The planting and harvesting of crops and hay during the summer and fall provided a wealth of visual material for Wendel’s brush, but he was also drawn to the leisurely aspects of Ipswich, as seen in Children Picking Flowers where he uses his impressionist technique to capture the hazy atmosphere of the marsh with soft brushstrokes and a muted earth-tones palette. The most vivid spots of color in the scene, that of the children’s clothing and in the flower bed at right, immediately catch one’s eyes. Children appeared often in Wendel’s landscapes painted at Ipswich, including at times his own daughter Mary and son Daniel, with the element of youth enhancing the idyllic charm that comes from life in the country.

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Edmund Tarbell applauded Wendel's abilities, commenting in 1909: “I know of no landscape painter whose work represents so many of the effects of nature,…or who can put down what he sees with greater truthfulness.”[1]  Wendel also sent work to venues outside of New England, including annual displays at the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Today examples of his talent in both pastel and oil can also be found in the collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

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[1] Letter to Philena Wendel from Frank W. Benson, December 25, 1932. Wendel Family Archives.

Provenance:

Private collection, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

To Vose Galleries, Boston, inventory no. 29483, May 1989

To Richard H. Love Galleries, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, October 1991

Eventually to Dr. William H. Marshall, Peoria, Illinois, and later his estate by 2021

Labels:

1. R. H. Love Galleries, Inc., Chicago, Illinois / W-172/9808 / Theodore Wendel / oil on canvas: 25 x 30 inches / unsigned / CHILDREN PICKING FLOWERS
2. R. H. Love Galleries, Inc., Chicago, Illinois / SUGAR AND SPICE: Depictions of Girls in / American Painting 1850-1925 / CHILDREN NEAR HAYSTACKS / by / Theodore Wendel / 1 May – 3 July 1993
3. The Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach / The Genteel Tradition in American Painting / January 15, 1999 through March 21, 1999 / Theodore Wendel / CHILDREN PICKING FLOWERS 1900 / oil on canvas / GT 99.19
4. R. H. Love Galleries, Inc., Chicago, Illinois / The Marshall Collection / Exhibition / December 4, 1999 – January 31, 2000
5. Peoria Riverfront Museum / L14.2014.39 / Wendell (sic), Theodore M. / Children Piking Flowers / 1906 o/c / Marshall

Exhibitions:

1. Sugar and Spice: Depictions of Girls in American Paintings 1850 – 1905, R. H. Love Galleries, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, May 1 – July 3, 1993
2. The Genteel Tradition in American Painting, R. H. Love Galleries, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, February 14 – March 28, 1998 (exhibit later traveled to the Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, Florida, January 15 – March 21, 1999)
3. The Marshall Collection Exhibition, R. H. Love Galleries, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, December 4, 1999 – January 31, 2000