La Pastiche A Penny Short with Victorian Gold Frame

This painting enjoyed tremendous popularity in nineteenth-century America. It was a style that allowed a painter to tell a story evoke an emotion tell a joke or educate. Largely superseded in the twentieth century by changes in popular taste and improvements in photographic technology nevertheless remains a strong subcurrent in popular taste. One of the most notable painters in this mode was Harry Roseland. Roseland born in Brooklyn New York in 1868 matured as an artist while waves of change were sweeping over the art world. Largely self-taught he chose to paint what he saw. He received some education in art under James Barnard Whittaker in Brooklyn and at first painted some landscapes and still lifes but his natural flair was for telling a story in his paintings. His subject matter was at first highly sentimental and heavily influenced by fashionable taste smartly turned-out young women old folks and idealized farm scenes. He abandoned the mawkishness that is the downfall of so many self-educated artists when he found a topic that was close to home and yet largely unnoticed by the post-Civil War blacks who formed the underpinning of Northeastern society. Roseland's clever skillful scenes of homely activities - such as checkers or letter-reading were remarkably dispassionate and candid for the time though to modern eyes they may seem condescending and dated. They capture with gentle humor a way of life that existed through the first half of the twentieth century and has now vanished. Harry Roseland never left his native Brooklyn dying in New York in 1950 but enjoyed remarkable success as an artist in his chosen specialty improving and maturing continually. The archetype of the independent American artist he never traveled to Europe to study or observe choosing to carve his own path. Frame description victorian gold frame Features: - Framed painting size (not including frame): Large 24" x 36" - Framed painting size (exterior dimensions inches): 32" x 44" - 100% Handmade oil painting on artist grade canvas - certificate of authenticity included - Framed paintings arrive ready to hang on your wall with hanging hardware included - A Penny Short - framed oil reproduction of an original painting by Harry Roseland