Description: This is an Important and RARE Vintage Modern Expressionist Portrait Oil Painting on Artist Board, by the renowned and seldomly offered for sale Pennsylvania born early New Hope Modernist painter and art educator, Stanley Reckless (1892 - 1955.) This piece likely dates to the late 1940's - early 1950's and depicts a figural abstract scene with several shadowy figures walking through a desolate alleyway at night. One of the silhouettes appears to be a child who carries a large suitcase. He is accompanied by the figure of a guardian behind him, who is also shrouded in darkness. In the distance, a mysterious third silhouette is visible, watching from the shadows. Signed: "Stan Reckless" in the lower right corner. Approximately 26 1/2 x 30 1/2 inches (including frame.) Actual artwork is approximately 19 3/4 x 23 7/8 inches. Good overall condition for age and storage, with some mild paint loss and scuffing the painted surface (visible at the upper left edge,) and moderate scuffing, gilding loss and scratches to the original period gilded wood frame (please see photos.) Original artworks by Stanley Reckless are housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, and in numerous private collections worldwide. Acquired in Los Angeles County, California. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About the Artist: Stanley Reckless Born: 1892 - Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaDied: 1955 - Los Angeles, CaliforniaKnown for: Cubist, expressionist figureName variants: Stan Zbytniewski Biography from Crocker Art Museum StoreStanley Laurence Reckless (Zbytniewski) 1892-1955A painter and teacher, he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 22, 1892.After settling on an art career, Stanley Zbytniewski adopted the name Reckless. He began his art training at the PAFA where he won the Cresson Traveling Scholarship (1915-16) for further study at Académie Julian in Paris. His art career was briefly interrupted while serving in WWI. Upon discharge, he worked in Pennsylvania until 1930 when he settled in Los Angeles. Initially, he taught at the Chouinard Art School and later served as director of the Art Center School.Reckless died in Los Angeles on Dec. 22, 1955.Member: Philadelphia Graphic Sketch Club; Paris-American AA.Exh: PAFA, 1916 (1st prize), 1923, 1924; NAD, 1922, 1924; CAG, 1919, 1921, 1923; Artists Fiesta (LA), 1930 (gold medal), 1932 (2nd prize).AAA 1921-33; WWAA 1936-41; Ben; Fid; DR.Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940" Stanley Reckless1892 - 1955 After settling on an art career, Stanley Zbytniewski adopted the name Reckless. He began his art training at the PAFA where he won the Cresson Traveling Scholarship (1915-16) for further study at Académie Julian in Paris. His art career was briefly interrupted while serving in WWI. Upon discharge, he worked in Pennsylvania until 1930 when he settled in Los Angeles. Initially, he taught at the Chouinard Art School and later served as director of the Art Center School. Stanley Z RECKLESS, Art Center School Chief Dies, Los Angeles, 22 Apr 1955, After a Long Illness Stanley RECKLESS, founder/Regent of Art Center School, died after a long illness. Mr. Reckless, 63, who lived at 2329 W Los Amigos Ave., La Crescenta, was in charge of the school's painting dept since its inception. He was educated at the Univ of PA Penn Museum Sch of Industrial Art, Penn Academy of Fine Arts, Beaux Arts, Julienne's Academic, Grande Chaumiere and the Modern Academy (the latter 4 in Paris) and Slade School, Univ of London. [Stanislaw ZBYTNIEWSKI (Stanley Laurence RECKLESS)] New hope modernists: the new group and independents DEFINITIONThe New Hope Modernists were active in the first half of the twentieth century along side their New Hope Impressionist peers. In 1930, modernist Lloyd Ney submitted a painting of the New Hope canal for entry to a juried exhibition at the Phillips Mill. One of the bridges depicted in the work was painted in a bright red. An influential member of the jury board, William Lathrop, elected to reject Ney's painting, citing the bright colors too disturbing. When word of this omission reached fellow modernist, Charles Ramsey, he decided to take action. Miffed by this disregard for their modernist ideas and techniques, Ramsey formed the "New Group," an organization intended to rebel against the more traditional impressionists. New Group members had their inaugural show in the New Hope Town Hall on May 15, 1930, a day before the Phillips Mill Impressionist exhibition. The New Group operated with no formal organization or committees and allowed each artist to select his or her work. Artists included Charles Ramsey, Stanley Reckless, Ethel Wallace, Lloyd Ney and Charles Garner. Although Charles Ramsey was creating Cubist and modernist works in New Hope in the late teens (such as "The New Hope-Lambertville Bridge" c. 1919), the New Group was the first designated modernist organization to form there but was soon followed by another association called the Independents. This group consisted of most New Group artists as well as R.A.D. Miller, Peter Keenan, Charles Evans, Henry Baker, Richard Wedderspoon, Carl Lindborg, Frederick Harer, Faye Swengel Badura, Louis Stone and Charles Ward, among others. Other important modernist painters to later settle in the area were Josef Zenk, Scandinavian-born B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Swiss-born Joseph Meierhans who studied in New York with John Sloan, Clarence Carter, and precisionist, Richard Peter Hoffman of Allentown. Source: James Alterman, "New Hope for American Art", p. 13 Pennsylvania Impressionism Pennsylvania Impressionism was an American Impressionist movement of the first half of the 20th century that was centered in and around Bucks County, Pennsylvania, particularly the town of New Hope. The movement is sometimes referred to as the "New Hope School" or the "Pennsylvania School" of landscape painting.BeginningsLandscape painter William Langson Lathrop (1859–1938) moved to New Hope in 1898, where he founded a summer art school. The mill town was located along the Delaware River, about forty miles from Philadelphia and seventy miles from Manhattan. The area's rolling hills were spectacular, and the river, its tributaries, and the Delaware Canal were picturesque. The natural beauty attracted the artist Edward Redfield (1869–1965), who settled north of the town. Redfield painted nature in bold and vibrant colors and was a pioneer of the realistic painting of winter in America.Lathrop's thick layering distinguished him from his contemporaries, and he amassed more honors and awards than any other artist in the New Hope colony. His style is distinguished by its color, light, and usual time of day when painting. The third major artist to settle in the area was Daniel Garber (1880–1958), who came to New Hope in 1907. Garber hated painting winter scenes and applied his paint lightly. He was an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and popularized rain paintings.Artist colonyAs more artists came to the colony, the artists formed art groups with different ideas. The two main groups were the Impressionists and the Modernists. The Pennsylvania Impressionists, a key movement in American Impressionism, influenced major artists such as Walter Schofield (1867–1944), George Sotter (1879–1953) and Henry Snell (1858–1943). William Langson Lathrop purchased the Phillips Mill property to use as a venue to hold galleries and exhibitions. Modernist Lloyd R. Ney submitted a painting of the New Hope canal. Lathrop threatened to reject the painting because the colors were too disturbing. Charles Ramsey, Lloyd Ney's good friend, was disturbed by this comment and formed the “New Group.” This group rebelled against the traditional impressionists, hosting its inaugural show the day before the Phillips Mill Exhibition on May 16, 1930.Many years later, a flood of artists came to Pennsylvania because of Garber's influence. This group included artists such as Robert A. Darrah Miller (1905–1966), Peter Keenan (1896–1952), Charles Evans (1907–1992), Henry Baker (1900–1957), Richard Wedderspoon (1889–1976), Carl Lindborg (1903–1994), Frederick Harer (1879–1947), Faye Swengel Badura (1904–1991), Louis Stone (1902–1984), and Charles Ward (1900–1962). Other important modernist painters to later settle in the area after the initial arrivals were Josef Zenk (1904–2000), Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt (1878–1955), Swiss–born Joseph Meierhans (1890–1980), Clarence Carter (1904–2000), and Richard Peter Hoffman (1911–1997).Finally, there were the “Last Ten." These ten women artists consisted of Fern Coppedge (1883–1951) and Mary Elizabeth Price (1877–1965) from New Hope, as well as Nancy Maybin Ferguson (1869–1967), Emma Fordyce MacRae (1887–1974), Eleanor Abrams (1885–1967), Constance Cochrane (1888–1962), and Theresa Bernstein (1890–2002). These women influenced many other women to join the Pennsylvania Impressionism movement.Similar to the French impressionist movement, Pennsylvania Impressionist art was characterized by an interest in the quality of color, light, and the time of day. This group of artists usually painted en plein air (outdoors) to capture the moment. According to the James A. Michener Art Museum’s senior curator Brian Peterson, “what most characterized Pennsylvania impressionism was not a single, unified style but rather the emergence of many mature, distinctive voices: Daniel Garber's luminous, poetic renditions of the Delaware River; Fern Coppedge's colorful village scenes; Robert Spencer's lyrical views of mills and tenements; John Folinsbee's moody, expressionistic snowscapes; and William L. Lathrop's deeply felt, evocative Bucks County vistas."Art historian Thomas C. Folk defines the movement as the Late Pennsylvania School, those artists that "came to prominence in Bucks County after 1915 or after the Armory Show and the Panama–Pacific International Exposition." According to Folk, the three most notable artists in this group were John Fulton Folinsbee, Walter Emerson Baum and George Sotter.One of the artists, Walter Emerson Baum, worked as a teacher and educator and through his founding of the Baum School of Art and the Allentown Art Museum, would serve to expand the influence of the movement out of Bucks County and into Lehigh County, specifically Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, where the movement continued to flourish into the 1940s and 1950s. Today, this group of artists is collectively known as the Baum Circle.
Price: 6500 USD
Location: Orange, California
End Time: 2024-12-15T02:33:16.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Artist: Stanley Reckless
Unit of Sale: Single Piece
Signed By: Stanley Reckless
Size: Large
Signed: Yes
Period: Post-War (1940-1970)
Material: Oil, Masonite
Region of Origin: California, USA
Framing: Framed
Subject: Children & Infants, Cityscapes, Community Life, Figures, Industrial, Landscape, Men, Silhouettes, States & Counties, Working Life
Type: Painting
Year of Production: 1940
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Item Height: 30 1/2 in
Theme: Americana, Architecture, Art, Cities & Towns, Continents & Countries, Domestic & Family Life, Exhibitions, People, Portrait, Social History
Style: Abstract, Cubism, Expressionism, Figurative Art, Modernism, Portraiture, Surrealism, New Hope Modernist
Features: One of a Kind (OOAK)
Production Technique: Oil Painting
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Handmade: Yes
Item Width: 26 1/2 in
Time Period Produced: 1925-1949
