The Ridge

It is an early spring day in Central Park—apparently near the Gapstow Bridge at the northeast end of the pond (follow this link to see a contemporary photo from an approximate location). Nelson’s post-impressionist design has a range of warm earth tones trailing across the painting’s center, set against cooler blues and violets of the pond and skyscrapers in the distance. His lines and units of construction are geometric, even blocky. Particularly interesting is how early season buds and leaves are rendered as a semi-transparent cloud hovering around the architecture of tree branches. Like other painters of Central Park, there seems to be a kind of marveling at the presence of both a modern city and nature, albeit artfully designed. Nelson’s painting April in Central Park (c. 1935-43) appears to have been created at about the same time.

About the Artist

Born in Santa Clara, CA, Nelson studied art while pursuing a degree in engineering at Stanford University, shifting first to architecture and then painting as a full-time avocation. He relocated to New York, studying at the Art Students League with Frank DuMond, L. Birge Harrison, and John Fabian Carlson. When he returned to California, this time in San Francisco, Nelson had developed an impressionist style that nevertheless was his own. An otherwise admiring review of a 1914 show quibbled that his work was “still a trifle experimental, but it is sound and strong, wholesome and healthy” (Maxwell). Subsequent historians have suggested that Nelson was an early West Coast adopter of flatter, more decorative styles and the geometric, blocky post-impressionism of William Wendt (Caldwell; Gerdts). During a five-year period Nelson was a prolific and well-regarded painter with large individual shows in San Francisco, Monterey, Oakland, and Los Angeles. He received a silver medal for The Summer Sea at the Pan-Pacific Exposition in 1915. Nelson was drafted into the Army Camouflage Corps in 1917 then after the war returned to New York City, where he seems to have exhibited little and made a living by his upstate landscapes, commissioned mural work, and as a portrait painter. There is little public information about this last period. Nelson died in 1971. 2 works at Fenimore Art Museum. 2 works at Crocker Art Museum. 1 work at Fine Art Museums of San Francisco. 1 work at Cantor Arts Center. 7 works at Wikimedia Commons. 1 image at FAP.

Works Consulted

Everett C. Maxwell, “Art,” Los Angeles Graphic 28 Mar. 1914: 9 Link; William H. Gerdts, “The Land of Sunshine” (2002), courtesy of Traditional Fine Arts Organization Link; John Caldwell, “California Impressionism: A Critical Essay,” pp. 12-15 in Impressionism: The California View (1981) Link; Robert B. Harshe, “A Wonderful One Man Show,” San Francisco News Letter 4 Dec. 1915: 29 Link.

Nelson, (Ernest) Bruce, 1888 - 1971

Cooper, Ken (description and biography)

Helquist, Morgan (photography)

New Deal Museum, Mount Morris NY

Object #FA 832

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Oil on canvas painting

Canvas: 30 x 24 in.
Frame: 36 x 30 1/2 in.