Frank W. Benson (1862-1951) Poling the Canoe

Lot 38

About Seller

20 Winter Street
Pembroke, MA 02359
United States

Founded in 2005, Copley Fine Art Auctions is a boutique auction house specializing in antique decoys and American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Over the course of the last two decades, the firm has set auction records for not only individual decoy makers, but also entire carving regions. Copley...Read more

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About Auction

The Sporting Sale 2016 by Copley Fine Art Auctions

Live

The Sporting Sale 2016

By Copley Fine Art Auctions

Jul 24, 2016 - Jul 25, 2016

Set Reminder 2016-07-24 10:00:00 2016-07-25 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : The Sporting Sale 2016 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/copley/the-sporting-sale-2016-1579 Copley Fine Art Auctions cinnie@copleyart.com

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Lot Description

Frank W. Benson (1862-1951)
Poling the Canoe, 1929
signed and dated "F.W. Benson '29" lower left
watercolor, 20 by 24 1/2 in.

Frank Weston Benson, one of the Ten American Painters and a leading influence in the Boston School of American Impressionism, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1862. In his youth, Benson was a gifted athlete and excelled at boxing, sailing, and tennis. Growing up along the extensive marshes surrounding his native Salem, Benson learned to hunt and fish at an early age.

Benson loved nature and birds in particular. He wanted to combine his love for birds and his love for art by pursuing a career as an ornithological illustrator in the manner of John James Audubon (1785-1851). As a child he spent many hours at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and Benson's mother, who was herself a painter, encouraged him in this pursuit.

In 1880, Benson enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He studied with the school's founding teachers, Otto Grundmann (1844-1890) and Frederick Crowninshield (1845-1918). Among his classmates were Willard Metcalf (1858-1925), William Bicknell (1860-1947), Edmund C. Tarbell (1862-1938), and Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950). Benson learned quickly and was recognized as a particularly gifted student. In 1882, while still attending classes at the Museum School, Benson began to teach free evening drawing classes in Salem.

In 1885 Benson rented a painting studio in Salem. He began to exhibit at the Boston Art Club and the National Academy of Design in New York, receiving much critical acclaim and numerous awards. After his marriage to Ellen Peirson in 1888, he taught at the Boston Museum School with his friend Edmund Tarbell intermittently until 1930.

Faith Andrews Bedford writes, "Benson's annual fishing trips to Canada's Gaspe Peninsula inspired dozens of watercolors and oils that ranged from quiet studies of boats at rest to paintings of the fishermen themselves." She continues, "In this painting of a sportsman being poled upriver in a canoe by a guide, one can see the swift brushstrokes with which Benson was able to quickly depict the Canadian rivers and the men who fished them."

Provenenace: William V. Tripp III Collection
Private Collection, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Literature: Faith Andrews Bedford, "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson," Boston, MA, 2000, pp. 107, 109, illustrated.

Condition

appears good, not examined out of frame
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