Willard Metcalf: Algeria

"Street Scene, Tangiers"
by Willard Metcalf

"In January 1887 Willard Metcalf's parents received a letter from Biskra, Algeria, where the artist had gone in late December 1886. Like many painters before and after him, he went there to paint exotic subject matter in the bright African sun. Delacroix was inspired by the Middle East, and Eugène Fromentin painted Arab horsemen; the American painter Frederick Bridgeman specialized in Arab scenes; Ingres did exotic bathers; Gérôme painted slave market scenes; Sargent captured the play of light on Moorish architecture; and in the twentieth century Matisse experienced the bright sunlight of the North African desert. 

To Metcalf, Algeria was like Arizona or New Mexico, and Biskra suggested Zuni. He took an adobe house for two months, and painted assiduously. He also traveled to Tunis, where he did some street scenes - seven or eight paintings and 'a number of small detail sketches.' There was the possibility of a Salon entry, something he had decided to try for. He returned to Paris in early spring 1887 to 'group the whole series of sketches into one big picture' [eight feet wide]. The result was his huge painting 'Marché de Kousse-Kousse à Tunis (Tunisian Market).' The effort was a culmination of his hard work in Paris; and in the following year it won him an honorable mention at the Salon. Although some of his smaller Algerian works are still extant, his award winning painting has disappeared."

To be continued

(Excerpt from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.)  

Willard Metcalf: Walberswick & Giverny

"The Ten-Cent Breakfast" by Willard Metcalf

"After a winter at Julian's and painting at Gréz in the late winter and spring of 1886, Willard Metcalf decided to return to England. The year before he had learned of Walberswick, a small village on the Suffolk coast in East Anglia, with an atmosphere unlike any of the other Suffolk coastal towns. Walberswick was something of an artists' colony, mostly of British painters. Perhaps its air of timelessness, along with the stillness and quiet loneliness of the surrounding marsh, the sea, and the heathlands to the north, attracted artists and naturalists, and Metcalf really was both. The places where he painted in 1885 are not much changed. Much of the area surrounding the town has been designated a National Nature Reserve, one of the reasons why it was not difficult to find the sites of Metcalf's paintings.

At summer's end Metcalf returned to France and continued to alternate between Julian's and Gréz. At Gréz he returned again to a more conservative style of plein-air painting. Along with his friend Childe Hassam, he sent paintings to the January exhibition of the Paint and Clay Club in Boston.  

In 1886 Metcalf seems to have made his first extended stay in Giverny, through which he had passed the year before. If Paris was Mecca for pursuing the art of painting, Giverny was Mecca for pursuing the Impressionist vision. It was a later colony than Pont-Aven and Concarneau, and although Americans 'flocked there in droves,' it had its small group of expat pioneers: Theodore Robinson, John Leslie Breck, Louis Ritter, Theodore Wendel, the Canadian painter Blair Bruce, as well as the first, Willard Metcalf. 

Metcalf's little painting 'The Ten Cent Breakfast,' inscribed 'Giverny, 1887' is an interesting record of the his friends also present in Giverny. There is Robert Louis Stevenson reading 'Le Petit Journal,' Theodore Robinson at the far end of the table, John Twachtman seated to the right of the lamp, and behind him a figure whose identity remains unknown."

To be continued

(Excerpt from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.)  

 

Willard Metcalf: European Experience

"Sunset at Gréz" by Willard Metcalf

"In 1883 Willard Metcalf finally realized his ambition to study in Europe. He had accumulated enough money through his work as an illustrator after a second trip to the Zuni country of New Mexico, and he arrived in Liverpool on 5 September. On the train to London, he noted in his diary that the English landscape was 'beyond description,' so beautiful that 'I could hardly keep my seat!' In the countryside he may have sensed similarities to bits of New England and noticed the greater intimacies - the softly formed, understated hills illuminated by a light at once less harsh and less defining of form than its New England counterpart. Certainly, it was a quality of light far different from what he had seen in New Mexico. 

Metcalf paid more than one visit to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, then as now one of the world's great museum. But no matter how fascinating the city was he soon made his way to Paris, in time for the October session at the Académie Julian, where he knuckled down to the rigors of the French academic system.

Although American artists had studied abroad since Benjamin West took a studio in London in the eighteenth century, in Metcalf's day they all flocked to Paris. It was the most cosmopolitan city in Europe and bore the marks of Napoleon's Second Empire - Baron Haussmann's celebrated boulevards, Garnier's Opera House, the famous department stores, and the network of railroads connecting all of France with its capital. For the artist there were more private galleries than in any other city on the continent, as well as the Louvre and the Luxembourg, but Metcalf had come, above all, for art instruction, the most thorough and professional in the world."

To be continued

(Excerpt from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.)  

Willard Metcalf: Zuni from Mal-Pais Mesa

"The Dance of the Great Knife"
by Willard Metcalf

"After dinner on Sunday evening, 29 May 1881, a group of men and women gathered together in the home of General Luther Bradley, commandant of Fort Wingate in New Mexico, to hear Frank Cushing read and explain the poetic qualities of a Zuni song, after which Palowahtiwa, governor of the pueblo, sang the same song - a song to the antelope - in Zuni. The circle of listeners included Willard Metcalf and Sylvester Baxter, who had arrived and had met Cushing the previous day and now took down notes of all that occurred.

Meeting Cushing profoundly affected the young Boston men, and they wrestled to turn the  new experiences into images for personal understanding and public consumption. In the coming months, Metcalf twice drew Cushing in full-length portrait, while Baxter wrote of him to Boston readers."* Later that year Metcalf accepted an offer to go to New Mexico with Baxter to illustrate his upcoming article on the Zuni Indians for 'Harper's Magazine.' Thus Metcalf became one of the first artists to document thoroughly the Indians of the Southwest - particularly the Zuni - for a popular audience.

He also, along with Henry Farny, illustrated a three-part series, 'My Adventures in Zuni' by Frank Cushing for 'The Century.' For a number of his gouache-on-paper drawings, he stood on a rooftop at Zuni Pueblo. At that time, most of the pueblos of New Mexico had adopted a square or rectangular ground plan, which resulted in a central plaza, used for ceremonials. This was surrounded by multistory dwellings terraced back from its perimeter. Ground-level rooms normally had no openings, and entry was gained by means of exterior ladders to the roof of the first story, then repeated for the second, and so on. This can be seen in Metcalf's illustrations. The work he did there helped record the traditional lifeways before they disappeared forever.

Longing to move on to Paris, Metcalf accompanied Cushing and another delegation of six Indians to the East. He teamed up with Baxter again who described this visit in 'The Century.' Metcalf hoped that an auction of his work would raise enough money for his desired move abroad, but although his illustrations were successful, the auction was not. The seventy-six paintings and drawings only brought him eight hundred thirty-three dollars. So he went back to the Southwest joining Cushing on another exploration trip and illustrating other articles. With the additional income he had earned, he set off for Paris.**

To be continued

* (Excerpt from "The Southwest in the American Imagination" by Sylvester Baxter.)

**(Excerpt from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.)

 

Willard Metcalf: The Museum of Fine Arts Boston

"Sunlight and Shadow" by Willard Metcalf

"When the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was founded the trustees fulfilled their obligation to afford 'instruction in the Fine Arts' by established Boston's first true art school. Before that there was individualized instruction from such artists as George Loring Brown and William Morris Hunt, and the anatomy classes taught by William Rimmer. Official schools, such as the Lowell Institute and the State Normal Art School, both of which Metcalf attended, were not so much dedicated to training professional artists as to teaching the more practical aspects of design and to training art teachers for the public schools.

At first, not even the Boston Museum School concerned itself with training professionals. Its goal was to guide and influence 'public taste' by creating 'a body of intelligent and instructed amateurs.' But that soon changed. From an initial enrollment of eighty students - Willard Metcalf among them - with a faculty that included William Rimmer and Thomas Dewing, the Museum School became Boston's most vital art institution. Through later faculty members, such as Edmund Tarbell and Frank Benson - who became Metcalf's colleagues in the Ten American Painters - the Museum School developed a style that ultimately was identified with Boston. 

Boston artist William Morris Hunt also turned the eyes of American students - including Metcalf - to Paris rather than Italy and began the long period of French influence on American painters. He not only admired the art in particular of his teachers Thomas Couture and Jean-François Millet, but had synthesized their styles in his own work, befriending them, supporting them, and bringing their paintings home to show in Boston. Intelligent and enthusiastic, Hunt was an excellent teacher, and he created an interest in and enthusiasm for the Barbizon painters even before they were accepted in France. 

Throughout Metcalf's development his admiration for Barbizon painting, particularly that of Millet and Corot, never wavered. The paintings he did from 1877 through 1879 in Vermont and Maine reflect that influence and interest, and he never entirely relinquished a feeling for this style. Both it and its philosophy continued to affect his work to the end of his life."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.)

 

Willard Metcalf: Artistic Development

"Indian Summer, Vermont" by Willard Metcalf

"Because the apprenticeship contract with George Loring Brown stipulated painting trips with the master, Willard Metcalf packed his gear and made his way to the White Mountains early in September. A sketching trip was part of Hudson River School practice, and for the next six weeks Metcalf sketched and painted such famous subjects as Black Mountain, Artists Brook, Conway Meadows, and Mount Washington from Thorne Hill. Mount Washington was the highest point in the eastern United States and had been a subject for American artists from Thomas Cole to Godfrey Frankenstein to Winslow Homer. 

When Metcalf returned from the White Mountains, he added to his work in Brown's studio Monday and Thursday night classes at the Lowell Institute. There, he said, 'I sometimes went to an art class in a gloomy room opposite Old South Church. There was a model - the same one for years - but no teacher.' Childe Hassam also attended Lowell Institute about this time, and it is possible that these future friends and close colleagues first met there. 

Metcalf was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Brown's studio, until finally on 4 April 1876 he brought his apprenticeship to an end. He continued at the Lowell Institute, however, applied for a scholarship in the art school of the new Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In December 1876 he learned that he was among the first of a group of students to receive scholarships to the institution that later became known as the Boston Museum School."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.)

 

 

Willard Metcalf: Childhood Propensities

"Midsummer Shadow" by Willard Metcalf

"Early Spring is full of promise.
This artist has decided talent, and talent too, of a high order.
He already paints far better than other artists who
have had twice as much experience with the brush."

"When this critical praise for the young Willard Metcalf was published, the artist was shortly to leave Boston for the Southwest on an illustrating assignment. He had absorbed what Boston had to teach him; the influence of the Barbizon School through the work of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Jean François Millet, and especially of William Morris Hunt; the anatomy lessons of Dr. William Rimmer, as well as examples of Hudson River School painting. He also had survived an apprenticeship in the studio of George Loring Brown.

Like many American artists starting out in the 1860s and 1870s, Metcalf began his professional career by working briefly for a wood engraver. He had received his early education in public schools in Maine and Newtonville, Massachusetts, where his family lived before moving to Cambridgeport. There he was apprenticed to the celebrated Boston landscape painter George Loring Brown through the intercession of Mr. George M. Patten, a friend of the Metcalf family. George Patten was an artist of sorts himself and encouraged the young Metcalf to develop his talent.  

Although George Loring Brown had patrons and supporters, his financial condition was none too secure. An apprentice who paid to clean up the studio and help with some of the bigger pictures, in return for the chance to learn his craft and gain experience, would be welcome. Metcalf did just that. But even at that time, Metcalf at least knew what he did not want. He did not want to paint pictures like Brown's, with classical references and subject matter: 'that darned old Rome,' as he put it in his diary. Although Brown himself was not a great draftsman, he did instill in his apprentice the overall importance of draftsmanship in his art. In addition, Metcalf must have gained valuable experience in working techniques and methods, and an abiding sense of craftsmanship. He was one of the last young artists to experience the apprenticeship system, a method of training that was being replaced by the formal art school." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.