Portrait of William
Signed lower right (twice): GERTRUDE FISKE
Description
In 1930, Fiske showed Portrait of William at both the Boston Art Club’s Annual Winter Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting and at the National Academy of Design’s 105th Annual Exhibition. As a figural-interior composition, the painting aligns with the favored subject of her early Boston School teachers, yet Fiske’s take reveals an artist interested in experimenting with color and form, and in exploring the unconventional placement of figures and objects within the scene.
In addition to serving as a fascinating character study, Portrait of William also demonstrates Fiske’s strong perception of light and color and her readiness to manipulate both for the purposes of her art. While the figures appear to be rendered under artificial light with stark shadow lines visible along the woman’s jawline and the edge of William’s beanie hat, the room in which they are posed remains murky, with a few rays of sun poking through the shuttered windows. Fiske’s use of secondary colors is also intriguing, as she interplays the green of the fabric on the pillows with the dotted Swiss cotton of the woman’s purple dress.
Provenance
Inscriptions
(in pencil along center crossbar) PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM / Gertrude Fiske – $1500—
Labels
(stamp on top stretcher) ESTATE OF / GERTRUDE FISKE / 1878 (sic) – 1961
Exhibitions
- (likely) Annual Winter Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Boston Art Club, January – February 15, 1930, as Portrait of William
- (likely) 105th Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, March 20 – April 6, 1930, as no. 111 Portrait of William
Literature
Condition
Very good. The painting is not lined and was recently spot-consolidated with heat and pressure to address age cracking in the woman’s hair and along the top edge, and lighter parts of the scene were spot-cleaned. There is minor in-paint in her hair and face, a few dots in her torso and a cluster of dots in her left arm, a small spot in the shadow of the baby’s cap, and scattered specks and dots in the top part of the composition. The artist likely extended the top edge of the canvas and reduced the lower edge of the canvas, as there is a larger portion wrapped around the bottom stretcher, and she signed it twice.
