Emil Carlsen : White asparagus, 1891.
ECA record control number: 1587
Archives of American Art #: 71060010
Record level: Item
Record type: Movable work
Work title: White asparagus
Alternate work titles:
1999: White asparagus [from exhibition catalog]
Work date: 1890 [date from front of canvas at top left.]
Work creator: Emil Carlsen [1848-1932]
Work medium: Oil on board
Work dimensions: 24 x 18 inches
Inscribed / signed front:
Location: At upper left.
Dated: Yes.
Text: ‘1890’ [difficult to see but appears to be 1890.]
Location: At upper right.
Dated: Yes.
Text: ‘Emil. Carlsen.’. ‘[Inscribed] To my friend Willis Polk [American architect Willis Jefferson Polk [1867-1924]]– Emil Carlsen 1891 –‘ [Carlsen would let his studies dry and keep them in his studio. When he needed a gift for a friend, he would take one of the studies and scratch a dedication to the friend in the dried surface. All known dedicated studies from Carlsen typically were painted one to three years before the scratched in dedication.].
Verso: unknown.
ECA category: Still-life
ECA sub-category: Kitchen
Archives of American Art Subjects:
Object
Object — Vegetable
Still Life
Still Life — Other
Still Life — Other — Container
Description of work:
Provenance/ownership:
ca.1999 Private collection of [unknown] ;
ca.1999 ( Vance Jordan Fine Art [1987-2003], 958 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021 | Jordan-Volpe Gallery [c.1978-1987], 457 West Broadway, New York, NY ) ;
ca.1970 Private collection of William D. Bowser [1912-1996] & Zelma Bowser [1913-1999], 17244 High Rd., Sonoma, CA 95476
ca.1924 Private collection of [unknown] ;
ca.1891 Private collection of Willis Jefferson Polk [1867-1924], San Francisco, CA ;
1891 Emil Carlsen [1848-1932], the artist .
Exhibition history:
1999 Vance Jordan Fine Art, New York, NY, “Quiet magic : the still-life paintings of Emil Carlsen“, October 28 – December 10.
1975 Wortsman Rowe Galleries, San Francisco, CA, “The art of Emil Carlsen : 1853-1932“, January 10-February 21; Rubicon Gallery, Los Altos, CA, January 17-February 28; The El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX, March 2-March 30; Robert Rice Gallery, Houston, TX, April 10-May; Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY, June-July; The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, San Diego, CA, August 20-October 10; The Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, November-December.
1970 Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, “The California Collection of William and Zelma Bowser“, May 26 – September 27.
References/citations:
– “Soren Emil Carlsen : the Hammershoi of Manhattan” by Kim Lykke Jensen, Narayana Press, Gylling, Denmark, 2008, illustrated: color, page 41, figure 23.
– Vance Jordan Fine Art, New York, NY, exhibition catalog, “Quiet magic : the still-life paintings of Emil Carlsen“, October 28 – December 10, 1999, #8.
– Rubicon-Wortsman Pub., San Francisco, CA, exhibition catalog, ”Art of Emil Carlsen: 1853-1932”, 1975, #28.
– Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, exhibition catalog, “The California collection of William and Zelma Bowser : an exhibition of paintings in the Great Hall of the Oakland Museum“, May 26 – September 27, 1970, #9, illustrated: color, cover.
Related works:
ECA notes:
– Carlsen was head of the San Francisco Art Association School from about 1887 to 1888. He left, unhappy with the school’s management. He returned to New York in late 1888 to teach at a new art school the Gotham Art Student’s School. After teaching there for about 1 year, Carlsen traveled to Paris to learn or work in the studio of artist Antoine Vollon [1833-1900]. The painting was most likely painted in Paris or New York in 1889 or 1890. Asparagus appear in many Vollon paintings of that era and the brushy wet-in-wet technique is a direct result of his influence.
Willis Jefferson Polk [1867-1924] met Carlsen in San Francisco and there is a chance that Polk, a struggling architect at the time may have attended classes under Carlsen at the Art Student’s League of San Francisco. There is a San Francisco newspaper article that shows Carlsen painting at the sea side and Polk working on Carlsen’s house dated August 22, 1891. This help that the young architect gave repairing Carlsen’s redwood siding for his home was most likely the reason that Carlsen dedicated the study to Polk as a gift.
Carlsen did oil studies often, especially when something could spoil. He would let his studies dry and keep them in his studio. When he needed a gift for a friend, he would take one of the studies and scratch a dedication in the dried surface. All known dedicated studies from Carlsen typically were painted one to three years before the scratched in dedication.
Price history:
Document information
Document permalink:
http://emilcarlsen.org/work/?p=1587
Digital-born document number:
ECA.2017.1587
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:
February 15, 2014
Last updated: November 13, 2017 at 13:24 pm