Note 1) The following Owen
biographical materials are taken from the denarend.com website:
Robert
Owen studied at the Drury Academy in North Adams and the Eric Pape School of
Art in Boston. At a very early age he had several drawings accepted by
"Life Magazine". The Boston Globe, Christian Endeavor, and other
publications. In his earliest paintings, Owen combined sharply outlined
architectural structures with sketchy impressionistic figures, as Claude Monet
rendered them in Boulevard des Capucines (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas
City, Missouri). In 1900, Owen went to New York City, where he earned his
living as an illustrator for Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Life,
and Women's Home Companion. He married Miriam Rogg in 1903. They moved to
Bagnall, Connecticut in 1910. He studied for a while with tonalist Leonard
Ochtman, assisted in the formation of the Greenwich Society of Artists in 1912
and became a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts in 1915. In
1923 he opened his first gallery in New York City and it had three different
locations over the years. Later he moved into the Rembrandt Building, adjacent
to Carnegie Hall. He exhibited his works at the National Academy of Design
(1912 and 1914) and at the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts in Hartford. In
1936, eighty-six of his paintings were shown at the Dwight Art Memorial, Mount
Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts Anxious to get out in the field
to paint again, Owen closed his last gallery in 1941 and moved to New
Rochelle, New York to work as artist-in-residence at the Thomas Paine Memorial
Museum.
If the
reader wishes to see an extended, more detailed biographical sketch of Owen,
see the sketch prepared by Spanierman Galleries, that is copyrighted, but is
reprinted on the Askart.com website.
Note 2) As
an Impressionist landscape painter, Owen
was very sensitive to, much concerned about and portrayed the effect that the
play of light in the sky had on the landscape he was painting. Owen used a vivid palette, but sometimes used more pastel
coloring, that is, in essence, the dilution of the vibrancy of primary colors
with white and other light colors. Owen's brushstrokes were loose, but
vigorous. Nonetheless, Owen painted very realistically the forms of the
trees and other aspects of the landscape. He travelled and painted in New
England at all times of the year. Hence, his very poetic landscapes depicted a wide
variety of scenes during winter, spring, summer and fall. All of the Owen
Impressionist landscapes being offered at this auction, manifest the above
characteristics and are in good condition. The foregoing considerations, including those set forth in Owen's
biographical notes, and the following Owen auction records warrant the
conclusion that the presale estimate for this auction painting, as well as for
the presale estimates for the two other Owen lots, are reasonable and
justifiable.
Title/Subject: A Country Road in Winter Signed. Oil on canvas. 20 in. x 24 in. sold for $4,148 on 05/18/2012
at Skinner Inc. Boston,
MA
Title/Subject: River View Through the Trees Signed. Oil on canvas. 30 in. x 40 in. sold for $10,200 on 06/14/2011
at John Moran
Auctioneers, Altadena, CA
Title/Subject: Brook In Winter (Near Ridgefield, Conn) Signed. Oil on canvas. 16 in. x 20 in.
sold for $3,975 on 08/25/2009-08/28/2009 at James D. Julia, Inc., Fairfield, ME
Title/Subject: Wooded autumn landscape Signed. Oil on canvas. 20 in. x 24 in. sold for $2,875 on 09/12/2008
at Alderfer Auction Company, Hatfield, PA
Title/Subject: The New England Farm Signed.
Oil on canvas. 14 in. x 18 in. sold for $2,760 on 8/26/2008 at James D. Julia, Inc., Fairfield, ME
Title/Subject: Autumn Scene Signed.
Oil on canvas. 18 in. x 24 in. sold for $5,625 on 06/22/2008 at Samuel T. Freeman & Co,
Philadelphia, PA
Title/Subject: Stream Through The Woods Signed. Oil on canvas. 16 in. x 20 in. sold for $4,688 on 06/22/2008
at Samuel T. Freeman & Co, Philadelphia, PA
Title/Subject: Connecticut Country Home Signed. Oil on canvas. 25 in. x 34 in. sold for $8,750 on 10/10/2007
at Sotheby’s, NY