Two Centuries: American Art

Two Centuries: American Art

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 42. A Chrysanthemum Show, Yokohama.

Theodore Wores

A Chrysanthemum Show, Yokohama

Lot Closed

March 3, 05:42 PM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Theodore Wores

1858 - 1939

A Chrysanthemum Show, Yokohama


signed Theodore Wores. and inscribed YOKOHAMA. Japan. (lower left)

oil on panel

panel: 15 ⅞ by 20 inches (40.3 by 50.8 cm)

framed: 22 by 26 ¼ inches (55.9 by 66.7 cm)

The artist
Carolyn Wores, 1939 (the artist's wife, by descent)
Dr. Ben and Dr. A. Jess Shenson, San Francisco, California (acquired from the above)
By descent to the present owner
Oakland, California, The Oakland Museum; Palm Springs, California, Palm Springs Desert Museum; Honolulu, Hawaii, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Theodore Wores, The Japanese Years: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of Dr. Ben Shanson and Dr. A Jess Shenson, March 1976-October 1979, no. 26, p. 38, illustrated p. 29
Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville Museum of Art, Theodore Wores, 1858-1939: A Retrospective Exhibition, March-April 1980, illustrated n.p.
Montclair, New Jersey, Montclair Art Museum; Evanston, Illinois, Terra Museum of American Art; Seattle, Washington, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Down Garden Paths: The Floral Environment in American Art, October 1983-May 1984, pp. 87-88, 138, illustrated p. 119
Tokyo, Japan, Tokyu Grand Hall, Tokyu Department Store; Kyoto, Japan, Takashimaya Art Gallery, Takashimaya Department Store; Yokohama, Japan, Takashimaya Art Gallery, Takashimaya Department Store, The Art of Theodore Wores: Japan's Beauty Comes Home, May 1986-September 1986, no. 19, n.p., illustrated
Los Angeles, California, Pacific Asia Museum, Theodore Wores: An American Artist in Meiji Japan, 1993, no. 17, p. 120, illustrated p. 84
Describing his first impressions of Yokohama, Japan, Theodore Wores remarked: "For a long time I had a great idea of going to Japan. I had read about the country, and studied such samples of Japanese art as I could find, and it had interested me greatly, and at last I made up my mind to go. My first halting place was Yokohama. I can't tell you what an effect my first few months' stay in that country had upon me. I could do nothing, it was all so new, so strange, so wonderfully beautiful that when I looked around for a subject I was bewildered. I wanted to do everything at once, and consequently, for a time, I did nothing. At last, however, I got to work" (The Star, London, July 9, 1889, as quoted in Lewis Ferbraché, Theodore Wores: Artist in Search of the Picturesque, San Francisco, California, 1968, p. 16).

A Chrysanthemum Show, Yokohama has descended in the family of brothers Dr. Ben and Dr. A. Jess Shenson of San Francisco, California. Their mother, Rose Shenson, was a close friend of Wores' wife, Carolyn, and the brothers helped to promote the artist's work by organizing museum and gallery exhibitions worldwide. The Shenson brothers were influential supporters of art and culture in San Francisco and provided important philanthropic support to the Merola Opera Program, the San Francisco Opera and Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera, and the San Francisco and Asian Youth Orchestras.