AUGUST HERMAN OLSON ROLLE (Minnesota/ Washington, D.C., 1875-1941). WINTER, ROCK CREEK, signed lower left and titled on verso, circa 1925-1935. Oil on canvas
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, 25 1/2 in. x 30 in. Estimate $40,000-60,000
PROVENANCE: Purchased directly from the artist's estate represented by Colonel August Goodyear (Rolle's son- in -law) in the 1970
Exhibitions: "Washington On The Potomac," an Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art of 1982, Washington, D.C. in which 104 Washington D.C. works of art were exhibited, and from which Professor Gerdts selected Rolle and Benson B. Moore to be included in his groundbreaking and still preeminent authority on Impressionism, "American Impressionism," published by Abbeville Books, 1984. This painting was also exhibited as No. 232 in "The Capital Image," Exhibition at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C. (now The National Museum Of American Art), 1983-1984. In "The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800-1915," which was the catalogue for this Exhibition, by Andrew J. Consentino and Henry H. Glassie, who stated at p. 239: "The most distinguished landscapists of the second generation [of the Washington, D.C. landscape school] were August H. O. Rolle (a key member of the Landscape Club), Edgar Hewitt Nye, and Hobart Nichols. Rolle and Nye, as can be seen in their Winter, Rock Creek Park and Rock Creek, Early Summer, respectively (Figs. 157 and 158), subscribed to Cezanne's style, but with differences….Rolle employed Cezanne's architectonics, but adopted a palette of lavenders and other complex colors that originated with Gauguin and which found favor with the painters of the Delaware and Brandywine schools. Rolle's paintings ranked along with those of Elmer Schofield and Edward Redfield (Emphases added.)." Illustration: This Rolle painting was Illustrated in Modern Maturity Magazine, December, 1983 at p. 79 in a brief article discussing the "The Capital Image" Exhibition in "America's Past In Art: Images From Our Nation's Capital" and the Magazine selected this Rolle painting for illustration, along with 7 other works of art, only 3 of which were landscapes, from the Exhibition out of approximately 225 works of art in the Exhibition, not including sculpture and photographs. Noting the importance of "portraiture and history painting" in the art history of the capital, the article then immediately noted: "In addition, the landscape tradition flowered late in the capital and lingered well into the 20th century, as long as, if not longer, than elsewhere."
