Purchasing Art or Historical Evaluation
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We are purchasing and/or evaluating certain early California paintings.
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Hanson Puthuff (1875-1972), Sketching for the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, "Plein-Air Painters of California--The Southland", Westphall, pg. 85
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The interest in California paintings has moved from regional collectors to a nationwide appreciation. Good quality paintings at all price levels are becoming difficult to find. At the turn of the 20th century, California became a magnet to artists from the Midwest and East coasts. Many of these artists trained in Europe and arrived in California with the new ideas and color theories of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism and found a countryside with unique light and color to express a variation of these ideas. Many of the artists painted in a Plein-air method, to capture the mood as quickly as possible. In Northern California strict Representationalism of Nature co-existed with Impressionism, Tonalism, Fauvism, and the beginnings of Expressionism.
In Southern California, where the cool oceanic moisture laden air mixed with the warm and dry inland air to create a unique atmospheric light, Impressionism held sway in the interpretation of that hazy light and the soft colors of the landscape. North and south, the mountains, deserts, seacoast and inland valleys became a favorite topic for the artists. Artist colonies and associations were formed and sustained in Laguna Beach, Pasadena, San Diego and the San Francisco area. As development and the population growth in California rapidly altered many of the scenes and vistas painted by these artists, the paintings became a historical record as well as artistic statements.
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