AUGUST HERMAN OLSON ROLLE (Minnesota/ Washington, D.C., 1875-1941). EARLY SPRING, GOOD HOPE HILL (WASHINGTON, DC), signed lower right, stamped and titled on verso. Oil on board
See Mr. Fastov's extended supplementary text here, which he had originally intended to be used solely as a prefatory essay for all of the Rolle works of art, that he prepared, without assistance/supervision/ editing/proofing from Sloans & Kenyon, specifically for this auction of a very large collection and smorgasbord of a wide variety of beautiful Impressionist landscapes by August Herman Olson Rolle (`Washington, D.C. 1875-1941). Such essay contains detailed Rolle biographical information and an extensive analysis of why Rolle is properly regarded as the leading Washington, DC Impressionist landscape painter of the early 20th century. This is predicated initially on the fact that Rolle and Benson Bond Moore were the only 2 D.C. Impressionist artists and 2 of only 12 Southern Impressionists selected by Professor William Gerdts, for inclusion in his very popular, scholarly, well-written, trailblazing book American Impressionism, published in 1984, which is still in print and selling well, and Rolle's unsurpassed Impressionist brushwork and freely imaginative coloring; diverse landscape subjects and compositions; his impeccable and highly sensitive depictions of the impact of light, shadow and weather of the 4 seasons on different kinds of water, land, buildings, trees, etc.; and other artistic components of his style, that he produced continuously throughout his life in the Impressionist style from c. 1905-1941 in the Potomac River Valley, the Washington, D.C. area and other locales. Mr. Fastov also discusses the high respect in which he was held by D.C. art community, as evidenced by his election and long time service as President of 2 of the 3 leading D.C. art organizations of the early 20th century, The Landscape Club of Washington, D.C. (1919-1932, except 1925) and the Washington Watercolor Club (1930-1937). Finally, Mr. Fastov discusses the economic value of Rolle's art. - Framed, 22 in. x 24 in. Estimate $50,000-75,000
Literature and Note 1): Rolle's "Early Spring Good Hope Hill [ D.C.]" is a Rolle tour de force American Impressionist artistic performance. It provides the person who appreciates American Impressionist art, an unusual, but interesting perspective from the base of Good Hope Hill looking upward toward its top, depicting the spring greensward and a variety of trees on the upward slope of the hill and its crest. Rolle's bravura Impressionist brush work and pastel, high key coloring is superb. It is probably for these and other reasons, based on the high esthetic appeal of this painting, that Professor William Gerdts' chose to illustrate in color Rolle's "Early Spring Good Hope Hill [ D.C.]" as plate 305 at p. 240, in his landmark, trail blazing American Impressionism (1984), a copy of which will be given to the purchaser of this painting. Professor Gerdts discussed only 12 practitioners of Southern Impressionism, illustrating in color works by only 6 of these Southern artists, Rolle, Benson Bond Moore (also of D.C., and a very close friend of Rolle), Gari Melchers (Virginia), Kate Freeman Clark (Mississippi) and Julian Onderdonk and Granville Redmond (Texas) At p. 240 of American Impressionism, Professor Gerdts observed that Rolle's "Brunswick, Maryland" "is painted in a fairly orthodox Impressionist style," which he had seen at "Washington on the Potomac," an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1982. In this book, Professor Gerdts discussed approximately 350 American Impressionists of the very late 19th and early 20th Centuries and others affiliated or interested in American Impressionism and illustrated in color only 204 Impressionist paintings. Gerdts discussed the Impressionists active in various regions in the U.S., including the South (pp. 201-261). He concluded (p. 240): "For reasons that are not yet clear, Southern artists seldom experimented with Impressionism, nor were collectors in the area attracted to it; and Northern artists who worked in the South rarely were of an Impressionist persuasion." Rolle was one of 12 Southern Impressionist artist exceptions found by Professor Gerdts, which he discussed at pp. 240-243, 6 of whom, including Rolle, as previously noted, he illustrated in color in those pages. Thus, this painting, "Early Spring Good Hope Hill [ D.C.]" was illustrated in the voluminous American Impressionism in color, along with 203 other paintings from artists of all sections of the country, as well as the artists of national repute, such as Childe Hassam and Mary Cassatt, of the approximate total of 350 American Impressionist artists that Professor Gerdts discussed in American Impressionism. Colonel Goodyear told Mr. Fastov that Rolle had this painting (frame has been changed) hanging in the second bedroom of his house
