In Paula Gets the Mail, we see the influence of Leith-Ross's early teacher, Birge Harrison, in the deep purple grey of the sky and the distant hills, juxtaposed against the warmth of the ochre fields. Paula, the lone figure in the landscape, quietly goes about her daily tasks, reminiscent of a peaceful life without worry of war or the Great Depression. The sharp architectural details of the two farmhouses offer a striking contrast to the loosely rendered foliage of the trees, showing Leith-Ross’s interest in both the vast beauty of the landscape and the pleasing geometry to be found in the framework of houses, docks, and bridges, and the way light and shadows play on those surfaces.

More information about this painting...

Leith-Ross exhibited widely throughout his career, including at the National Academy almost every year from 1915 until 1950, at the Pennsylvania Academy from 1916 until 1952, and at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1914 until 1937. He also showed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Watercolor Society in New York City, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Philadelphia Watercolor Club, and the Baltimore Watercolor Club. In addition to being a National Academician, he was elected a member of numerous organizations, including the Salmagundi Club, the American Watercolor Society, the Philadelphia Watercolor Club, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the Allied Artists’ Association, the North Shore Arts Association, the New York Watercolor Club, the Woodstock Artists Association, and the Phillips’ Mill Community Association. Today, his works are in the collections of the James A. Michener Museum, the Woodmere Art Museum, the Woodstock Art Association, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Provenance:

Collection, Boston, Massachusetts

To collection of Abbot W. and Marcia L. Vose, Duxbury, Massachusetts, September 2011 to present

Labels:

1. (stamp on Masonite): Reproduction Rights / Reserved by the Artist
2. North Shore Arts Association, Gloucester, Massachusetts, exhibition label, 2012
3. Grand Central Art Galleries, Inc., New York, New York / D 11339 / Artist: Leith-Ross, Harry / Title: Paula gets the Mail / Price: $500 Size: 15 ½/34 / Bin. No. SR-L 

Exhibitions:

NSAA at 90: Celebrating Nine Decades of Fine Art, 1922-2012, North Shore Arts Association, Gloucester, Massachusetts, August 16 – September 18, 2012