Attributed to Henry Hensche (German American, 1899-1992). Untitled painting of the artist's house, oil on canvas board. ca. 1940s. A wonderful composition attributed to Henry Hensche featuring a charming view of the artist's house as viewed from his verdant yard with a grove of trees to the left of the scene, painted in the artist's signature Impressionistic style. Hensche avidly studied Monet and aimed to abide by his keen perception of color or "full color seeing" as he called it. A very special painting by this legendary artist who studied under Charles Hawthorne, founder of the Cape Cod School of Art (est. in Provincetown, 1899) and went on to embrace Hawthorne's in addition to Monet's and William Merritt Chase's colorist approach. Hensche also taught many successful artists in Provincetown, including William Draper, Franz Kline, and Nelson Shanks. Size: 24" W x 19.875" H (61 cm x 50.5 cm)
Please note that this location is likely where Hensche would paint Friday morning demonstrations for the students. In addition, the characteristically poetic handling of the tree in the upper left as well as the impressive number of green hues is in accordance with Hensche's "full color seeing" approach.
"As a painter and teacher of consummate skill, Hensche is considered by many in the art world to be an unparalleled colorist - a painter justly deserving the artistic lineage that extends back just two generations to the seminal American impressionist, William Merritt Chase. He has been called an iconoclast, a pioneer, and the late Grand Central Art Galleries of New York named him, 'L'Enfant Terrible de L'Academie'. A teacher for over 60 years, Hensche instilled in his students a profound appreciation for the beauty of nature's light and color. Between 1922 and 1930 Hensche won the Pulitzer Traveling Prize from Columbia University and the Halgarten Award from the National Academy of Design. He has exhibited at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Corcoran, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and has had many other one-man-shows. He is listed in Who's Who in American Art. Some of his students who have gone on to become nationally successful painters are William Draper, Franz Kline, and Nelson Shanks." (Henry Hensche Foundation website)
This painting comes to us from the Estate of William F. Draper, an American artist who studied with Henry Hensche in Cape Cod. Hensche studied at the Art Students League in New York City. By the summer of 1919, he arrived in Provincetown and studied with Charles Webster Hawthorne (American, 1872-1930) at the Cape Cod School of Art (est. 1899). Hensche admired Hawthorne's "color note" approach to painting and even saw this as an advance beyond Claude Monet and William Merritt Chase. "Monet was a painter; he didn't teach. What was needed was a way to put his principles into some kind of teachable form...in the America of that day, William Merritt Chase was the most famous teacher. He taught Hawthorne - and almost everyone else. But, he never really came to grips with the Impressionists' idea. His paintings were really done in tone - in black and white - with Impressionists colors added. He never developed a clear method."
Provenance: The William F. Draper Collection, New York City, USA, acquired via descent from the late William Franklin Draper (1912-2003), an accomplished American artist whose career spanned seven decades. Known as the "Dean of American Portraiture," William Draper was the only artist to paint President John F. Kennedy from life, and his oeuvre includes marvelous landscapes from his world travels, military paintings as he was one of only seventeen Combat Artists in WWII, and portraits of illustrious individuals.
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#153844
Condition
Minor age wear, otherwise intact and very good with wonderful preservation of brilliant color and impasto work. William Draper Estate Stamp on the verso.