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Lot 68
Colin Campbell Cooper(American, 1856-1937)Shwe Dagon Pagoda, Burma 40 1/2 x 27 3/4in overall: 50 x 37in
2 – 3 August 2016, 18:00 PDT
Los AngelesSold for US$61,250 inc. premium
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Colin Campbell Cooper (American, 1856-1937)
Shwe Dagon Pagoda, Burma
signed and dated 'Colin Campbell Cooper 1915 (lower left)
oil on canvas
40 1/2 x 27 3/4in
overall: 50 x 37in
Painted in 1915
signed and dated 'Colin Campbell Cooper 1915 (lower left)
oil on canvas
40 1/2 x 27 3/4in
overall: 50 x 37in
Painted in 1915
Footnotes
Provenance
Private collection Pacific Palisades, California.
Ex-collection Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barbara, California, circa 1950's.
Exhibited
Monterey, Monterey Museum of Art, In and Out of California, Travels of American Impressionists, June 15 - September 1, 2002.
Laguna Beach, Laguna Art Museum, In and Out of California, Travels of American Impressionists, November 2, 2002 - March 9, 2003.
Huntington, New York, The Heckscher Museum of Art, East Coast/West Coast and Beyond, Colin Campbell Cooper: American Impressionist, November 4, 2006 - January 14, 2007.
Laguna Beach, Laguna Art Museum, East Coast/West Coast and Beyond, Colin Campbell Cooper: American Impressionist, February 25 - June 3, 2007.
Literature
Solon, Deborah, In and Out of California: Travels of American Impressionists, Laguna Art Museum, 2002, frontispiece illustration, full color illustration, p. 2. Listed in exhibition checklist as number 11, p. 147.
Gerdts, William, East Coast/West Coast and Beyond, Colin Campbell Cooper: American Impressionist, Laguna Art Museum, 2006, full color illustration, p. 78, Listed in exhibition checklist as number 32, p. 135.
Searching for more than the quotidian subject matter adopted by many of his fellow artists, and lured by his wanderlust to explore exotic locales, Colin Campbell Cooper was drawn to Southeast Asia, especially to the Indian subcontinent and environs, where he recorded daily life against a backdrop of iconic temples and cherished cultural sites.
In a palette and approach inspired by friend and colleague Childe Hassam, his closest artistic contemporary, Cooper's interest in depicting architecture in a highly detailed manner reaches its apotheosis in the present work, a 1915 depiction of the 6th century Shwedagon Pagoda in Burma (Myanmar). Also referred to as The Golden Temple, this Buddhist shrine covered in gold-plated bricks is thought to be the most lavish and beautiful of all the temples of Southeast Asia, as well as one of its oldest and most sacred. Here Cooper enfolds a genre scene within the grand and looming presence of this remarkable edifice. Painted in compelling detail highly reminiscent of the elegant New York architectural street scenes of Hassam and of his own works a decade earlier, the building literally shimmers in an overt display of gilded rapture.
Perhaps with the culmination of works like Shwe Dagon Pagoda, and in the same year, his journey to foreign lands ended, bringing him to California in 1915, where he remained until his death in Santa Barbara in 1937, securing his place as a giant among California and American Impressionists.
This painting retains its stunning original hand carved and gilt wood frame by notable New York frame maker Albert Milch, whose custom moldings adorned treasured works by many top American artists of the early 20th century, including masterworks by Hassam, Henri, Bellows, and many others.
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