Using a fairly flat picture plane, Ramer uses an array of muted colors to depict a rural scene in Duchess County (mountains in the background may be the Fishkill range). The composition is balanced between an aging tree at left, a windmill at right. Between them is an area somewhat nebulous in its use; colors may indicate corn tassels, or simply overgrown fields. The building seems in good repair, however, so its effect is to serve as antipole to the largely natural landscape. About the Artist: Born in Lemberg, Ukraine, Ramer immigrated to the US with a family holding strongly progressive views (a younger brother, Aaron, was killed in the Spanish Civil War while serving in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade). During the 1930s Ramer’s work was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1934), the Corcoran Gallery (1935), and the Montross Gallery (1936), among other venues. Reviews of his work suggest a protean sensibility, of choosing “to experiment in different fields of painting and “submit[ting] them all to public scrutiny” (Offin). Another visitor thought his “more imposing” figures and still lifes were “not as inviting as his lighter and more fluent” landscapes—an opinion seemingly shared by those who allocated three works to the Mt. Morris sanatorium (“The Critic”). Ramer continued to evolve, in the 1950s influenced by abstract expressionism, in the 1960s and ‘70s according to his nephew “doing some large lucite cast abstractions with found objects that had a La Brea tarpits kind of quality” (Friedman). All this while he maintained a studio upstairs from Max’s Kansas City on Lower Park Avenue, sometimes teaching art classes at Brooklyn College. Much of his work suffered fire damage from the club below or was not preserved after his death. 1 more image at FAP. Sources Consulted: Charles Z. Offin, “Introducing Nat Ramer,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle 23 Feb. 1936: C13; “The Critic Takes a Glance Around the Galleries,” New York Post 22 Feb. 1936: 24. For additional information, a special thanks to Alan Friedman.
It would appear that we’re looking at a farm—barn, silo, outbuildings, a line of trees—around haying season. So why the painting’s title? The nearest lot seems to be across a road, but fence posts run across it; if so this would be an informal farm road, not a county highway, and our proximity to the work of agriculture is even closer. Golds of haystacks stand out against lines of green. About the Artist: Born in Lemberg, Ukraine, Ramer immigrated to the US with a family holding strongly progressive views (a younger brother, Aaron, was killed in the Spanish Civil War while serving in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade). During the 1930s Ramer’s work was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1934), the Corcoran Gallery (1935), and the Montross Gallery (1936), among other venues. Reviews of his work suggest a protean sensibility, of choosing “to experiment in different fields of painting and “submit[ting] them all to public scrutiny” (Offin). Another visitor thought his “more imposing” figures and still lifes were “not as inviting as his lighter and more fluent” landscapes—an opinion seemingly shared by those who allocated three works to the Mt. Morris sanatorium (“The Critic”). Ramer continued to evolve, in the 1950s influenced by abstract expressionism, in the 1960s and ‘70s according to his nephew “doing some large lucite cast abstractions with found objects that had a La Brea tarpits kind of quality” (Friedman). All this while he maintained a studio upstairs from Max’s Kansas City on Lower Park Avenue, sometimes teaching art classes at Brooklyn College. Much of his work suffered fire damage from the club below or was not preserved after his death. 1 more image at FAP. Sources Consulted: Charles Z. Offin, “Introducing Nat Ramer,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle 23 Feb. 1936: C13; “The Critic Takes a Glance Around the Galleries,” New York Post 22 Feb. 1936: 24. For additional information, a special thanks to Alan Friedman.
Across a field we see two small buildings next to a larger one mostly obscurred by trees at left. Given their size and delapidation, it can be inferred that the lives within the homes are humble ones—perhaps agricultural workers, given the pile of hay at right. Telephone or electrical poles are visible near a road at right, along with an unreadable sign. Ramer’s subtle composition emphasizes the things we don’t know about the woods house(s), but they’re tucked into the center of his painting. Note: the line across this painting is due to broken glass in the painting’s frame. About the Artist: Born in Lemberg, Ukraine, Ramer immigrated to the US with a family holding strongly progressive views (a younger brother, Aaron, was killed in the Spanish Civil War while serving in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade). During the 1930s Ramer’s work was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1934), the Corcoran Gallery (1935), and the Montross Gallery (1936), among other venues. Reviews of his work suggest a protean sensibility, of choosing “to experiment in different fields of painting and “submit[ting] them all to public scrutiny” (Offin). Another visitor thought his “more imposing” figures and still lifes were “not as inviting as his lighter and more fluent” landscapes—an opinion seemingly shared by those who allocated three works to the Mt. Morris sanatorium (“The Critic”). Ramer continued to evolve, in the 1950s influenced by abstract expressionism, in the 1960s and ‘70s according to his nephew “doing some large lucite cast abstractions with found objects that had a La Brea tarpits kind of quality” (Friedman). All this while he maintained a studio upstairs from Max’s Kansas City on Lower Park Avenue, sometimes teaching art classes at Brooklyn College. Much of his work suffered fire damage from the club below or was not preserved after his death. 1 more image at FAP. Sources Consulted: Charles Z. Offin, “Introducing Nat Ramer,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle 23 Feb. 1936: C13; “The Critic Takes a Glance Around the Galleries,” New York Post 22 Feb. 1936: 24. For additional information, a special thanks to Alan Friedman.
This painting takes its name from Le Spectre de la rose, a short ballet created in 1911 by Jean-Louis Vaudoyer. In it, a young girl dreams of dancing with the spirit of a rose worn to her first ball. It was famous for the performance of legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, who leaped through one of the two large windows pictured at the back of the stage. Reinhart’s painting carefully retains markers of its theatrical origins, from spotlights to the dancers’ costumes, from the production’s stage to instruments in the orchestra pit at front. About the Artist: Born in Baltimore, MD, Reinhart studied art at the Maryland Institute and then moved to New York City at age 21. Reinhart’s use of dance and theater as subject matter for his painting appears to have grown out of lived experience, with a strong preference for the exotic. He designed costumes and a drop curtain for The Golden Doom, set just before the fall of Babylon; dressed himself as a “Persian Demi-God” to win the prize for costume at Baltimore’s “Bal de Arts”; and sketched out truly incredible ideas for two “Fancy Dress Costumes.” A New York Times art critic noted around this time, after seeing Reinhart’s work at the New York Water Color Club, “a closer intimacy than used to exist between the stage and the exhibition galleries” (New York Times 5 Nov. 1916: 67). Reinhart’s earlier paintings like “Dancing Slave” (1916), “Moment Musical” (1916), and “The Ballet” (1921) anticipate the NDG’s “Specter of the Roses”—which depicts a short ballet of that name wherein the famous dancer Vaslav Nijinsky (as the spirit of a rose) leaped through a window at its conclusion. Reinhart’s work appeared in venues like the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1920 he was paired with Mark Tobey for an exhibition at St. Mark’s Hall. Gradually, Reinhart’s attention turned towards commissioned portraits. Starting in 1947 and until his retirement in 1963, he was director of art at the Friends Seminary day school, New York. 1 more image at FAP.
Although it owes something to Cézanne’s post-impressionist fields of color, Rites’ painting often de-emphasizes formal shapes that would hold together such a composition. It takes a second look to discern a house, outbuilding, and dock upon a pond or small lake—the effect is one of vividly hued camouflage. Interestingly, the most distinct lines are those of two trees in the foreground, and next to them a pole with a telephone or electrical power line. About the Artist: We haven’t located much reliable information about this artist. Born and raised in Ithaca, NY, Rites graduated from Cornell University in 1922 and then studied art in Paris. His works were exhibited at the Galerie de la Renaissance in 1932, whose catalog preface mentions the influence of Cezanne upon his painting (Ithaca Journal 19 Dec. 1933: 7). Along with NDG artist David Dorfman, Rites illustrated a 1941 WPA reading book entitled Tales of Old New York. 2 more images at FAP.
New Deal Gallery, Genesee Valley Council on the Arts Object #FA18252
Ritz, Abigail (photography) Cooper, Ken (biography)
This painting depicts a naval battle of consequence, during the War of 1812, between the USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere some 400 miles southeast of Nova Scotia. The latter ship was only part of a Royal Navy with large numerical advantage, attempting to enforce a blockade upon American merchant ships. In Rodgovin’s composition, we see the defeated English ship set afire and sinking in the foreground—its crew having surrendered and now prisoners aboard the Constitution with the American flag flying proudly. Massed clouds provide a dramatic backdrop. In this the painting is accurate, for its emotional impact proved crucial to public support for the war. About the Artist: Born in London, Rodvogin’s family immigrated to Hartford, CT in 1900. His parents ran a neighborhood grocery store while he drew pictures upstairs and studied with local artist T. J. Thurber. In 1923 Rodvogin received a scholarship to the Art Students League and moved to New York, returning home during the summers. “Then I’d be set for another winter of starvation in New York,” he later recalled (De Bona 111). Not a strong marketer of his own work, Rodvogin made ends meet by selling the occasional photograph or painting, notably a Time magazine cover in 1932 of the French Prime Minister Pierre Laval. Like “The Constitution and the Guerrere,” Rodvogin’s other WPA works seem to focus upon historic maritime subject matter: the Mayflower, Battle of Lake Ontario, and so on. During World War II Rodvogin served in the US Navy as an aerial photographer. He returned to New York and then amidst dire straits in the 1950s was invited by the art critic and collector William Ronnick to live as artist-in-residence at a former mansion overlooking Long Island Sound in New London, CT called the Lighthouse Inn. He continued to paint and lived to be nearly a hundred years old. 1 work at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum. 5 more images at FAP. Source Consulted: Joe De Bona, “He’s Losing His Fight Against Success,” Hartford Courant 27 Feb. 1966: 110-111.
The vividness of this still life is the result of its muted brown background, combined with Rollo’s free use of white paint to highlight the tips of flowers in a vase. Shadows from light at the left side of his painting are minimized, creating an effect of the bouquet glowing with an illumination of its own. Casual field flowers thus transform a subdued domestic space. About the Artist: Born Giuseppe Rollo in Ragusa, Italy, he immigrated with his family to the US in 1913 and lived in Chicago (the spelling of his name possibly dating to this time so as to differentiate him from a well-known boxer living in the city). He worked as a newsroom copy boy while studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, then moved to New York in the late 1920s. His work was exhibited in places like the Whitney Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, and at different venues in Woodstock, NY. Based upon extant works, Rollo appears to have moved easily between landscape, still life, and portrait genres. In 1934 the PWAP commissioned him to paint the portrait of Chicago mayor Edward Joseph Kelly (Chicago Tribune 15 Jan. 1934: 4). 3 works at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 3 works at the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum. 1 work at the National Gallery of Art. 1 work at Detroit Institute of the Arts. 2 works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 4 more images at FAP.
In subject matter if not in style, there are resemblances between this painting and Georges Seurat’s famous A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, but even more so William Blake’s “The Echoing Green.” Here the spirit seems exuberant as the painting's colored ballons, due perhaps to its “American” setting and youthful subjects. A gently sloping parkland ends alongside a pond occupied by a pair of swans, delighting a young child tended by a watchful nurse. Boys and girls of all ages manifest their play at different stages of childhood, save for two pensive young women: one looks out across the water toward adulthood, the other muses upon the hill. About the Artist: Born in Shelbyville, IN, Ross was the son of German immigrants. He studied with William Forsyth—part of the so-called “Hoosier Group” of painters—then moved to New York in 1905 after receiving a scholarship to study at the Art Students League. By 1911 he had relocated to Paris, working at Académie Julian with Richard E. Miller and William-Adolphe Bouguereau at Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Returning to the US ahead of the Great War, Ross located near Washington Square and produced a combination of paintings, privately commissioned murals, and commercial illustration. In 1935 for the Treasury Relief Art Project, Ross installed a massive, 20’ x 20’ painted mural in the Terre Haute, IN courtroom depicting the signing of England’s Magna Carta. First displayed at the Vanderbilt Gallery in New York, the work was praised for the “gay medieval trappings of the nobles and their retainers” while maintaining, for the purposes of a courtroom, a “treatment most dignified and conservative throughout” (New York Sun 28 June 1934: 24). His “Playtime” painting at NDG borrows from murals their organization of bodies in space and a sense of event, even pageantry. In later years Ross became a devout Catholic and painted several more church murals (Pierce). 11 more images at FAP. Sources Consulted: Mary Anne Pierce, “U.S. District Court Mural Arouses Curiosity Here,” Terre Haute Tribune 19 Mar. 1972: 26; “Brings Back Work He Painted Abroad,” Indianapolis Star 11 Feb. 1912: 32.
Golden light from low in the sky, at right, evokes a moment of gratitude for a year’s harvest—seemingly of corn shocks drying in the field. A person carrying a stick pause in front of one. Lush fields, green trees, and a gorgeous sky are shown to their best effect. The scene might pass for one of indigenous culture were it not for the rooflines of two houses in the distance, but the intent seems analogous. About the Artist: We haven’t located any reliable information about this artist. Please contact us if you're able to help.
Vivid colors are accentuated via the time of day at which this painting is set—either at sunrise or sunset—and by comparison to a pale blue sky. The titular “spring tree” probably is a cherry in bloom, but a taller one also seems to display blossoms. Sabalsuskas’ unusual portrait orientation emphasizes not only the trees’ verticality, but a pastoral scene in the foreground of grazing cattle. Several brushstrokes appear to take pleasure in color for its own sake. About the Artist: We haven’t located any reliable information about this artist. Please contact us if you're able to help.