Emil Carlsen : The open sea, 1912.
ECA record control number: 38364
Archives of American Art #: [none]
Record level: Item
Record type: Movable work
Work title: The open sea [from gallery label on verso]
Alternate work titles:
2024 : The open sea [from gallery label on verso]
Work date: ca.1912 [based on hand-carved date likely from frame maker at middle top frame verso]
Work creator: Emil Carlsen [1848-1932]
Work medium: Oil on canvas
Work dimensions: 25 x 30 inches | 25-1/4 x 30-1/4 inches
Inscribed / signed front:
Location: At lower left.
Dated: Yes, carved into frame on top middle verso.
Text: ‘Emil. Carlsen.’.
Verso:
Marking type: Horizontal rectangular buff colored gallery label on verso (salvaged from previous stretchers).
Location: Stapled to top picture frame verso.
Text: ‘THE BONFOEY CO. / Picture Framing [dot] Restoring [dot] Regilding [all in italics] / Contemporary and Old Prints [all in italics] / 1710 EUCLID AVE. / Established 1893 CLEVELAND, O. 44115’.
Marking type: Scraped letters and numbers into picture frame.
Location: Verso at top left.
Text: ‘PC 85’.
Marking type: Scraped letters and numbers into picture frame.
Location: Verso at top left.
Text: ‘PC 85’.
Marking type: Horizontal rectangular buff colored gallery label with double red border [outside thick and inside thin] with black type-written words [ripped at upper left] and taped down.
Location: On frame verso at top middle.
Text: ‘[obscured by rip…] . oil / Carlsen, Emil / 25″ x 30″
Marking type: white wax pencil or chalk writing in script (similar to many auction houses).
Location: Right verso picture frame with writing following at right.
Text: ‘perez? [possibly]. [The rest is too difficult to read]”.
ECA category: Waterscape
ECA sub-category: Rough seas
Archives of American Art subjects:
Waterscape
Waterscape — Sea
Waterscape — Weather
Waterscape — Weather— Cloud
Waterscape — Weather — Storm
Description of work:
Emil Carlsen’s work was observed from nature. He would first generate careful contour drawings, usually out in the field, followed by a small 8×10 quick brushy color study. The color studies, numbering about 350 of them, have gained popularity over the years for their embrace of a brushy modern quality. They often have cracks due to the use of varnish in the paint to speed up the drying process, something necessary when the small panel was to be moved from the field to the studio. Carlsen would take the drawings and color study back to his studio were he would work up a medium size version that was quite finished. He then would make a much larger version of the work for exhibition where the size of the work was important to capture the attention of the judges. If the work won an award and / or sold he would continue to make variations of the work.
Such was the case for The open sea. The work theme began in 1909 and continued until until his death in 1932. Carlsen sold the first one to George Arnold Hearn [1835-1913], New York, NY from his landscape Folsom Galleries show in 1910. The same year the work was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY, and has been part of their permanent collection since and is currently on display. The work won praise from the July edition of The Mentor magazine of 1913. The work was displayed in an article called “American sea painters” by Arthur Hoeber.
…”An other admirable work is his Open Sea, showing the heave of mid-ocean, with its poetry rather than its awfulness, and always there is the searching after beautiful tones and their successful grasp.”…
The work was such a success, that Carlsen is known to have made at least twenty variations, many titled The open sea. (https://emilcarlsen.org/rough-seas/) This particular version of The open sea most matches one from 1912 (https://emilcarlsen.org/emil-carlsen-the-open-sea-ca-1912). Carlsen would make minor and slight adjustments to the wave formations in each version.
This version of the work is a medium size format, not as large as exhibition versions which normally were sized about 40 x 50 inches. This likely means that the work might have been a direct commission piece rather than part of a larger exhibition. However, it is difficult to know if the work was shown at the time due to Carlsen’s naming of the work the same as several others.
The open sea represents likely one of the heights of Carlsen’s career where he had been working on a new method of painting using a very small brush in a 45 degree angle placing thousands of small strokes. Interestingly this version uses the new painting technique on the water surface but still leans on the thinner, slightly more smooth style for the clouds and background which was the style of the original 1909 version at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Provenance / ownership:
2024 TBA ;
2024 ( Bonhams [1793- ], 580 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022 ) ;
ca.1985 Private collection of [unknown], Honolulu, HI ;
after ca.1963 Private collection of [unknown], Shaker Heights, OH ;
after ca.1963 ( The Bonfoey Co [1893- ], 1710 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115 ) ;
after ca.1912 Private collection of [unknown], [unknown location] ;
ca.1912 Emil Carlsen [1848-1932], the artist .
Exhibition history:
References / citations:
Related works:
– Variation of The open sea, 1912.
ECA notes:
– Canvas remounted on newer stretchers manufactured by John Annesley Company [1967- ], Healdsburg, CA 95448.
– Walfred Thulin [1878-1949] and Hermann Dudley Murphy [1867-1945] where partners in the Boston, MA, frame making / carving business, the Thulin-Murphy Company. Carlsen’s favorite frame maker was Carrig-Rohane (originally called The Frame Shop of Hermann Dudley Murphy, then changed to Carrig-Rohane and then changed to Thulin-Murphy in 1912, and then back again to Carrig-Rohane] [1903-1939] which Hermann Dudley Murphy [1867-1945] was a significant part before starting Thulin-Murphy in 1911. The frame represents great hand-carved quality from what Carlsen considered his favorite frame maker Carrig-Rohane. Most Emil Carlsen works are shown in Carrig-Rohane frames of a particular type. The frame is pattern style #1017 (as per carved number on picture frame verso). Carlsen preferred a less ornate frame of his friend’s design Hassam, but we have seen this style frame with some Carlsens.
– Front placard in brass with two screws adhering it to the middle bottom of the frame with black engraved text: ‘EMIL CARLSEN / THE OPEN SEA’.
– CONDITION REPORT – rubbed canvas along all edges. Point paint loss throughout the center of canvas. Ultra-violet light pictures on file sent directly from auction house in an email.
Price history:
2024 : [tba] ;
Document information
Document permalink:
http://emilcarlsen.org/work/?p=38564
Digital-born document number:
ECA.2024.38564
Digital document provenance:
Original compiled and researched document by the Emil Carlsen Archives, 266 West 21st Street, Suite 4E, New York, NY 10011.
Document license:
Creative Commons Corporation shareAlike (sa) license. Some of the information contained within this document may hold further publication restrictions depending on final use. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine.
Image license:
The author of this artwork died more than 70 years ago. According to U.S. Copyright Law, copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death. In other countries, legislation may differ.
Record birth date:
August 16, 2024
<p class="post-modified-info"Last updated: on August 16, 2024