Boston Waterfront in Winter
Signed lower right: A C GOODWIN
Description
Arthur Clifton Goodwin earned the moniker ‘Sloppy Weather Goodwin’ for his tendency to paint in all seasons, especially Boston’s bone-chilling winters. In Boston Waterfront in Winter, he was sparing in his paint application, giving levels of solidity to only the boats, the wharf, and the nearby buildings all laden with snow. In doing so, he interpreted the hazy atmosphere of an urban winter and enhanced the industrial nature of his subject, with the only evidence of man’s presence on a frigid day being the puff of smoke from an idling tugboat.
Provenance
Inscriptions
Labels
- (on frame) Previous Vose Galleries label, inventory no. 22542
- (on top stretcher) Vose Galleries stamp
Exhibitions
Literature
Condition
Good. The painting was recently cleaned and is unlined and has a small old wax and canvas patch verso at lower left. There are spots of overcleaning by a previous restorer’s campaign in the foreground snow, but the rest of the scene was thinly painted by the artist. The recent conservator also thinks parts of the artist’s original signature may have been strengthened decades ago by the last restorer. There are a couple dots of in-paint in the distant buildings at center, a few thin vertical lines of in-paint around the right-most masts and minor spots of in-paint in the right sky, a 1” x 1” dense cluster of dots and dashes in the far left boat right along the edge, with a few random specks near it, a sparse cluster of specks and dashes in the lower left snow, and a small spot and some specks in the far right snow.
