Frank W. Benson: The Great Outdoors

"The Sisters" by Frank W. Benson

"From 1889 to 1893, Frank W. Benson spent his summers at Dublin Lake, New Hampshire, enjoying the freedom from a confining studio. First introduced to Dublin by Joseph Lindon Smith, Benson was no doubt also attracted to this burgeoning artistic summer colony by the opportunity to share ideas with other artists, scientists, philosophers, and men of letters. Nestled at the foot of Mount Monadnock, the area had long been a mecca for hikers from all over the East Coast. Benson spent his summers there painting out-of-doors and profiting from time spent with an early mentor, Abbot Handerson Thayer. The mountain itself became the subject of a number of paintings. Beginning in 1893, Benson spent the next five summers on the seacoast at Newcastle, New Hampshire. Here he taught open-air art classes with Edmund Tarbell, his fellow instructor from the Museum School.
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'The two little girls are having trouble keeping still. The baby, dressed in a long, white dress, continually wants to toddle off toward a dock to which a small boat is tied. She has ridden in the boat before and is eager to do so again. She loves to watch her father pull hard against the oars as they bob across Portsmouth Harbor on their way to Kittery, Maine. Her older sister, hat clamped firmly on her head, has given up trying to keep the baby's bonnet on and is focusing on their father's request to try to keep the little girl near her. Their father, standing before an easel, is attempting to catch the fleeting moments of childhood as well as his fleeting baby. He swoops her up and carries her back to her sister so that they can pose together once again. He tries to capture it all, the feel of the fresh summer breeze, the delicate tracery of the leaves against the summer-blue sky, the sunlight as it washes the girls' dresses with light. The baby runs off again. He puts down his brushes and gives chase.'

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 In Dublin and Newcastle, Benson introduced his children to the joys of sailing and attempted to paint them in all their happy, summer pursuits. At first, he considered these early outdoor forays into figures 'en plein air' as not very successful. The critics, however, were impressed. When an early outdoor work, 'Mother and Children' of 1894 won first prize for oils at an an exhibition, a critic gushed, 'It shows a chasteness of sentiment and a classical yet refined treatment... There is a subtle modeling of the baby flesh, a pensive tranquillity that gives Mr. Benson a unique niche.'"

To be continued

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

Frank W. Benson: The Art of Wildfowl

"Ducks in the Rain" by Frank W. Benson

"Together with his two brothers-in-law, Frank W. Benson bought a small farmhouse in Eastham on Cape Cod. A simple, weathered building without electricity or running water, this little house overlooked the Nauset Marsh that featured prominently in Benson's sporting works for years to come.

The influence on his art of this hunting retreat - which the owners called, simply, the Farmhouse - was powerful. Many of his later hunting works can be traced directly to scenes glimpsed on the ponds and bays, marshes and inlets of Eastham. Moreover, Benson's fond memories of his years spent on the marsh there lingered on until the end of his life. It is perhaps no small coincidence that shortly after the purchase of the Farmhouse, Benson painted a large canvas of wild swans flying across a gray sky. Titled 'Swan Flight,' it appears to be the earliest known exhibited painting that depicts wild birds. Before 1893, his exhibited work had never included wildfowl; thereafter this would be a theme to which he returned time and time again  throughout his life.

 'Swan Flight' was sold almost instantaneously, a portent of his later years when such works would sell virtually before he could finish them. He could hardly keep up with the demand. In 1925 he wrote to one of his New York dealers, 'I made [a painting of wildfowl] the other day at home and I looked forward to exhibiting it and, almost before it was dry, a visitor saw it and carried it off! It's my good fortune to be doing what people like, but it keeps me on the jump.'

In the early 1890s, wild birds were not universally recognized as 'appropriate' subject matter in the serious art world. Benson, however, had obviously reached an enthusiastic audience. From this point on, he included at least one wildfowl painting in each of his larger exhibitions. All of them sold." 

To be continued

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