A Day at the Beach, Eastern Point, Gloucester
Signed lower right: Theo. Wendel
Description
Theodore Wendel began focusing on subjects closer to home, specifically those found at Gloucester, where he taught summer classes in the early 1890s. Critics again lauded his paint handling and intuitive color harmonies, and were charmed by his unique brand of Impressionism as it applied to the clearer sunlight and rich tapestry of the New England landscape, as seen in A Day at the Beach, Easten Point, Gloucester. Depicting the northern end of Niles Beach, the painting features several figures enjoying the beautiful weather amid tranquil Gloucester Harbor, far afield from the bustling wharves of the town’s lifeblood fishing industry at Inner Harbor. The rich blues of the water and sky draw the eyes past the foreground grasses, along the beach to the expanse of the harbor and the pleasure craft in the distance. The round building on the right has been identified as the bathhouse of the Beachcroft Hotel, built in 1888 to accommodate the throngs of summertime visitors to Gloucester, along with several other grand hotels that dotted East Gloucester’s shoreline at the turn of the twentieth century.
Provenance
Private collection, Sarasota, Florida, until 1997
With Vose Galleries, Boston, inventory no. 32082, June 1997
To Vance Jordan Fine Art, Inc., New York, New York, February 1998
Eventually to private collection, New York, New York, by 2024
Inscriptions
(on upper stretcher at left, in pencil) 7648
Labels
A Day at the Beach, Eastern Point / oil on canvas / 21 x 26
inches / signed lower right
Exhibitions
Literature
Vose Art Notes: A Guide for Collectors, Volume VII, Vose Galleries, Boston, Winter 1997 – 1998, illus. p. 10
Condition
Very good. The painting was recently cleaned and was lined to address slackness in the canvas. It has minor spots of overcleaning from a previous conservation campaign, and parts of the sky at upper left and upper right along with the lower left quadrant were likely reworked by Wendel. There is little obvious in-paint, mainly clusters of dots in the left sky and few clusters of dots and specks in the right sky.
