Frank W. Benson: The Gift of Quality

"Towering Widgeon and Mallards at Evening"
by Frank W. Benson

"Frank W. Benson said, 'Every artist must see things in his own way. He will do this as the Japanese have done it for centuries - study some object in nature until he can draw it from memory by repeated practice. In that way I learned how birds appear in flight, watching them by the hours, returning to the studio to make drawings, then back to the birds to make corrections.'

Benson was one of the first artists to understand what flexing the wings meant to a bird in flight and to know what part the tail played in arising or alighting. He knew that the long-necked birds, like wild geese and ducks, steered themselves by means of the head and neck. He showed in his etchings how birds used the force and direction of the wind just as a sailboat does.

One can easily distinguish the Bensons in a room full of wildfowl etchings. If the birds look real, it is a Benson etching. If they look forced or wooden, it is not. He conveyed perfectly the appearance of a bird flying, whether lifting itself into the air, alighting, or soaring. The moment of splashdown is explosive; the turn of a curious head is alert; even the soft dangling of a feathered shape perfectly recalls the lifeless form of a goose when being carried home by the triumphant hunter. 

Benson felt that the Boston Public Library would be the ideal repository for his own collection of one of each etching, numerous trial proofs, pencil sketches, and an assortment of unfinished etchings that are not mentioned in any of the catalogues. Donated by the artist and his family in 1947, the collection remains a rare opportunity for scholars and print enthusiasts to see originals of Benson's entire oeuvre in one place. 

His artist friend, Arthur Heintzelman, who brought this collection from Benson's home to the library, wrote him:

'Cher Maître, Just a few lines to let you know that I arrived safely at the library with your precious package. To have carried your entire etched work under my arm was a thrill difficult to put into words and I could not help but look back over the years and reflect upon the importance of your accomplishments. You have done for the revival of American etchings what Whistler and Haden did in England and Europe. Your inspired messages are in your work and those of us who have known you personally and have had the privilege of sharing your high ideals in life and in art are the richer by your fine example and accomplishment. It will be my privilege to pass on to students, print lovers and connoisseurs all the qualities so masterfully recorded on your plates and by spoken and written word.'" 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford.)

 

 

Frank W. Benson: Guild of Boston Artists

"Canoes and Men Poling a River" by Frank W. Benson

"In the summer of 1914 at North Haven, Frank W. Benson received numerous letters from fellow Boston artists keeping him up to date on the progress of the newly formed Guild of Boston Artists. For the past year, the local newspapers had been rumbling indignantly with stories of Bostonians being slighted by various exhibitions. Together, the city's artists had submitted nearly 250 canvasses to the jury of the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for its annual exhibition, yet only twenty-three had been chosen. Few Boston artists were accepted for the annual shows at the National Academy or the Philadelphia Academy of Design. Accusations were hurled and emotions ran high.

Benson, together with six other artist friends decided that, if Bostonians were not getting the exposure they deserved in other cities, they would open their own gallery, one dedicated exclusively to Boston artists. The seven artists quickly began to make plans to purchased and renovate a building on Newbury Street that would serve as a site. Word of the new organization quickly spread in Boston's artistic circles; the membership grew rapidly. As one member later observed, the group decided to emulate the well-established Guilds of Europe where each group of professional workers in the arts tried to 'maintain certain standard of craftsmanship as well as cooperate for their own mutual protection and advancement. The name made an appeal to the organizers because of its association with high professional standards.'

The group agreed to have several general shows each year that would include works of all the members. More than a third of the 42 charter members were women, excellent artists including Lilian Westcott Hale, Lilla Cabot Perry and Gertrude Fiske. These were to be interspersed with various one-man shows, highlighting the works of an individual artist for a fortnight. The inaugural exhibition of the Guild of Boston Artists was a resounding success.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford.)

Frank W. Benson: Etcher Poet

"Man with a Gaff" by Frank W. Benson

"Frank W. Benson's annual fishing trips to Canada's Gaspé Peninsula inspired dozens of watercolors and oils that ranged from quiet studies of boats at rest to paintings of the fishermen themselves. From these paintings or from sketches made on these trips, Benson also created more than sixteen etchings, not only of his fishing companions and their guides but also of the loggers he saw on the rivers and the men who hunted in the deep woods bordering the swift streams.

In 'Man with a Gaff' we see what one critic meant when he said, 'What [Benson] leaves out is almost as important as what he puts in, and the open space plays a not inconsiderable part in the arrangement of his composition.' Benson did not add extraneous matter such as horizon, landscape, clouds in this picture. He kept it simple. At other times it is clear that Benson felt the balance of the composition would be improved by the addition of a tree, a few clumps of grass, and so on.

Benson cautioned his daughter, 'A good picture has a certain austerity, a distinction, whether of the thing itself, the lighting, the color or the arrangement. Mere craftsmanship, representing nature, does not make a picture.' Many have questioned how an etcher, using a hard stylus on a cold, metal plate, can convey the fluid movement of a living, flying creature. But Benson welcomed the challenge. After much work and experimentation he was able to say, 'A picture or a drawing is like a poem. When the poet starts, he has no more and no different words to work with than you have. A work of art is made by his choice - selection and combination of ordinary material.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford.)

 

Frank W. Benson: Divine Discontent

"Alert" by Frank W. Benson

"Frank W. Benson's grandchildren remember that he often put an etching through many trial proofs before he was satisfied with the end result. They recall his deep sighs of frustration and looks of disgust as he pulled off the second or third trial from a new plate and found it not to his liking. His notations, in pencil, on the early trials were instructions to himself on how to improve the next proof state. Comments about such things as adding clouds, increasing the number of birds, or darkening specific lines are written in the margins of his trial proofs. These penciled notes are an interesting window into the mind of the artist struggling to get the plate to a point he considered satisfactory.

Benson spoke often of the endless hours needed to master this skill and the opportunities for frustration inherent in a medium that demanded long periods of trial and error. Although a great number of his etchings so pleased him on the first pull that he required no further proofs, printing the entire edition from the first state, many others demanded multiple trial impressions. Others so clearly displeased him that after printing just a few trials, he abandoned the plate. 

A good example of this is Benson's 'Pintails Passing.' Although he had been etching for fully fifteen years when he created this drypoint in 1930, he required eight proofs before he was ready to publish. Working slowly on the design, Benson merely outlined the first few ducks in the first impression and then filled them in for the second. In the third trial he darkened two ducks and in the fourth completed the work on the upper four birds. He then added reflections and the horizon line for a fifth trials, and, not liking the reflection of the lowest bird, he reduced it by scraping. Of these trial proofs he printed only one or two impressions. Benson then lengthened the tail in the central bird, narrowed its body and introduced foreground rushes. In his final proof, he strengthened all the ducks, developed the landscape and horizon more fully and added clouds. Not quite satisfied, he removed the burr from the bodies of the upper birds before printing an edition of 150.

His good friend and fellow-etcher, Samuel Chamberlain, said that, even after more than twenty years of etching, 'Benson was a tireless experimentor, spurred on by a divine discontent with his work, and aspiring some day to do an etching that entirely pleased him. Once when asked if he had a favorite etching, Benson merely replied, 'I do each one as well as I can and let it go at that.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford.)

Frank W. Benson: Etchings

"Rain Squall," an etching by Frank W. Benson

"By 1915, Frank W. Benson had been etching for three years. Since he did not consider his prints worthy of sale, he had given most of them to family, friends, and fellow artists. For the most part, he did his etchings for relaxation, a challenging change of pace. He hadn't considered them worthy of exhibition. But a number of his friends thought otherwise, And obviously the public felt the same. The exhibition at the Guild had not even been open a week when George Sloan called Benson to tell him that every etching had been sold and to ask if he could bring in more on his next trip into Boston. 

In the first published critique of his etchings, it was noted that Benson was devoting his evenings to etching and did all his own printing. 'He is an original and remarkable etcher... To say the etchings are as good in their way as the paintings is the highest praise possible... The very ecstasy of flight is expressed in the swift gliding of these birds in the air. It is as natural as breathing, and to see them flying is to feel that you, too, could fly.' Remarks of this sort were to be echoed time and again in the dozens of articles written about Benson's etched work.

Benson printed his first etching at the age of twenty-one, inspired by a talk given in Boston by Sir Francis Seymour Haden, a noted British etcher. Buying himself a copy of Maxime Lalannne's 'Treatise on Etching,' Benson carefully followed Lalanne's instructions and began experimenting in the attic of his Salem home. His first etching, 'Salem Harbor,' was used as the frontispiece for an edition of 'The Art Students,' the Museum School magazine of which he was an editor. After the copper plate was steel faced, a Boston printer ran off fifteen hundred copies. But, when Benson had made three or four further attempts at etching, he discontinued his efforts, feeling that he 'did not know enough about drawing to make etchings.' 

Benson was granted one-man shows of his prints in most of America's major cities. Issues of art magazines were devoted to his etching. He won award after award, and many collectors had standing orders for one of any etching he might complete. Called the 'Dean of the American Etchers' and 'Master of the Sporting Print,' Benson was urged to write a book about this new 'experiment' that had met with such enthusiasm, but he declined, saying such things were 'better left to others.' 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford.) 

Frank W. Benson: North Haven

"A Rainy Day" by Frank W. Benson

"The setting for most of Benson's best-known outdoor works was the island of North Haven in Maine's Penobscot Bay. The Bensons first rented the old farmhouse on Crabtree Point in 1901. They bought it five years later. It was here at Wooster Farm, that he created most of the sparkling outdoor canvases of his family that won him such favor with contemporary (and modern-day) collectors. His daughters, dressed in white and posed on windswept hillsides became evocations of the quintessential 'American Girl.'

North Haven also provided Benson with wide vistas of water and blue hills beyond, scenes of eagles swirling above storm-tossed seas, fishermen pulling in heavy nets, and sailing dories scudding before brisk winds. It was a rich environment for a painter. He captured his summer world in oils and watercolor, etching and wash drawing.

But Maine is as famous for its fog as it is for its shimmering sunlight. Wooster Farm was often shrouded in blankets of gray mist. Days of rain frequently forced Benson to put aside his plein air studies and move indoors. That said, his North Haven interiors are rare-only five are known to exist. The earliest, 'Rainy Day' of 1906, depicts in front of the fireplace in the living room. A subdued pal­ette of blues and creams cre­ates a mood quite different from his outdoor works. Antiques and objets d’art were an important aspect of the family furnishings; small sketches, pewter candlesticks, and vases adorn the mantel­piece. Although the composition seems unstud­ied, it is cleverly arranged. Architectural elements offering strong horizontal and vertical lines are complemented by the curves of the mirror, the Canton jar, and Elisabeth’s figure curled up in the rattan chair. The dark, horizontal mass of the fireplace is echoed by the painting on the wall of the back parlor and offset by the tall, narrow doorway through which is glimpsed a rain-streaked window.*

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford and "A Rainy Day: Frank W. Benson's Maine Interiors" in "Antiques," July/August 2012.) 

Frank W. Benson: Japonisme

 

"The Silver Screen" by Frank W. Benson

"By the 1880s , Exhibitions of Japanese art were beginning to be seen in America as well as in Europe, not only at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago but also at the Boston Museum show, held in 1893. Soon several American artists, notably Benson's friends, J. Alden Weir and John Twachtman, began experimenting with such oriental techniques as abstract compositions, high horizons, flattened forms and space, and strong diagonals.

It is not surprising that Far Eastern influences can be seen in Benson's work; he had lived with them all his life. As his sea captain ancestors plied the China trade, they filled their houses with Oriental porcelains, brass, carpets, and fabrics. It was only natural that, when looking for an accessory, Benson would simply  bring something to his studio from home. He often used Oriental screens as a backdrop. In his later still lifes, these screens combine with other Oriental objects d'art to create some of his most striking compositions. He also made frequent use of the beautifully embroidered silk coats that, in New England, were perennially in fashion as evening wraps. Such accessories can also be seen in the work of those that Benson taught. The thread of Japonisme can be seen weaving its way through generations of students.

Sometime during this early period of experimenting with wash, Benson tried combining colored watercolor and black and white wash at least once. In 'Geese Flying' the subtle gradation of gray, black and white  used to depict the birds harmonizes with the deep blues and greens of the trees and the icy blue of the winter marsh. But Benson felt that colored watercolors were too 'soft and pretty' for the rugged hunting scenes he was painting and did not actively take up that medium until many years later.

The popularity of Benson's wash drawings was so overwhelming that, in an effort to satisfy all his collectors, Benson allowed the Elson Art Publishing Company to reproduce seven of his wildfowl drawings. They were described as 'printed by hand on the copperplate press.' Benson supervised the reproduction of one hundred impressions of each, but did not sign them.

The most stunning of these is 'Swan Flight,' a triptych composed of three wash drawings, each painted to stand on its own, independent of the other two. When displayed together, however, this handsome picture measures nearly four feet wide. The subtle gradations of tone that Benson was able to achieve with his wash drawings are to accurately reproduced in this set of prints that modern-day collectors are apt to assume they are the actual drawings. 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford.)