Figural
CHARLES COURTNEY CURRAN (1861–1942)
Girl in Window Seat, 1892
Oil on canvas, 18 3/8 x 26in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed (at lower right): CHAS・C・CURRAN・1892・NY
RECORDED: Curran Record Book, 140/32 // Catalogue of the Private Art Collection of Thomas B. Clarke N.Y., auction cat. (New York: American Art Galleries, 1899), no. 69 // H. Barbara Weinberg, “Thomas B. Clarke: Foremost Patron of American Art from 1872 to 1899,” The American Art Journal VIII (May 1976), p. 73
EXHIBITED: Jordan Volpe Gallery, New York, 1992, American Selections, 1850–1950, p. 32 illus. in color // Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, and traveling, 2014–15, Charles Courtney Curran: Seeking the Ideal, p. 68 no. 27 illus. in color
EX COLL.: the artist; to Thomas B. Clarke (1848–1931), New York; to sale, American Art Galleries, New York, February 14–17, 1899, no 69 as “Girl Reading”; to Edward Day Page (1856–1918), New York; private collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico, until 1992; to [Jordan Volpe Gallery / Vance Jordan Fine Art, New York, 1992]; to private collection; to sale Sotheby’s New York, December 3, 1998, no. 23; to private collection, until the present
In February 1899, Thomas B. Clarke (1848–1931), a pioneering and preeminent New York patron of American art, sold his collection at auction at the American Art Galleries.Included in that sale was the present work, one of seven by Charles Courtney Curran that Clarke owned. Renamed "Girl Reading" by Clarke, the catalogue description reads:
Gowned in a soft, clinging pink robe, a young woman is seated on a couch by a window, reading a book. Subdued sunlight is filtered through the curtains and shade behind her, illuminating her right side with a warm glow. The cushions against which she leans are of green, and harmonize with her costume and the figure, attractive in pose and drawing is enveloped in luminous atmosphere in which the shadows are colorful and transparent. The work is carefully executed, but at the same time is kept broad and suggestive, while the color scheme is harmonious (p. 68).
Girl in Window Seat is an early work of Curran’s mature career. The influence of impressionism is present in the picture, with the artist’s careful attention to effects of light and atmosphere. Still, while Curran sampled freely among a variety of approaches, he always remained true to the requirements of observed reality. His abiding passion was for the “pursuit of beauty,” a cultural goal of the late nineteenth century’s so-called Gilded Age and the Aesthetic Movement in America.
