Charles Caryl Coleman 1840-1928

Agnes Ethel Tracy, Buffalo, New York (possibly)
George Thornton, Massachusetts and Florida
Richard York Gallery, New York, by 1987
Acquired from the above, 1987

 

Boston, Massachusetts, Vose Galleries, Fall 1985, illustrated in color
New York, Richard York Gallery, An American Gallery, Spring 1987, no. 7, illustrated in color
New York, Richard York Gallery, November-December 1989

Very good condition, lined; under UV: pindots of inpainting in stems of flower blossoms.
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From 1866 through the mid-1880s, Charles Caryl Coleman, a Buffalo native, lived in Rome amidst a vibrant expatriate community on the Via Margutta. An avid collector, Coleman's tastes reflected the swell of enthusiasm for the decorative arts, kindled in mid-century by the International Aesthetic movement. In 1883, a writer for the Roman News described Coleman's studio as "a scene from a fairy play [filled with] antique tapestries and mediaeval paintings and brass lamps and rich vases and oriental rugs, which the magician Coleman has managed to bring together" (quoted in Adrienne Baxter Bell, "Charles Caryl Coleman on Capri," The Magazine Antiques, November 2005, p. 142). Coleman's paintings were also heavily influenced by the Aesthetic movement, which favored eclectic combinations of objects and stylized presentations of nature. The artist incorporated many of the exotic objects that adorned his studio into his still lifes of the 1870s and 1880s.

Doreen Bolger Burke notes that "American artists of the Aesthetic era were striving not so much for truth to nature as for beauty. They used the painter's 'idealizing' tools—line, color, shape—in carefully arranged compositions that pointed out the distinction between the painted surface and the reality it represented" (In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, 1986, p. 329). A dialogue between naturalistic and stylized detail is one of the hallmarks of Coleman's decorative panels. In Azaleas and Apple Blossoms  two Chinese vessels, an oxblood-glazed jardinière and a blue and white vase, contain delicate floral branches that are set against a fine oriental textile. Coleman painted the jardinière and vase with nearly photographic realism, and the detail and modeling in the petals give the flowers a three-dimensional expression. At the same time, however, the painting's naturalistic aspects contrast with its flat, stylized features. Coleman applied the paint of the backdrop in a fine layer, exposing the weave of the canvas, allowing it to masquerade as an exotic textile. The branches are rendered in a similarly delicate fashion, transparent in some areas and less substantial in appearance than the petals. The frame is typical of the Aesthetic style frames Coleman often designed for his paintings; its mouldings of decorative leaf and vine motifs adorn the wide, flat surface, which is punctuated at the corners by concave rosettes.