MARBLE, JOHN NELSON (American, 1855-1918) "Palm Springs, Cal." Signed, L.R.; titled and dated verso: 10 June 1913. Oil on cigar box lid, 5" x 8" (sight); 10 ˝" x 13" (framed). Price Category: B

Born in Woodstock, Vermont in 1855, John Nelson Marble studied at the Art Students' League in New York and later at the famed Académie Julien in Paris. Today he is grouped with the California impressionists based on his work of the 1880s and the period of 1907-13, when he lived in Santa Barbara. His impressionist images of the early California missions and surrounding desert scenes are distinctive. He also was a successful portrait painter and counted several notable sitters among his commissions. His life size portrait of Mary Baker Eddy hangs in the New Hampshire statehouse. Marble was a member of the Salmugundi Club and exhibited at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland in 1905. His work is represented in the Groton School (MA), the University Club (NYC), the Society of California Pioneers, and the National Academy of Design. This miniature desert landscape, painted on the back of a cigar box lid, demonstrates Marble's skillful handling of space and volume. In quick, broad strokes, the artist sketched two intersecting mountains in the background whose scale is defined by a carefully painted horizontal line of low trees in the middle distance. A foreground of scattered sage and boulders completes the composition. The subdued tones of the artist's palette evoke a tranquil picture of the desert around Palm Springs, California before the onset of development that came later in the century. Provenance: John Moran Auctions, California & American Paintings, Pasadena, California, June 19, 2007, Lot 12. References: American Art Annual, 1898-1915. Art News 4-6, 1918 (obit.) Davenport, Ray, Davenport's Art Reference (2005). Dawdy, Doris, Artists of the American West: A Biographical Dictionary (1985). Falk, Peter H., Who Was Who in American Art (1999). Falk, Peter H., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago (1990). Falk, Peter H.., The Annual Exhibition Record, 1876-1913, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Gerdts, William H., Art Across America (West), Vol. 3 (1990). Hughes, Edan Milton, Artists in California, 1786-1940, 3rd ed. Vol. II (2005). Opitz, Glenn, ed., Mantle Fielding's Dict. of American Painters, Sculptors, Engravers (1985). Naylor, Maria, Exhibition Record 1861-1900, National Academy of Design (1973).

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