painting I call Leather Cutter. There he has no beard, but the direction of hairs in the mustache seem to suggest it is the same man! Geesh, I've had those two paintings since the early mid-1980s and never realized they were one and the same man until I came across this drawing!
Update March 31, 2011: Today, I found another drawing of this man, this time without the mustache. Here he is:
It was found among photos of a collection of drawings that I recently recieved. I was not signed or dated, so I am not 100% sure it was done by my grandfather (but around 99.7% sure, wink), since there were other works in the collection that were done by my grandfather's friends (like Stacy Tolman).
AND, update 4/1/2011, Just found this drawing in a photo of my grandfather's studio! (Click here for link.)
Some landscapes among the sea of faces
I just got some photo documentation of landscapes done by the artist. The quality was poor -- not in focus and/or overexposed, but I am excited that there are images. Someday, I hope they will get re-shot. Until then. Landscapes of course were not the artists specialty, but I suspect they were a means of relaxation. I have a set (not yet documented) that shows he painted the same place in different weather and seasons.
The landscapes stick out to me and my family because we have seen so many of his faces.
Here are a couple of my favorites from the bunch:
More landscapes are posted in my gallery on www.Pbase.com (click here).
The landscapes stick out to me and my family because we have seen so many of his faces.
Here are a couple of my favorites from the bunch:
More landscapes are posted in my gallery on www.Pbase.com (click here).
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