Charles Morin Fine Art

Edward Chalmers Leavitt (1842 - 1904) Rhode Island Artist Image Size: 36 x 28 Frame Size: 42.5 x 34.5 Newcomb Macklin Frame. Medium: Oil Dated 1889 "Duck Hunt" Mergansers Edward Chalmers Leavitt (1842 - 1904) Edward Chalmers Leavitt, artist, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, March 9, 1842, the son of Rev. Jonathan and Charlotte Esther (Stearns) Leavitt. His paternal ancestor was John Leavitt, who came to Massachusetts Bay in the first ship and settled in Hingham. On the maternal side, he is descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullens, who came to Plymouth in the Mayflower. Leavitt was educated in private schools in Providence, and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire. During the Civil War in 1862 and 1863, he served in the navy on the U.S.S. Galena. In his profession of artist, Mr. Leavitt is especially noted as a painter of fruit, flowers and still life. He exhibited in the National Academy for several years and has made many successful exhibitions in Providence and Boston. He was a member of the Boston and Providence art clubs, and the Providence Press Club. He was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. In politics his proclivities are mainly Republican. He has been twice married: first, May 19, 1877, to Ellen M. Fuller; and second, April 22, 1880, to Elizabeth S. Chace. Submitted November 2004 by Edward Bentley, Art Collector and Researcher from Lansing, Michigan. Source is the publication "Men of Progress: Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life from the State of Rhode Island." New England magazine. 1896. Edward C. Leavitt, born in 1842, has been described as "Providence, Rhode Island's leading still-life painter" in the late 19th Century. (Zellman 324) His teacher, James Morgan Lewin, was a prominent still-life painter in Fall River, Massachusetts, a neighboring town. Leavitt, a detailed, sharp-focused, realistic painter, was in love with texture and light, and was prolific and successful, painting a variety of still life subjects including flowers, fruit and even fish and dead game animals. His objects, including costly antiques and household decorative items, were often placed on ornamental, gleaming surfaces. He was a frequent exhibitor at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s and 1890s. The artist, who died in 1904, moved from a position of success and popularity to being ignored for many years until the publication of William H. Gerdts and Russell Burke's American Still-Life Painting in 1971. It is uncertain whether this disastrous loss of respect took place because Leavitt's work declined in quality during the last decade of his life, or because he was a victim of the periodic shifts in taste and fashion that afflict the arts. Sources: Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art Biography from Roger King Fine Art Edward Leavitt was one of the leading still life artists of nineteenth century New England. He lived and worked in Providence, and studied with James Morgan Lewin, a leading painter of the Fall River School, which, in the late 19th Century, was one of the most important centers of still life painting. While Lewin branched out into other types of painting, Leavitt remained devoted to the art of the still life. His paintings are sharply focused, realistic, and carefully finished. Ornate objects such as urns, ewers, platters, cut glassware...

John Leopard (1800-1883) Pottery Rusk County Henderson Texas Pottery (1850-1883) 5 or 6 Gallon Ovoid East Texas Churn 18 inches tall 11 inches at widest point Utilitarian John Leopard (1800-1883) Pottery Rusk County Henderson Texas Pottery (1850-1883) One natural resource found in Rusk County provided an abundance of raw material for the development of industry in the county. When pioneers arrived in Rusk County in the early 1800's, they found a variety of clays suitable for brick making, tiles, statuary and pottery. Pottery making is one of the world's oldest crafts, with examples of pottery traced back as far as the 7th century BC. Amongst the earliest finds are artistic figures, images of people and animals, and household implements including breakers and dishes. Anthropologists often use the techniques and patterns found in ancient burial sites to form an accurate picture of society through the ages. Earthenware (jugs, churns, and vessels of all kinds) made in Rusk County found a ready market. Some of the early potters were Brown, Leopard, Rushton, Prothro and Russell. Many of Henderson's downtown buildings were made from bricks baked in the kiln of the Howard Brothers...

Lucien Abrams (1870 - 1941) Image Size: 7 x 9 Frame Size: 12 x 14 Medium: Oil "In the Market Place" Algiers Signed on verso. Painted on chamfer...

Delbert Coombs (1850 - 1938) Maine Artist Image Size: 12 x 9 Frame Size: 15 x 12 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dated: 1897 "The Little Fisherman" Biography Delbert Coombs (1850 - 1938) Delbert Dana Coombs was born in Lisbon Falls, Maine, on July 26, 1850. Although primarily self-taught, Coombs took painting lessons from Scott Leighton...

Jose Arpa (1858-1952) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 25 x 20 Frame Size: 29 x 24 Medium: Oil "Lady in Mantilla" From the Robert Tobin Collection. Robert Tobin (deceased) San Antonio, Texas Developer and Philanthropist. Details This painting was exhibited in 2016-2017 at Several Texas Museums including the Panhandle Plains Museum.  Exhibition tag on verso. Biography Jose Arpa (1858-1952) Born in Carmona, Spain, José Arpa y Perea was known as "The Colorist Painter" of figures and landscapes, especially in Texas where he brought a fresh approach to San Antonio painting in his bright, sunlit local scenes.  He was also an etcher, illustrator, and muralist as well as an art teacher, and he started and ended his career in Spain.  His subjects include the Grand Canyon of Arizona. He began his art study as the pupil of Eduardo Cano de la Pena at the Academy of Fine Arts in Seville and then spent six years in Rome followed by extensive travel through Africa and Europe.  His reputation was solid enough that the Spanish government sent four of his paintings as part of the exhibition to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1894, as an illustrator, he accompanied a Spanish army expedition to Morocco where the Spanish had been defeated by Rifi tribesmen.  In the mid-1890s, he was brought to Mexico City, reportedly by a special Mexican naval vessel, to head the Academy of Fine Arts, but declined the position once he understood the responsibilities.  Instead he joined one of his Spanish schoolmates and went to his home in Puebla, Mexico, where his use of bright colors earned him the name of "Sunshine Man."  He became close to the children of this man, and in 1903, accompanied them as a guardian to school in San Antonio.  After twenty years of traveling in Spain, Mexico, the Southwest, and South America, Arpa settled in 1923 in San Antonio, Texas, where he became Director of the San Antonio Art School and painted bright, sun-filled landscapes.  He taught landscape and portrait painting and was exceedingly prolific, and several San Antonio collectors accumulated large numbers of his works.  Among his close artist friends were Robert and Julian Onderdonk, Tom and Joe Brown, and Charles Simmang.  They were members of a San Antonio group who painted together and called themselves the "Brass Mug...