Emil Carlsen : Still-life with fish and copper kettle, 1892.
ECA Record Control Number: 1941
Archives of American Art #: -none-
Record Level: Item
Record Type: Movable work
Work Title: Still life with fish and copper kettle
Alternate Work Titles:
2016: Still life with fish and copper kettle [based on museum website & paperwork]
ca.1968: Still life [based on interview with owner]
Work Date: 1892
Work Creator: Emil Carlsen [1848-1932]
Work Medium: Oil on canvas
Work Dimensions: 18 x 30 inches
Inscribed/Signed Front:
Location: At lower left.
Dated: Yes.
Text: ‘Emil. Carlsen. 92.’
Verso: unknown
ECA Category: Still life
ECA Sub-Category: Fish
Archives of American Art Subjects:
Still Life
Still Life — Game
Still Life — Game — Fish
Still Life — Other — Container
Still Life — Other — Cookware
Description of Work:
“A dead fish lying on its side with its tail reaching almost to the left stretcher; its open mouth is near the bottom stretcher. Remnants of a hook are visible in its mouth. Behind the fish is a copper kettle with a brass finial and strap handle. Both objects are brightly illuminated by an unseen source and sit in an empty murky ground with deep shadows to the right. Signed and dated in lower left corner, Emil Carlsen ’92.” [Mattatuck Museum [1877- ]]
Provenance/Ownership:
1999 ( Mattatuck Museum [1877- ], 144 W Main St, Waterbury, CT 06702 (Accession #99.25.9) ) ;
ca.1968 Private collection of Seymour R. Cohen [1916-2007] & Mildred Thaler Cohen [1921-2012], Los Angeles, CA ;
ca.1892 Private collection of [unknown] ;
1892 Emil Carlsen 1848-1932], the artist .
Exhibition History:
2003 Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT, “Picture perfect: images of northwest Connecticut”, June 1 – September 18, 2003; Newington Cropsey Foundation, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, October 5 – November 14, 2003.
2000 Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT, “A touch of light: American tonalist masters – the Seymour R. Thaler and Mildred Thaler Cohen collection”, March 18 – July 31.
References/Citations:
– “Collection information provided by the Mattatuck Museum [1877- ]”, Waterbury, CT, August 28, 2016.
– “Excerpt from an interview with Mildred Thaler Cohen” provided by the Mattatuck Museum [1877- ], Waterbury, CT, January 27, 2000.
– The Mattatuck Historical Society, website.
– “Artists of the Litchfield Hills” by Robert Austin, Mattatuck Historical Society, Waterbury, CT, 2003.
– Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT, Exhibition Catalog, “Picture Perfect: Images of Northwest Connecticut”, June 1 – September 18, 2003; Newington Cropsey Foundation, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, October 5 – November 14, 2003.
Related Works:
ECA Notes:
– “Excerpt from an interview with Mildred Thaler Cohen” Provided by the Mattatuck Museum [1877- ], Waterbury, CT, January 27, 2000.
…”I’ll never forget when we got the Emil Carlsen still life. My mother loved art. She would drag us to museums when we were kids and she would stand there and admire the paintings. Of course, we had to stand there and admire them too and the more we stood there, the more we admired the paintings. I guess our first love of art as children was from that. Later, my husband and I bought the Emil Carlsen painting and came home with it and went to the book shelves to read about the artist. We had a book that had belonged to my mother, and in it we found a description of the work of Emil Carlsen that described this painting perfectly. My mother had written the artist’s name in the margin of the book. It was the only thing she wrote in the whole book. It was as though she had died and was pointing a finger from the grave and said, ‘Buy this.’ We just couldn’t get over it.”
– “Collection Information provided by the Mattatuck Museum [1877- ]”, Waterbury, CT, August 28, 2016.
“Still Life: Carlsen was impressed by the still life paintings of the 18″ century French artist, Jean Chardin, whose work was enjoying a revival of interest in Paris in the late 19th-century. In an article written in 1908, Carlsen called Chardin “the very greatest still life painter.” Carlsen’s distinctive still life paintings follow Chardin’s example, focusing on humble household objects set in dim austere interior and painted in a soft, muted mood. Carlsen was a master in bringing a magnetic aura to these low-key paintings with brilliant reflective highlights.
Provenance: The donor purchased this painting from a private collector in the late 1960s. When she got home with the painting, she opened a book that had belonged to her mother and found that her mother had written Emil Carlsen’s name in the book, the only artist noted by her mother in the book, alongside a description of a Carlsen still life painting that was very similar to this painting.”
Price History:
Document Information
Document Permalink:
https://emilcarlsen.org/work/?p=1941
Digital-born Document Number:
ECA.2014.1941
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 28, 2014
Last Update:
March 21, 2017
You must be logged in to post a comment.