Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Macbeths

"On the Balcony" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Frederick Carl Frieseke could not have found better friends in America than William and Robert Macbeth, the most successful and influential of the New York art dealers. The Macbeths carried an impressive array of talent, groomed their artists assiduously, and talked turkey. They could also sell pictures. Working with Macbeth, Frieseke prepared a one-artist exhibition that opened on January 17, 1912. Fred and Sadie were on hand for the opening. Though normally reticent, impatient, and not forthcoming when it came to talking about his work Frieseke gave an interview, to an as-yet-unidentified reporter in New York, which seems to represent a fair sense of the way he thought about his painting:

'He considers his problem at present to be 'light and color and sunshine.' All the paintings in the exhibition displayed the main tenets of his art principles, namely 'that painting is not theoretical, but a matter of enthusiasm.' He makes no previous sketches for his work, but takes the inspiration for his work straight to his canvas, and apprehending nature as a system of green and blue, not of brown, he demonstrates a fearless use of colors, fresh and pure, and avoids mixing white in anything. 'Most artists,' he says, 'are afraid of green,' and to prove his emancipation he uses all colors with utter fearlessness and boldness, and by this madness has won his way to eminence. Drawing he considers the A B C of painting. His detail is sufficient and comprehensive, but it does not take his first attention, for, 'if you have a human being on your canvas,' he says, 'your interest is there, and not on a dish or a material.' And for his future, his belief that it is impossible for an artist to be satisfied with his work unless he is by nature self-complacent, and that he must go on experimenting, in fact must be dissatisfied in order that he may approach his goal, will doubtless lead him to greater things than he has even yet accomplished. 'No artist,' he says, 'should be bound to one style,' so just what his development will be it is almost impossible to tell.'" 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)