William Wendt (American, 1865-1946) Converging Fields (Mountains of Malibu) 30 x 40in
William Wendt (American, 1865-1946)
Converging Fields (Mountains of Malibu)
estate-stamped 'William Wendt' (lower right) and estate-stamped 'William Wendt' (on the stretcher bar)
oil on canvas
30 x 40in
overall: 39 x 49in
Estimate:
US$ 80,000 - 100,000
£51,000 - 64,000
€60,000 - 75,000

Footnotes

  • PROVENANCE:
    Collection of Anna Wendt, the artist's sister, Chicago, Illinois
    Private collection, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1953
    With Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago, Illinois, 1991
    With The Redfern Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
    Thence to the present owner

    Aptly referred to as the 'Dean of Southern California Artists', William Wendt created and perfected a mode of representation in his paintings that was influenced by and in turn influenced many of his contemporaries. Inspired by the French Impressionists, the artist turned to a plein-air style which sought to capture the beauty of the California landscape through the use of light and color to convey his own ideas of the spiritual nature of landscape. Similar to the Existentialists influential ideas of the sublime in nature on the development of the Hudson River School painters, Wendt was caught by a drive to show the goodness and bounty of nature in the California landscape. In William H. Gerdts, Images of the Land of Sunshine: California Impressionism, he discusses Wendt's work as differing from many of his fellow artist in the that he favored more of the greens and gold tones for his works and he applied a cubist or abstract view of his shapes and fields of color. These distinctive elements are depicted in Converging Fields, a great example of what makes Wendt a truly important and innovative artist of the California School.

    Footnote:
    Images of The Land of Sunshine: California Impressionism, All Things Bright and Beautiful: California Impressionists Paintings from the Irvine Museum, William H. Gerdts, The Irvine Museum, Irvine, California, 1998, pgs. 19-88.

Category: Fine Art / California and Western Paintings


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