The Glimmer of Light: A New Exhibition of Lauren Sansaricq’s Landscape Paintings at Saint Anselm College

Hawthorne Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of Lauren Sansaricq’s landscape paintings at the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Glimmer of Light: Landscape Paintings by Lauren Sansaricq will run from September 28 to December 6, 2012, and an opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Thursday, September 27 from 6:00 to 8:00pm.

Lauren Sansaricq, Mt. Chocorua, 2012 (click to enlarge)

The Chapel Art Center has recently featured examples of American landscape painting, as well as local and emerging artists. A native of Columbia County, New York, Lauren Sansaricq (b.1990) trained with Thomas Locker (1937–2012), a celebrated landscape painter and children’s book author/illustrator, in the traditional manner of the Hudson River School. Sansaricq’s work captures a similar sense of wonder experienced by the nineteenth century landscape painters working primarily in New York’s Catskill Mountain region. As Jennifer Krieger explains, “Lauren is a tireless technician who can hone in on the most subtle details of nature within its grandest views. She demonstrates an artistic prowess and commitment to faithful design which is not only rare for her age but also uncommon for the age in which we live.” Like the first generation of Hudson River School painters, Sansaricq has also proven herself to be a true artist-explorer. She has broadened the scope of her work to include locations outside the Hudson Valley, including the White Mountains of New Hampshire and locations in France and Italy.

In conjunction with this special exhibition, numerous special events have been planned. David Dearinger, Ph.D., Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at The Boston Athenaeum, will present “The Hudson River School: An Introduction” on Thursday, November 8 at 4:00pm. This lecture will provide a scholar’s insight into the significance of America’s first indigenous art movement, offering an important supplement to Ms. Sansaricq’s meditative and technically rigorous paintings.

Additionally, Fr. MacLellan will be leading a director’s tour of the exhibition at 1:00pm on Saturday, October 20. On Thursday, October 25 at 4:00pm, Ms. Sansaricq will discuss the subject matter and technical practice that ties her work to historic American landscape painting, yet offers a fresh look at our landscape today. Lastly, a special music performance will feature American Romantic compositions performed by acclaimed pianist Alpin Hong on Friday, November 30 at 7:30pm.

Since the opening of Nature’s Poetry, held at Hawthorne Fine Art last winter, Lauren has completed her training at the Grand Central Academy in NYC. We’re excited for this next step in Lauren’s career and will be producing an exhibition catalogue for The Glimmer of Light illustrating her paintings. A PDF of the Nature’s Poetry catalogue is available on our website.

For further information about this exhibition and the related special events, please visit http://www.anselm.edu/chapelart.

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Celebrating Women’s History Month with a Lecture by Jennifer Krieger

Because of Hawthorne Fine Art’s dedication to the work of women artists and scholarship surrounding women in the arts, we’re proud to be celebrating March as Women’s History Month!

In support of the historical contributions of women, Jennifer Krieger will be lecturing on “Women Artists of the Hudson River School” at the Ritz Theater in Newburgh, NY, on Saturday March 31, 2012 at 1:00pm. This presentation stems from Jennifer’s involvement as co-curator of Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School, the first exhibition of female Hudson River School artists that opened at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in May 2010.

Martha Washington

Jennifer’s lecture is the feature presentation of the annual “The General’s Lady” ceremony, sponsored by the Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site, which is the home and property that served as George Washington’s headquarters from 1782-83 during the American Revolution.  Each March, “The General’s Lady” event celebrates the historical contributions of women such as Martha Washington, who worked alongside General George Washington during the Revolutionary War as a businesswoman and hostess to military personnel. The Historic Site presents the annual “Martha Washington Woman of History Award” in honor of a woman who has contributed significantly to the preservation of Hudson Valley history. This year’s honoree is Stella Bailey, co-founder, Executive Director, and Financial Officer of the Fort Montgomery Battle Site Association, and President of the Town of Highlands Historical Society.

We hope to see you on March 31^st for this free event to honor the women of history and the women of today!

Susie M. Barstow, Sunshine in the Woods, n.d.

In further celebration of Women’s History Month and the recently passed International Women’s Day (historically known as International Working Women’s Day) on March 8^th, we are excited to present a recent acquisition by a female Hudson River School artist, Susie Barstow (1836-1923). Sunshine in the Woods is typical of Barstow’s intimate forest scenes suggestive of a cathedral of towering trees, which is reminiscent of the peaceful and spiritual compositions of Asher B. Durand (1796-1886). A Brooklyn Native, student at Rutgers Female Institute in New York, and frequent exhibitor at the Brooklyn Art Association, National Academy of Design, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Barstow is especially remarkable for her love of hiking. Her impressive repertoire of hikes includes all the peaks of the Catskills, Adirondacks, White Mountains, Alps, Tyrol, and Black Forest! A close friend and hiking companion of Barstow’s, Edith Wilkinson Cook (d.1902) is another celebrated Hudson River School artist represented in HFA’s gallery by her meditative yet vibrant Autumn.

Edith Wilkinson Cook, Autumn, n.d.

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“Nature’s Poetry: The Landscapes of Lauren Sansaricq” Closes on January 13th!

It has been a pleasure to work amid the beautiful and sublime landscape paintings of Lauren Sansaricq (b.1990), the first contemporary artist to ever be exhibited at Hawthorne Fine Art. After great success and positive reception, Nature’s Poetry: The Landscapes of Lauren  Sansaricq will come to a close on Friday, January 13^th. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure to view these gems, please stop by the gallery during the last two days of the exhibition.

Recently, the gallery has received five additional works from Ms. Sansaricq, four of them in larger formats than those originally on view. The precision and clarity achieved in her large format paintings is captivating! Come see for yourself before Friday January 13^th!

The following are the newest additions to Nature’s Poetry:

(Click any image to enlarge)

Twilight After the Storm, oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches

Autumn Scene in Sharon, CT, oil on panel, 8 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches

Home in the Wilderness, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

Sunrise Over the Hudson River, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

View from Boscobel, oil on canvas, 21 1/4 x 30 inches

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Rosina Emmet Sherwood (1854 – 1948)

Following in the footsteps of other great American women painters of the time, such as Mary Cassatt and Cecilia Beaux, Rosina Emmet Sherwood attempted the delicate balancing act required of a 19^th century woman artist. Female artists were among the first true career women in a time when popular opinion and tradition both assertively placed women in the domestic realm. Women artists were expected to remain feminine and discreet while simultaneously attempting to challenge, if not surpass, their male peers in artistic accomplishment. Many women reacted to these constraints with compromise. Both Cassatt and Beaux primarily painted subjects that were considered acceptable for women, domestic scenes full of children and mothers, yet ironically, in order to maintain their artistic careers, they denied themselves participation in the very world they depicted. Unlike Cassatt and Beaux, Sherwood attempted to push social boundaries even further, juggling motherhood with her career. Although she did not achieve the same fame as her forebears Cassatt and Beaux, she can be considered the next link in the evolution of the female artist, one who can be both a mother and an artist.

Sherwood was very familiar with the struggles required to be a woman painter. She was born into a family of artists that included several female painters, such as her sisters, Lydia Emmet and Jane Emmet De Glehn, and her cousin, Ellen Emmet Rand. She was one of William Merritt Chase’s first students at his Tenth Street Studio in New York City, and also studied for a year under T. Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian. The Académie Julian had by that time established a reputation as a safe haven for women artists. While the Ecole De Beaux-Arts did not begin accepting women until 1897, the Académie Julian began accepting women into some of its first classes in 1868. There, women had access to the same training as men and could even compete in the same artistic competitions as their male peers. Because this new freedom for women flourished at the Académie, it became a center for the feminist movement in France. Women who before were relegated to merely painting fans and ceramics, could now create full scale portraits and landscapes. They could have real careers as artists. Surrounded by this strong sorority of ambitious artists from all corners of Europe and the United States, Sherwood’s ambition and dedication to her art must have been bolstered and encouraged.

After her time at the Académie, Rosina returned to New York in 1887 and married Arthur Sherwood, with whom she had the five children that would become the constant subjects of her paintings. Her new motherhood, however, did not spell the end of her career. She continued to work as a professional artist for the rest of her life. As an illustrator, her work was included in Harper’s Magazine and won several awards. In 1893, she was commissioned to paint a mural for the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and created a six-figure allegorical composition, The Republic’s Welcome to Her Daughters.

This painting can also be considered an allegory for both Sherwood’s career and the fate of the female artist. The Republic’s Welcome to Her Daughters was Sherwood welcoming a new generation of women artists, one that could finally embrace motherhood and an artistic career. Women artists were no longer forced to choose between the two. In many ways, Sherwood’s artistry extended into her motherhood. Many of her children went on to be successful artists and athletes themselves. Her son Robert was a famous playwright and her daughter Rosamond (depicted as the baby in the above painting), a championship golfer. Sherwood found in her domestic life a wellspring of inspiration and motivation for her talents as a painter.

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