Lot 92
  • 92

George Benjamin Luks

Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 USD
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Description

  • George Benjamin Luks
  • The Swan Boats
  • signed George Luks (lower right)
  • oil on canvas
  • 30 by 25 inches
  • (76.2 by 63.5 cm)
  • Painted circa 1922.

Provenance

Chapellier Galleries, New York
Mrs. Catherine Auchincloss, New York
By bequest to the present owner from the above

Exhibited

New York, Owen Gallery, George Luks: An Artistic Legacy, October-December 1997, pp. 25-27, 35, illustrated fig. 3, p. 5

Condition

The canvas is unlined and there is minor frame abrasion at edges. There is minor surface cracking in areas of thicker impasto and a dot of possible loss at upper left edge. Under UV: there is no apparent inpainting.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

George Luks was a leading member of the group of artists known as The Eight and part of a movement more broadly referred to as the Aschan School. The group rejected the subjects of the Impressionists and chose to instead focus on depicting scenes from modern life in New York, fascinated by urban street life in particular. While these artists, including Luks, are perhaps most celebrated for their often gritty portrayals of the working class, they also captured the daily lives of the elite. As Graham W.J. Beal, Director of the Detroit Museum of Art, writes, “The Aschan artists truly were painters of American urban life and took for their subject matter scenes from everyday life, which inevitably showed a wider range of social strata than is indicated ivy the circle’s nickname” (as quoted in James Tottis, Life’s Pleasures: The Aschan Artist’s Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925, London, 2007, p. 7). In The Swan Boats, Luks depicts a group of these titular pontoon pleasure boats in the pond of Boston’s Public Garden. This fleet of swan boats has been in operation since 1877 and was already regarded as a cultural icon for the city by the time the artist moved there in the early 1920s. While Luks, like the other Aschan painters, had previously eschewed European subject matter and technique, he was exposed to and influenced by the work of Matisse and other French Fauvist painters while living and working in the home of Boston socialite Maragrett Sargent. Not only did he draw inspiration from their bright, vivid colors and geometric forms, but he also began to embrace the popular European subject of bourgeois public leisure and the technique of painting en plein air. The Swan Boats is indicative of this European influence, with Luks’ application of small, Impressionist-like brushstrokes of pure color to depict the scene. Utilizing staccato brushwork and heightened color, he captures the effects of light, atmosphere and movement of the water to create a sophisticated city scene.