Sale 205 Lot 1123

MARCUS WATERMAN (American, 1834-1914). Algerian House, Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. Framed. - Sight: 18 x 24 inches
Estimate $2,400-3,500

PROVENANCE
Sloan's, Bethesda MD, 26 July 1998, Lot 1172


ARTIST PROFILE: Marcus ("Mark") Waterman was an American painter, mainly of landscapes and Orientalist subjects. Though Waterman was primarily a painter of landscapes, he turned his hand to other genres at times during his career. An early attempt was a self-portrait of 1861, presented to the National Academy of Design upon presentation of his diploma the following year. Waterman turned to Orientalist subjects after his visits to Algiers, and his paintings in this arena have been described as "rather literary"; many of them depict scenes from The Arabian Nights, while others are based on landscape studies made during his travels in Oram, Algiers, Andalusia, and the Sahel. It was already noted during his career that his paintings, though praised by critics, were out of step with trends in the contemporary artistic scene; within three years of his death his work was described as "old-fashioned" when it was shown in Boston. Even so, at his death he was remembered by A. J. Philpot as "the greatest colorist this country has produced, and far and away the greatest painter of light." Besides the National Academy, museums which include work by Waterman in their collections include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Worcester Art Museum, the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum, the Boston Public Library, and the Indiana University Art Museum.