Looking towards Distant Peninsula is a smaller example by the artist but possesses the same enchanting qualities of his larger works. Elements in the foreground are depicted in more detail, with spots of warm vermillion in the rocky coastline cleverly mirrored by softer pinks and creams in the sparkling waves, while the ocean and distant headland fade into a hazy, subdued background. A gentle light beyond the edge of the canvas gleams faintly on the horizon, granting the painting an almost ethereal presence.

More information about this painting...

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Ernest Albert won the Graham Art medal given by the Brooklyn Institute (now the Brooklyn Museum) at the age of fifteen and shortly thereafter began sketching for New York newspapers. In 1877 he started work as a scenic artist and set designer, and he spent the next decade painting theater sets in St. Louis, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston, and he became a founding member of the American Society of Scenic Painters.

In 1894, Albert and his family settled in New Rochelle, New York. Around this time, he gave up set design in favor of landscape painting and began working in Old Lyme, Connecticut, alongside other artists who comprised the tight-knit artists’ colony. During the summers he painted on scenic Monhegan Island in Maine, another prime artists’ destination, and explored other inspiring locations along the state’s dramatic shoreline.

In 1914, Albert was elected President of the Allied Artists of America. He became an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1922 and was an active member of the Lyme Art Association, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the Salmagundi Club and the National Arts Club in New York. His work has been featured in many venues, including three solo exhibitions at Vose Galleries in 1981, 1987, and 1992.

Provenance:

Estate of the artist to his grandson, private collection, Clermont, Florida

With Vose Galleries, Boston, inventory no. EA-117, October 1991

To private collection, South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, May 1992 to present

Labels:

Previous Vose Galleries label, inventory no. EA-117

Exhibitions:

Ernest Albert, A.N.A. (1857-1946), Vose Galleries, Boston, April 1 – June, 1992