Siesta

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Frederick Carl Frieseke
Siesta
circa 1917

About the Item

Frederick Carl Frieseke's Siesta is an exceptional example of the American artist's distinctive Impressionist style. The artist's superb treatment of color, texture and the subtlety of Impressionist light is fully on display in the exceptional composition. Frieseke is celebrated for his intimate compositions of women such as this, and he captured them in gardens and domestic interiors throughout his career. In Siesta, his artfully posed subject is modernized thanks to Frieseke's remarkable eye for pattern and color. Frieseke's depictions of women show his lifelong obsession with both the effects of lighting and the Impressionistic technique. His subject in the present work reveals both of these aesthetic tendencies. She is captured in a spectacularly decorated room, her blue gown flowing over a patterned chaise as she rests on this sunny afternoon. Frieseke positions her near a large open window, allowing him to capture the bright beams of sunlight that filter through the glass panes into the room. The artist is particularly renowned for his ability to render patterns, and this oil is filled with them - the patterns of furniture, patterns of curtains, patterns of a rug, patterns of light and shade. Overall, it is a superb example of Frieseke's distinctive stylistic interest and his important contributions to American Impressionism. Born in Michigan in 1874, Frieseke studied his craft at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After briefly studying in New York, he moved to Paris in 1897 like many artists of his generation. There, he studied at the Académie Julian, where he worked under Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. In the ensuing years, he began to paint the intimate views of women in their boudoirs that would come to dominate his output throughout his career. Frieseke first visited the artist colony in Giverny in 1900, and just five years later, he would settle there. The work he created while in Giverny was among the most significant of his career. He and his wife frequently visited Claude Monet, who was a close neighbor, though they more commonly discussed gardens than their artwork. In 1920, Frieseke was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, a remarkable achievement for an American painter. Today, his works can be found in museums around the world, including the Detroit Institute of the Arts, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid). This oil will be included in Nicholas Kilmer's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work. Circa 1917 Board: 18 3/8" high x 20" wide Frame: 23 5/8" high x 25 1/8" wide

Creator:
Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939, American)
Creation Year:
circa 1917
Dimensions:
Height: 23.63 in (60.03 cm)Width: 25.13 in (63.84 cm)
Medium:
Oil,Board
Movement & Style:
Impressionist
Period:
Early 20th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
New Orleans, LA
Reference Number:
Seller: 30-91601stDibs: LU1867816032

Shop All Frederick Carl Frieseke

Frederick Carl Frieseke

Frederick Carl Frieseke studied at the Chicago School of Fine Arts from 1884, and at the Art Students League, New York. In 1888, he went to the Académie Julian in Paris, where he worked under Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens, also receiving advice from Whistler. In Paris, he also became acquainted with the work of contemporary artists, particularly Fantin-Latour and Renoir, and discovered Giverny, which he visited frequently during the summer months. In 1906, having achieved a degree of financial and artistic success, Frieseke was able to buy Théodore Robinson's former house in Giverny, which was next door to Monet's. In 1919, he moved to the Normandy village, Le Mesnil-sur-Blangy, where, after a brief return to the United States in 1937, he died.

Frieseke primarily painted female figures and nudes, such as Woman with a Mirror, Young Girl Playing the Piano or Model in Front of a Screen, gradually progressing to intimate scenes of women and, like Renoir, voluptuous nudes posed in the open air, their bodies lit by sunlight filtered through foliage. His methods ranged from a strictly Impressionist technique of separate brushstrokes, to one approaching divisionism, as in Mrs. Whitman's Garden of about 1912, to a broader application of color, as in Ladies in a Boat in Giverny of 1910. At times, he even went beyond Impressionism to a manner inspired by Fauvism, heightening the colors – mauves, blues and pinks – to “exaggerate the effect.” At the same time, Frieseke was also concerned, like Degas, with traditional figure painting, despite often setting them in an Impressionist-style landscape, as in Hollyhocks of 1912–13.

Frieseke took part in many group exhibitions in Paris, including the Salon des Artistes Français and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he became an associate member in 1901 and a permanent member in 1907. He held a solo show at the Venice Biennale in 1909, followed by another in Rome in 1911, and a show in New York in 1912. He received a number of distinctions: 1909, a gold medal at the Munich International Exhibition; 1913, the Temple Prize from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; 1915, the Grand Prix at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, San Francisco; 1915, a gold medal at the Philadelphia Art Club; and was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

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(Biography provided by Leighton Fine Art Ltd.)