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“Margules uses color in a breathtaking manner. A keen observer, he illuminates scrupulously without distortion of his material.”

– Howard Devree, New York Times, 1938

In The Squall, Gloucester, Margules plays with viewers’ sense of time and place by layering his subjects – Gloucester’s colorful buildings, rising masts, and rocking boats – and placing them on a plane seemingly detached from the foreground. This decision, along with his expert use of brushstrokes and the watercolor medium, results in a dynamic and riveting composition.

Defined as an Abstract Realist, Margules used rich, saturated colors and bold linework to create compositions that were ground in reality, yet simultaneously distorted and abstracted from it. Manifest in The Squall, Gloucester, Margules’ distinctly modern approach to landscape painting resulted from his intellectual interest in the passage of time, and he later went on to coin the term “Time Painting” to describe his artistic exploration of the concept.

He exhibited during his career at numerous venues including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Today, his paintings can be found in multiple public collections, such as the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and the Walker Art Center in Liverpool, England.

Provenance:

Comenos Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts

To private collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Labels:

1. Feigl Gallery / 601 Madison Ave. / New York City / Artist: De H. Margules / Title: The Squall / No: 92
2. Comenos Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts / De Hirsh (Hersh) Margules / (American, 1899-1965) / Harbor Scene (The Gloucester Series) / signed and dated lower right / De Hirsh Margules ’46 / Watercolor on paper / sight size: 20 x 29 ¼ in. / framed size: 32 ½ x 40 ¾ in. / Painted in 1946
3. Previous Vose Galleries label, inventory no. 37605