While landscapes comprised the majority of his output, Wendel was also a gifted still life and floral painter, as seen in Peonies in a Brass Container, a cheerful arrangement demonstrating the artist’s strong brushwork and eye for composition. The balustrade just behind the bouquet appears to match to the porch railing found at the family’s home at Upper Farm. Florals and still lifes were included in the artist’s 1918 exhibition at the Guild of Boston Artists, and inspired the following from a reviewer: “Mr. Wendel presents his flower studies modestly and makes no pyrotechnical display of gaudy color or starling highlights, but it is evident that the beauty and charm of these fragile things appeal to him deeply.”[1]
[1] Jean Nutting Oliver, “Wendel Landscapes Excite Interest of Boston Art Colony,” Boston Daily Advertiser, January 22, 1918, 5.
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More information about this painting...
Provenance:
By descent through the family of the artist
Literature:
Buckley, Laurene. Theodore Wendel: True Notes of American Impressionism (North Adams, MA: The Artist Book Foundation, 2018), p. 85
Exhibitions:
Bringing to Light: Theodore Wendel, Vose Galleries, Boston, October 19 – December 7, 2019
Peonies in a Brass Container
by Theodore Wendel (1857-1932)
23 x 19 ½ inches
Signed lower right: Theodore Wendel
Circa 1915Price upon request