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Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection WALT KUHN (1877-1949) Chorus Captain, 1935 ...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:150,000.00 - 250,000.00 USD
Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection WALT KUHN (1877-1949) Chorus Captain, 1935 ...
Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
WALT KUHN
(1877-1949)
Chorus Captain, 1935
signed and dated "Walt Kuhn 1935" (lower right)
oil on canvas
40 x 30 in. (102 x 76.5 cm) <p>Estimate: $150,000-250,000 <p> Provenance
Estate of the artist Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland, 1979 <p> Exhibited
New York, Kennedy Galleries, Inc, The Eyes of America from 1792 to 1979, May 1-26, 1979 (illustrated) Rome, Musei Vaticani; Lugano, Villa Malpensata, Maestri Americani della Collezione Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1983-1984, no. 90 and 88 respectively (illustrated) Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art; Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts; Denver, The Denver Art Museum; San Antonio, Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute; New York, IBM Gallery of Arts and Sciences; San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art; Palm Beach, The Society of the Four Arts, American Masters: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, October 28, 1984-April 13, 1986, no. 90 (illustrated) Kobe, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art; Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum; Tokyo, The Bunkamura Museum of Art; Hiroshima, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Two Hundred Years of American Paintings from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, January 5-August 25, 1991, no. 45 <p> Literature
Gail Levin, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Twentieth-Century American Painting, London, 1987, p. 112, no. 30 (illustrated, p. 113) <p> Although Chorus Captain represents one of Walt Kuhn's most familiar subjects, the artist did not begin to paint his somber, reflective portraits of circus performers until the 1920s, when he was in his fifties. By then he had already established himself as an artist - and had worked as a cartoonist, writer, set decorator, and teacher. Kuhn helped organize the 1910 Exhibition of Independent Artists and was a founding member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, the organization responsible for mounting the Armory Show of 1913. He served as an advisor to some of the most important collectors and taste-makers of the early twentieth century, among them John Quinn and Lillie P. Bliss. <p> In a 1948 essay, Kuhn stated, "I have been following the circus, and painting circus people and animals for almost fifty years, and to me it is still the most fascinating business in the world, a mirror of all that is grand and beautiful." In the 1920s, Kuhn took his love of the circus and performance even further when he began staging and directing satirical ballets for vaudeville shows, thereby acquiring an enormous acquaintance among directors dancers, acrobats, and vaudeville performers. In fact, in most of Kuhn's paintings, the performers were not merely models but individuals he knew professionally. Kuhn himself designed the theatrical costumes but allowed his models to select from these costumes and pose themselves. <p> Chorus Captain is quintessential Kuhn - a performer shown in frontal view and wearing a slightly disillusioned expression is placed against a simple background. The theme of the weary, underpaid and under-appreciated showgirl crowned by fine plumage fit for royalty frequently occurred in Kuhn's mature oeuvre and was met with a great deal of success. The showgirl depicted in Chorus Captain avoids the gaze of the viewer and instead stares blankly, lost in thought. Hastily applied patches of makeup attempt to brighten her otherwise expressionless face. Her subtle sensuality imbues the picture with the inescapable disquiet of broken dreams. And yet, beyond her sullen resignation, there is dignity and poise. <p> Kuhn employs an effective compositional device in Chorus Captain. The inverted triangle of voluminous plumage and the lower triangle formed by the woman's torso and arms have the effect of drawing one's gaze directly to the woman's face - the psychological center of the composition. <p> Kuhn was one of a generation of American artists who transformed his love of European art into a distinctly American style. His early artistic studies were in Europe, first at the Academie Colarossi in Paris and then at the Royal Academy in Munich. His deep knowledge of the history of European art informed his work throughout his career. One can see in Kuhn's entertainers a debt to Watteau's clown-like Gilles from the commedia dell'arte, and the dancers and cabaret performers of Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Kuhn would most certainly have been aware of Picasso's sensitive portrayal of performers from what became known as that artist's "Blue Period" and "Rose Period" from about 1901-1906. Kuhn's insight into the life of the vaudeville performer also aligns him with his American contemporary, Reginald Marsh. The remote and sullen expressions of many of Kuhn's performers have been compared to the psychologically distant women in the paintings of another contemporary, Edward Hopper. <p>We are grateful to Beth Venn for cataloguing this lot.
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