Beauty Rediscovered: Paintings
by Adeline Albright Wigand & Otto Charles Wigand
June 24, 2010 - January 17, 2011
The following works and their corresponding texts appeared
in the exhibition Beauty Rediscovered: Paintings by Adeline Albright
Wigand & Otto Charles Wigand, organized by the Staten Island Museum,
New York; on view from June 24, 2010 through January 17, 2011. Bartholomew
F. Bland, Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Hudson River Museum was
Guest Curator for the exhibition.
The paintings of Adeline Albright Wigand and Otto Charles
Wigand are imbued with clues to another era. Filled with the qualities of
charm, grace, and modest elegance, they depict a seemingly gentle world
of small domestic moments, contemplative portraits, ornamental still life,
and highly romanticized farmers -- a vision that did not hold up a mirror
to the societal growing pains of French or American life at the turn of
the twentieth century. Toward the end of their lives in the years before
World War II, the reputations of these well-regarded artists waned -- their
work was pretty, even beautiful, at the precise moment when the art world
decided these were not hallmark qualities of serious artists. Although the
couple made tentative steps toward more modern styles, their adherence to
traditional training meant that their work grew unfashionable over time.
Although the Wigands' art is representative of the Gilded
Age, their relationship places them decidedly outside the artistic mainstream.
Married late in life, this childless couple worked together comfortably
side by side as artists for decades, first in Paris, then in Manhattan,
and eventually on Staten Island. This exhibition, their first since the
memorial exhibition held at the Staten Island Museum in 1945, proved an
opportunity to reevaluate the work of two artists whose academic training
reflected many of the highest ideals of nineteenth-century art, carried
over into the rapidly changing modern world.
Object labels / checklist from the exhibition
Adeline Albright Wigand
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of Henry Julian Mullin, c. early 1880s
- Oil on canvas, 10_ x 9 in.
- Collection of the Staten Island Museum
-
- To the modern eye, this painting may appear to be a charming
study of young feminine beauty with long curls and blooming pink cheeks,
but, in fact, in keeping with conventions of nineteenth-century childhood,
this is a portrait of a young boy -- two-year-old Henry Julian Mullin.
Mullin's was an American Minnesota family, busily touring Europe, and they
commissioned this portrait from Adeline, perhaps sympathetic to her because
of their shared Midwest background. Scholars have theorized that the small
size of this painting indicates that it is a study for a larger, now lost
work. However, the high degree of refinement in the execution, the fact
that Adeline is known to have used the smaller format for other pictures
of children, and the fact that the painting is signed indicate that Adeline
regarded this as a finished work in its own right.
-
- This portrait was donated to the Staten Island Museum
by the Vaughan family, who at the time also donated one of Adeline's few
other known full-length canvases. Showing a statuesque woman wearing clothes
fashionable just before World War I alongside a large collie, the painting
was unfortunately deaccessioned from the museum in the late 1960s, indicative
that the interest in this style of painting was at its nadir.
-
- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of Mademoiselle X, c.
1886
- Oil on canvas, 21_ x 19_ in.
- On Loan from the Collection of Mr. Timothy Simonson
-
- This highly polished example of portraiture was likely
Adeline's entry into the Paris Salon of 1886, when she was studying as
an art student at the Académie Julian. This painting would have
served as a kind of advertisement for Adeline's increasing mastery of the
figure as she sought additional portrait commissions.
-
- The solitary illuminated figure posed against a dramatic
dark background is a stylistic convention borrowed from seventeenth-century
Old Master paintings, and it is not surprising that an American artist
studying in Paris produced such a work. At the time the United States was
swept up in "Hollandmania" -- a vogue for all thing Dutch, inspired
by Holland's Golden Age. While American robber barons gobbled up Rembrandt's
portraits, working American artists such as Adeline's teacher William Merritt
Chase took notice and consciously adapted these historical styles into
their contemporary work.
-
- Technical examination indicates that the painting has
had the bottom several inches of canvas folded under, and the original
signature, her maiden name, Adeline Albright, is still visible on the back
of the canvas. Both of the Wigands' known oeuvres contain canvases that
were enlarged by several inches or reduced in size, most likely to fit
available frames later in life when their income was limited.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of My Mother, c.
1890
- Oil on canvas, 37 x 30 in.
- Collection of the Staten Island Museum
-
- One of Adeline's most accomplished canvases, this portrait
reveals both the surety of her salon training and her embrace of the (at
the time) more modern aesthetic of portraiture popularized by James MacNeill
Whistler. Shown at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the
portrait highlights Adeline's ability to expertly convey the varied textures
of fur, paper, hair, metal, and silk. The painting was likely completed
away from New York, when Adeline was on a family visit in Iowa.
-
- Although Adeline never studied with Whistler, this work
bears a debt to Whistler's 1871 painting Arrangement in Grey and Black:
The Artist's Mother. Adeline's work is softer in color and in the figure's
conception. Whistler's mother is solemn and formal, the embodiment of a
nineteenth-century puritan, but Wigand's interpretation of her own mother
is less formidable and draws the viewer into her psychological world. The
mother wears an expression of thoughtful, almost scholarly reflection.
The cool blue-grays and black of Whistler's formal experimental composition
create in Adeline's work a warmer harmony.
-
- Adeline herself felt this portrait was one of her most
successful works, exhibiting it frequently. In 1941, nearly fifty years
after she created the painting, she chose it to represent her in a group
show reviewed by the Staten Island Advance:
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- Mrs. Wigand succeeded in portraying herself as well
as her mother in the same picture; for only a loving, a revering daughter
could do such a masterpiece. . . . The subject has just read some passage
from Emerson. She has now closed the book and is deeply immersed in thought,
the head very slightly tilted to her left side. Her communing through her
meditation with the entire universe imparts to her something divine.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (?) (1856-1944)
- Mother Reading with Polly,
c. 1890-1900
- Oil on canvas, 16_ x 13_ in.
- On Loan from the Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- The authorship of this painting, simply signed "Wigand,"
has been a matter of intense debate within both the museum and the Wigand
family. Oral history in the family has traditionally ascribed the painting
to Otto, as a portrait of his own mother. However, the facility, bulk,
and positioning of the figure seem to point to Adeline as the painter.
Otto, though exceptionally skilled in drawing the academic figure, seems
to have been less comfortable rendering the figure in oil paint. Additionally,
the deep coloration shows a clear debt to Adeline's studies with William
Merritt Chase during this period. From a purely psychological standpoint,
the sitter here appears disagreeable. This seems to be a woman the painter
had to endure rather than embrace, and gives some indication of Adeline's
relationship with her mother-in-law. With the cast-down eyes seen in many
of Adeline's canvases, the figure's less than charming expression expresses
the ambivalence shown in many of Adeline's female figures during this period,
a quality rarely, if ever present in Otto's portrayals of women.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of a Young Girl (Eleanor
Wigand?), c. 1890
- Oil on canvas, 62 x 34 in.
- Collection of Mr. James R. Wigand
-
- Adeline's largest known portrait epitomizes the Gilded
Age in its grandeur. Most likely a painting of her niece Eleanor Wigand,
who can also be seen as a girl in a painting nearby, the work was likely
kept within the family, as it has no known exhibition history before resurfacing
at auction in 2009. The painting bears the strong influence of Adeline's
teacher William Merritt Chase, John Singer Sargent's children painted in
grand interiors, and most directly, in its quotation of the bearskin rug,
James MacNeill Whistler's Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl.
-
- Painting a much younger girl than shown in Whistler's
portrait, Adeline rose to the technical challenges of portraying white
on white in the girl's dress and the bear rug, and the painting shows bravura
technique in the fur and taffeta. From the gleam on the pin head securing
the flowers to the glint in the bear's eye, Adeline proved herself a masterful
painter, but for all that, the painting is not fully satisfying. The girl
looks uncertain in her surroundings, and her face is a mask for her emotions,
beyond the intense demureness considered fashionable in girls of the time.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of Otto Wigand (small
version), c. 1895
- Oil on artist board mounted to wood, 11_ x 9 in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- This small portrait of Otto is likely a study for the
larger finished work Portrait of Otto Wigand. His downcast eyes
make this work touchingly intimate, and Otto appears vulnerable under the
gaze of his artist wife. The male under the scrutinizing gaze of the female
is an unusual reversal of the sexes' roles. It is indicative of Adeline's
modesty and perhaps of her aversion to having her likeness taken that no
significant portrait of Adeline by Otto has come to light. Neither has
a satisfactory photographic portrait of Adeline been found, although there
are a number of images of Otto.
-
- In the dark color of this work, Adeline reveals the influence
of her teacher, the painter William Merritt Chase, along with fellow American
painter John Singer Sargent, both of whom were deeply influenced by the
luxuriant deep colors of Spanish painter Velasquez. With his handsome beard,
Otto appears as a more demure variant of Sargent's glamorous Dr. Pozzi
at Home. Adeline would have been familiar with Sargent's painting,
which had created something of a scandal in Europe during the time Otto
and Adeline were studying in Paris
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of Otto Wigand, c.
1895
- Oil on canvas, 30_ x 25 in.
- Collection of the Staten Island Museum
-
- Adeline's handsome portrait of her husband is a tribute
to her affection for him. Otto appears as a thinking, gentle person with
a poetic air. Notably, Adeline does not portray Otto in the guise of a
fellow artist -- there are no palettes or easels to signal his successful,
considerable output in an array of artistic media. Instead this is a domestic
but atmospheric work. The art on the wall behind Otto remains indistinct,
and it is unclear if it is one of Otto's or Adeline's own creations.
-
- Although she has reversed the composition, Adeline's
use of a restricted color palette was likely inspired by Whistler's Portrait
of Thomas Carlyle. However, the atmosphere conveyed is different from
the Whistler inspiration. Adeline has softened Otto's gaze, and something
of Otto's creative nature appears in his look, as if he is a bit of a dreamer,
gazing off into the distance, whereas Carlyle appears alert and bolt upright
with anticipation.
-
- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of Eleanor Wigand,
c. 1897
- Oil on canvas, 33 x 20_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of Robert Wigand, c.
1897
- Oil on canvas, 33 x 20_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- Herself without children, Adeline had a clear affection
for her niece and nephew by marriage, here portrayed as elegant, well brought-up
children who seem as though they would be as comfortable in Paris as in
what was then rural Staten Island. Robert's costume in particular is archaic
and mimics the clothing in the grand-manner portraiture of children employed
so successfully by John Singer Sargent. In Robert's portrait, Adeline even
outdoes Sargent, showing the boy in a huge lace collar, which would not
look out of place in a painting by Anthony Van Dyke. Eleanor's gaze is
unnervingly direct and in its intensity is reminiscent of Sargent's dramatic
Marie-Louise Pailleron. Taken together, these children conjure thoughts
of the staring children in Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- The Brown Cape, c. 1902
- Oil on canvas, 13_ x 16_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- Comparing The Brown Cape with Portrait of Mademoiselle
X, it is clear how much Adeline's style evolved over the years. Shortly
after painting the latter, her work began to express less of the influence
of Chase as she adopted tonalism, a style that had been popularized by
Thomas Wilmer Dewing in the 1890s. Many of Dewing's paintings, similar
to Adeline's The Brown Cape, featured the female figure alone or
in an artistically arranged grouping, often seated, playing instruments,
writing letters, or lost in contemplation and situated in gauzy, vaguely
defined interiors. The woman in this painting, like many of Adeline's female
figures, remains remote, refusing to engage the viewer. The Brown Cape
and Adeline's other important tonalist work, Woman in Blue, are
infused with subtle color harmonies that pervade the picture, setting a
wistful mood and tone. Adeline showed this painting at both the Art Institute
of Chicago and the Pennylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1905.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Woman Reading a Letter (The Letter), c. 1910
- Oil on canvas, 29_ x 23_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- Woman Reading a Letter is
a far cry from the staid and sentimental portraits of children that Adeline
executed with technical ease. The daring atmosphere of this work, illuminated
by shaded candlelight, has many historic precedents, dating back to the
works of Caravaggio and George de la Tour and the British artist Joseph
Wright of Derby, famous for his candlelit subjects, as well as lamplit
scenes like Edgar Degas' Interior. Adeline's daring use of blue
flesh tones conveys a chilly interior and associations with death, at odds
with the portrayal of beauty. Erotic and mysterious, the faded flowers
on the table suggest some disappointment in the missive she is reading,
perhaps the aftershock of some disturbing event. Adeline clearly realized
that this work was a breakthrough for her: the painting won the National
Arts Club Prize of $100 in 1912, and it appeared at the Art Institute of
Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the City Art Museum of St. Louis,
and the National Academy of Design, all in 1911.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- At the Table (The Wigands), c.
19001910
- Oil on canvas, 21_ x 17_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- Oral history in the Wigand family suggests that the unsigned
At the Table was a creation of both Adeline and Otto Wigand, in
which each artist painted the other's portrait. Although this is a romantic
notion, sole authorship of the painting likely belongs to Adeline. Certainly
Otto's profile, so similar to Adeline's signed paintings of him, is by
Adeline, and technical examinations of the painting indicate that it is
likely the work of a single hand. Additionally, the existence of a preliminary
drawing for this painting indicates that the composition was worked out
by a single artist. The atmospheric background with a lack of pronounced
detail (common to artists such as Whistler) and the fact that Adeline makes
her own profile much less distinct and engaging in a domestic wifely chore
of drying lettuce point to her authorship, and to an internalized conflict
about her art. Recently a photographic study for this work and another
emerged in a private collection, which confirms that both Wigands, like
Thomas Eakins, eventually broke with their traditional academic training
and adapted photography as a source of material and technical aid for producing
their paintings.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand? (1855-1944)
- Tea Time, c. 1912
- Oil on canvas, 29_ x 24_ in.
- Collection of Walter and Judy Wiedmann
-
- Family tradition has long described this unsigned work
to Otto. It is clearly a finished piece. The face of the young woman is
similar to Otto and Adeline's niece Eleanor Wigand. If the painting is
taken to be by Otto, the woman in the cap may possibly be Adeline, with
the obscured profile similar to At the Table.
-
- Recently a second version of Tea Time emerged,
sketchier in its brushstrokes and convincingly from Adeline's hand. The
somewhat rehearsed nature of the figures in this version may be attributed
to the fact that it was copied and "scaled up" into a more finished
work. The distinct coloration -- the vibrant dabs of orange -- are reminiscent
of Woman Reading a Letter, and point to Adeline's authorship. However,
much of the brushwork and the detail of the background would seem to argue
in favor of Otto. Since the couple worked from photographs to prepare compositions,
it is tempting to consider that each artist prepared a version of the subject,
although it is unlikely that the color palette in both would be so similar.
It has also been proposed that one version was painted by Eleanor Wigand,
but it is not thought she was capable of such sophisticated technique.
Kirsten Jensen has made a compelling argument that this painting may be
a work Adeline showed at the Woman's Art Club in 1920 called Convalescence,
but the lack of a signature in that case remains problematic.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1856-1944)
- Picking Daisies, c. 1915.
- Oil on board, 16_ x 14_ in.
- Collection of Dr. Gwendolyn Bolling
-
- Until recently, this painting was thought to be a painting
by Otto Wigand of Adeline. Although it would be easy to see a romantic
cast to the beautiful young woman with parasol stepping across the meadows,
and then assume this was a painting of a wife by a devoted artist-husband,
the person in this picture is almost certainly Otto and Adeline's niece
Eleanor. The picture bears a strong resemblance to known photographs of
Eleanor from that period, although Adeline has softened her strong profile,
and the style of the dress places the creation of the picture well after
the time when Adeline would have been portrayed as such a young woman.
The beautiful coloration that has emerged since the piece was recently
cleaned matches the palette that Adeline began to work with around World
War I, and the painting of the figure can be securely ascribed to her hand.
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-
Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Polly, c. 1915-1920
- Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in.
- Collection of the Staten Island Museum
-
- Polly highlights Adeline's
gift for painting animals, which can also be glimpsed in the bear head
in the rug in Portrait of a Young Girl. Polly was a beloved family
pet in the Wigand household. There is some evidence that the gilt mirror
in this picture was of special significance to the artist, as it is probably
the mirror mentioned in her will along with several other pieces of antique
furniture.
-
- The picture is something of a visual puzzle. The viewer
of the painting is placed in the position where he or she would naturally
see his or her reflection, only to be replaced by a female figure (probably
the artist) whose features are less distinct and animated than the bird
on the table in front of her. A number of the women portrayed in Adeline's
pictures from the early decades of the twentieth century are infused with
subtle tension and obscured features, and despite the bright colors and
highly decorative aspects of Polly, the artist makes a subtle analogy
between the gilded cage of the bird and the woman caught within the borders
of the gilt mirror frame.
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-
Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Still Life with Bowl, c.
1920
- Oil on canvas, 23_ x 26 in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- Otto must have found this particular composition pleasing,
as he painted several variations, each highlighting the settee, distinctively
upholstered with a single asymmetrical blackbird that suggests a modern
style to some of the Wigands' furnishings. While this still life features
the flattened spatial plane seen in the works of Cézanne and in
Japanese painting, the form here is essentially more conventional. The
beautifully rendered, glowing coloration owes a debt to the distinctive
softer pink undertones seen in the work of Pierre Bonnard.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Zinnias, c. 1920s
- Oil on canvas, 19_ x 15_ in.
- Collection of Mr. James R. Wigand
-
- More thinly painted than Roses in a Vase, but
glorious in its coloration, which recalls French painters such as Pierre
Bonnard and even Henri Matisse, the subject of this work is as much tactile
fabric as it is simple still life. Unlike the images of poetic grandeur
and deep romantic historical association of roses, Adeline here chooses
to portray simple sunny flowers, just pulled from the couple's garden at
their Staten Island home. Adeline and Otto both utilized the decorative
elements they happened to have on hand in their domestic setting, and the
green glazed pottery vessel in this painting can be seen in the case in
the museum's lobby.
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-
-
- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Roses in a Pitcher, c. 1920s
- Oil on canvas, 23_ x 19_ in.
- Collection of Mr. James R. Wigand
-
- Roses in a Pitcher is an
exceptional example of Adeline's brighter color palette in the 1920s. The
roses here are lushly painted, employing impasto: painting that applies
the pigment thickly so that brush or palette knife marks are visible. Like
Wayne Thiebaud's contemporary frosted cakes, these flowers are intensely
tactile in their richness. They are shown with a string of coral beads,
which may have had some special personal significance, and several metal
objects, likely chosen to highlight her skill at painting a range of materials.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Phlox Bouquet in Vase, c.
1925
- Oil on canvas, 15_ x 12 in.
- Collection of Walter and Judy Wiedmann
-
- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Roses in Vase, c. 1925
- Oil on canvas, 14_ x 11_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- These beautiful small-scale still life paintings showcase
Adeline's talents in depicting flowers. Passages of the work, particularly
in the distinctive blue-and-white delftware, are thickly painted and yet
capture the highlights on the glazing of the pottery. The scattering of
dropped petals acts as a kind of memento mori, symbolizing the peak
of the flowers passing, encouraging the viewer to contemplate and savor
the beauty before the inevitable wasting of the blossoms. These paintings
also highlight Adeline's skills in depicting cloth textures and patterns,
which she may have observed as domestic works of art for the home.
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Woman with Parasol in Garden, c.
1925
- Oil on canvas, 20 x 24_ in.
- Collection of Walter and Judy Wiedmann
-
- One of Adeline's few known outdoor garden scenes, probably
painted en plein air, this work is painted with thick, sketchy impasto,
capturing a decidedly modern feeling, not only in the 1920s dress of the
female figure but also in the vibrant hues and abstracted flowers, which
suggest Adeline had considerably loosened her style. The evolution of Adeline's
work from Picking Daisies, painted approximately a decade earlier
yet rooted in the nineteenth century, to this new working style promised
a new direction for her painting, which was never fully realized.
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- Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of Bobby, c. 1927
- Oil on canvas, 7_ x 9_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
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- Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944)
- Portrait of Helen, c. 1927
- Oil on canvas, 7_ x 9_ in.
- Collection of Ms. Helen Bolton Adeline
-
- Compared to the formality and dark, Spanish-inspired
palette of her larger children's portraits of the 1890s, Adeline painted
Robert's children (her great-niece and -nephew) a generation later in lighter
pastel styles. Adeline returns to the distinct smaller format she found
conducive when painting Henry Julian Mullin. Here, she employs the brighter
color palette she adopted through the 1920s that can be seen in works like
Polly. Although their expressions are a bit "candy box,"
Bobby (Robert Jr.) and Helen epitomize the idealized children of the 1920s
at the start of the modern era, in simpler, less restrictive clothing.
These are among Adeline's last known portraits, as she increasingly became
interested in still life in the 1920s and her pace of painting slowed.
Otto Charles Wigand
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- At a Churchyard, Brittany, c.
1886
- Watercolor on paper, 13_ x 18_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Robert C. Wigand
-
- Otto clearly found the way of life around Pont-Aven invigorating
for his art, and the lives of the rural folk who lived there appealed to
his aesthetics. In his work there is no sign of the rapidly encroaching
industrialization of the twentieth century. This watercolor rendition of
a churchyard full of worshippers in Brittan is only one of a number of
studies he made of buildings in the area. Otto chose another traditional
Breton subject for his large-scale oil painting Réflexion après
le Pardon, which he showed at the Paris Salon in 1887. The painting
shows a calm moment after a form of pilgrimage in which sins are forgiven,
a centuries-old demonstration of Catholicism particular to the region.
The Salon was considered the high point of the art year in Paris, and after
its acceptance there, Otto had the piece sent to New York in anticipation
of attracting future clients. Reviews for the painting were mixed, with
some critics commenting on the conventional rendering and sentimental subject
matter. Nevertheless, it was one of Otto's most important canvases and
was donated by the Robert C. Wigand family to Wagner College in 1932.
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-
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- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Woman Sewing, c. 1888
- Oil on canvas, 13_ x 10_ in.
- Collection of Ms. Charlotte Durkee Maeck
-
- Although Otto began his studies in France at the Académie
Julian in Paris in 1884, he spent his summers during the mid 1880s in the
northwestern region known as Brittany, at the town of Pont-Aven along with
a colony of other artists, most notably his friend, the American artist
Arthur Wesley Dow, and the French artist Paul Gauguin, whose avant-garde
ideas about art Otto found not to his liking. Otto's sketchbook is filled
with scenes from the region -- ideas and notes, scenery and faces -- that
could be quickly taken down as source material for eventual finished pictures.
Brittany was especially attractive to artists because the people lived
"picturesque" lives, still dressing in traditional costumes,
like the girl shown here, wearing the distinctive collar of the region.
In his sketchbook, Otto identified the girl as "Marie," and she
may, in fact, be the model for Woman Sewing.
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- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Engraved block, 5 x 3_ in.
- Engraving from block, 7 x 5_ in.
-
- Sketchbook from French studies, c. 1880s
- 6_ x 4_ in.
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- Leaf from sketchbook: Breton Woman, 9 x 5_ in.
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- Collection of Mr. James R. Wigand
-
- These works are a sampling of Otto's range on paper.
From the quickly penciled sketch used to create the finished beauty of
Breton Woman to the carved compositions from which he created engravings,
Otto was always a skilled draftsman, capable of highly refined work.
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- Otto's few extant sketchbooks provide a glimpse into
the environs of France that captured his imagination during his studies
there in the 1880s. These "notations" could be executed quickly,
as in his illustration of the church stained-glass window_accumulated inspiration
that would later inform his own stained-glass designs. However, many of
his sketches, like Breton Woman, are more finished, independent
works of art.
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- The unidentified engraving here reflects Otto's earliest
training in the 1870s as an engraver, likely because of his father's own
bookbinding business, Otto Wigand & Son. Throughout his career, Otto
regularly supplemented his income by engraving works for other artists,
and most of these remain unidentified. Otto also created many melodramatic
illustrations for popular fiction in grisaille (paintings executed
entirely in monochrome shades of grey), often for luridly titled stories
such as A Daughter's Holocaust, The Black Finger, and The
Darkest Hour.
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Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Untitled (Jesus at the Sea
of Galilee), c. 1895
- Watercolor on board, 18 x 8_ in.
- Collection of Mrs. Tina Kaasmann-Dunn
-
- This is Otto's only known existing example of a preparatory
work for stained glass. This design for a church window with a gothic pointed
arch depicts Jesus at the Sea of Galilee. Otto would not have produced
the glass himself; his design would have been elaborated and adapted by
craftsmen skilled in glassmaking. Family history and obituaries indicate
that Otto did some work in the studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany, but this
has never been satisfactorily documented. It is doubtful this work would
have been designed under Tiffany's auspices, as it is signed with Otto's
studio address, 96 5th Avenue. Although little is known of Otto's glass
production, one newspaper account suggests he may have been involved in
the creation of a window entitled "Baptism of the Saviour of St. John,"
donated by Mrs. Russell Sage to the First Presbyterian Church of Syracuse,
New York.
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- The biblical scene shown here depicts Jesus speaking
to a great throng of fishermen and their families along the Sea of Galilee.
Otto ably captures their distress from hunger and despair in the moments
before Jesus performs the miracle of piling the two boats belonging to
Simon and Andrew, James and John, with fish and filling their empty nets.
When the four men repented, declaring themselves not worthy of such bounty,
Jesus replied, "Fear not; but follow me, and I will make you from
this time fishers of men," after which the four men became his disciples.
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Still Life with Apples, c.
1900
- Oil on canvas, 17_ x 23_ in.
- Collection of Mr. James R. Wigand
-
- Paul Cézanne, often described as the "father
of modern art," had a huge influence on American artists and on the
modernist movement in the early decades of the twentieth century. The exquisitely
painted apples, peaches, and pears in his still lifes, and his experiments
with perspective and a flattened spatial plane, later proved key inspirations
to artists like Charles Demuth and Marsden Hartley. Although Otto never
totally embraced the avant-garde that led from Cézanne's postimpressionism
to early American modernism, works like Still Life with Apples,
with their wonderfully rendered volume, highlight Otto's ability to shift
his style. Here, he demonstrates his ample skill in painting still life
and beautifully evokes the tactile sensuality of the fruit before him.
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Untitled, c. 1904
- Oil on canvas, 17_ x 23_ in.
- Collection of Ms. Marion Wigand
-
- Otto's skills at rendering the figure in pencil and charcoal
were superlative, although his renderings of the figure in oil could sometimes
be more tentative. However, there is no evidence of hesitation in the figures
he completed in the years around 1904. The woman in this work, who is unidentified,
seems to embody the independent "New Woman," much written about
in the first decade of the twentieth century. One cultural commentator
stated:
-
- They are all social workers, or magazine writers in
a small way. They are decidedly emancipated and advanced, and so thoroughly
healthy and zestful, or at least it seems so to my unsophisticated masculine
sense. They have an amazing combination of wisdom and youthfulness, of
humor and ability, and innocence and self-reliance, which absolutely belies
everything you will read in the story-books or any other description of
womankind. . . . They enjoy the adventure of life; the full, reliant, audacious
way in which they go about makes you wonder if the new woman isn't to be
a very splendid sort of person.
-
- Although Otto has not yet fully embraced the bright coloration
and light effects of impressionist Frank Benson, who specialized in painting
the idealized and patrician New England "New Woman" at about
this time, over the next two decades Otto would gradually move toward a
late American impressionism, shedding the grey undertones of his French
period.
-
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Woman with Baby by the Sea, c.
1904
- Oil on canvas, 17_ x 25_ in.
- Collection of Ms. Charlotte Durkee Maeck
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Ocean at Newport, c. 1904
- Oil on canvas, 19_ x 29_ in.
- Collection of Ms. Helen Bolton
-
- Around 1904, Otto's life underwent a marked shift. During
a summer trip with Adeline to Maine, he stopped in to visit his old friend
from France, Arthur Dow. Whether or not this particular visit influenced
his painting, Otto's figures became markedly more sculptural on the canvas.
As much as by Dow, it is highly likely that Otto was influenced by Winslow
Homer's great seascapes of the period, which were getting much attention
in the art world and with which Otto would have been familiar. Works like
Homer's A Light on the Sea featured monumental women posed against
dramatic backdrops of rocky coastline, and these have interesting parallels
with Woman with Baby by the Sea. Otto uses a series of strong turquoises,
greens, and lavenders in these paintings that make them a cohesive subset
of his work.
-
-
Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Still Life with Apples, c.
1920
- Watercolor, 17_ x 23_ in.
- Collection of Dr. Gwendolyn Bolling
-
- Throughout his career, Otto's varied output included
stained glass, murals, bronze figurines, wood carvings, and experiments
with photography. This piece demonstrates that Otto was also comfortable
working in watercolor, a difficult medium not forgiving of mistakes. When
working within the confines of still life, which could be comfortably set
up in the couple's dining room or studio space, he would create variants
on his compositions. The same studio props appear repeatedly in both Otto's
and Adeline's work. The pitcher here is the same one in Adeline's Roses
in a Pitcher.
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- The Wilson House, c. 1920-1930
- Oil on canvas, 17_ x 21_ in.
- Collection of Mrs. George A Forsythe
-
- The historic Staten Island Wilson House (also known as
the Decker House) was built before 1800 and originally located in New Springville.
It held obvious architectural interest for Otto, who painted it at least
twice, from different angles. The somewhat somber depiction of the house,
which appears in period photographs in a rather decrepit state of repair,
is set off by the intensely colored buds of early spring in Otto's painting.
In the 1960s the house was dismantled, but portions of it were moved to
Historic Richmondtown, where the kitchen now serves as the carpenter's
shop.
- Because of their work as artists, Otto and Adeline likely
had a keen appreciation of architectural aesthetics for old buildings.
Their home at 55 Woodside Avenue in Stapleton was designed by noted Staten
Island architect Robert W. Gardner, who was also the architect of the Staten
Island Museum building.
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Adirondack Forest, c. 1925
- Oil on canvas, 20 x 24_ in.
- Collection of Mr. Richard Shannon
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Adirondack Birches, c. 1928
- Oil on canvas, 23_ x 39_ in.
- On Loan from the Collection of Mr. James R. Wigand
-
- Both of these works, completed during late summer trips
to the family's Adirondacks vacation home, showcase Otto's ability in capturing
filtered light on canvas. Otto was a strong painter of landscape and beautifully
rendered the play of shadow and variegated color through the depths of
the forest. Depicting the landscape in a new, more colorful key than he
had done when studying in France, these Adirondack works signal the change
in style that would become more fully developed in his Staten Island cityscapes
just a few years later.
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Untitled, c. 1925
- Oil on canvas, 24_ x 29_ in.
- Collection of Ms. Helen Bolton
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Returning from the Garden, c.
1925
- Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 in.
- Collection of Mr. James R. Wigand
-
- Although the brightness of his impressionist color palette
was a new development for Otto in the 1920s, these works, although extremely
beautiful, would have been considered a fairly conservative throwback to
nineteenth-century French impressionism in the Manhattan art world. A play
of color and light, the open window of the couple's Grymes Hill home conveys
a genteel way of living from an earlier era. Although her features here
are somewhat indistinct, Returning from the Garden is likely the
closest that Otto came to producing a portrait of Adeline.
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- View of Stapleton, c. 1930
- Oil on canvas, 19_ x 23_
- Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Smith
-
- Otto obviously found Staten Island's dramatic vistas
of New York Harbor and the hills around the Wigand family home to be inspiring,
and he returned to the scene in and around his home in a string of large
canvases in the 1930s. Yet, Staten Island does not begin to appear in his
work as a distinct location until more than a decade after the couple's
move there. It is clear that many of these late landscapes represent a
creative renewal for Otto. It is unknown if he was taking classes or studying
with a new teacher, although he was active with the museum's Art Section,
which must have given him an outlet to discuss art and evaluate new developments,
even as his professional career waned. Undoubtedly familiar with much of
the urban realism inspired by the Ashcan painters and the developments
of modernism, Otto took this new interest in the urban landscape and imbued
it with the vibrant coloration and exploration of light of late impressionism,
creating an extremely attractive hybrid.
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Snow Covered Hills, c. 1930
- Oil on canvas, 17_ x 23_ in.
- Collection of John T. Wigand
-
- Painting the views of Staten Island hills through the
seasons gave Otto the opportunity to experiment with different lighting
effects. Here, the cold blue light lends a chill to the scene, in contrast
to the brilliant summer sunshine seen in View of Stapleton.
-
-
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- Moon and Venus 5a.m., c.
1930
- Oil on canvas, 26_ x 29_ in.
- Collection of Dr. Jonathan D. Wall
-
- A study in dawn light, sparkling in a beautiful display
of violet, yellow, and pink, Otto's view across the Verrazano Narrows is
filled with the romantic possibility of a new day, even as the moon fades.
The framing device of a window is one to which Otto repeatedly returned
throughout his career, using it as a way to position the viewer within
the picture frame. During his time in France, nearly a half century before
completing this work, he drew A View from My Window, Paris in one
of his sketchbooks. Here in Moon and Venus 5 a.m., Otto creates
a contrast between the modest floral arrangement on the window ledge and
the cozy chair with the epic landscape and endless possibilities of New
York, framed by charmingly incongruous lace curtains. The appreciation
of a small home against the backdrop of the larger city makes this one
of Otto's most appealing canvases. Otto exhibited it at the 115th National
Academy Exhibition.
-
- Otto Charles Wigand (1856-1944)
- The Morning News, c. 1930
- Oil on board, 12_ x 9_ in.
- Collection of Mrs. Tina Kaasmann-Dunn
-
- This sketch, which has a striking graphic modernity,
was only recently discovered and is indicative of the changes in Otto's
style as he began experimenting with different techniques and bolder colors
in the 1930s. A woman (who may well be Adeline) with her face obscured
is seen reading a newspaper. The illustration, with its flat color and
strong lines that give a distinct S curve and coiled energy to the woman,
may have been created for commercial reproduction. Otto frequently signed
his commercial work with the initials O.C.W. instead of with his full signature.
This work shows a looseness and fluidity with the painted figure not evident
in many of Otto's earlier, more academic works.
Selected images from the exhibition
(above: Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944),
Portrait of Henry Julian Mullin, c. early 1880s, Oil on canvas, 10_
x 9 inches. Collection of the Staten Island Museum)
(above: Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944), Portrait of My Mother, c.
1890, Oil on canvas, 37 x 30 inches. Collection of the Staten Island Museum)
(above: Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944),
Portrait of Otto Wigand, c. 1895, Oil on canvas, 30_ x 25 inches. Collection
of the Staten Island Museum)
(above: Adeline Albright Wigand (1855-1944),
Polly, c. 1915-1920, Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches. Collection of the
Staten Island Museum)
About the Staten Island Museum
The mission statement of the Staten Island Museum is:
"Founded in 1881, the Staten Island Museum, New
York City's only general interest museum, engages visitors with interdisciplinary
exhibitions and educational programs that explore the dynamic connections
between natural science, art and history based on its diverse collections.
The Museum is dedicated to making its current and future collections broadly
accessible for educators, students, researchers and the general public by
providing authentic experiences in the field and at the Museum."
The museum is located at 75 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island,
New York 10301. For hours and admission fees please see the museum's website.
Editor's note: The Staten Island Museum
provided source material to Resource Library for the above article.
If you have questions or comments regarding the source material, please
contact the Staten Island Museum directly through either this phone number
or web address:
718-727-1135
http://statenislandmuseum.org/
Readers may also enjoy:
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Resource Library wishes to extend special thanks to Bartholomew F. Bland, Director
of Curatorial Affairs at The Hudson River Museum and Guest Curator for Beauty
Rediscovered: Paintings by Adeline Albright Wigand & Otto Charles Wigand,
for bringing the exhibition to our attention. Resource Library also
wishes to express appreciation to Diane Matyas, Director of Exhibits and
Programs and Michael Dressler, Senior Registrar & Collections Manager
at the Staten Island Museum for their help concerning permission for publication
of materials presented in this article.
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