Ralph Wormeley Curtis

Ralph Wormeley Curtis (1854–1922) was an American painter and draftsman. The predominantly living in Europe artists was under the influence of his painter friends John Singer Sargent , and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Among his most famous designs include city views of Venice in the style of Impressionism .

Family

Ralph Wormeley Curtis was born in Boston in 1854 in Boston, the eldest son of Daniel Sargent Curtis, a wealthy lawyer, and his wife Ariana Randolph Wormeley. Both parents came from wealthy families of Boston's upper middle class. His father's family, the Sargents, were among the oldest in Boston, tracing their lineage to the Mayflower, while his mother's London family was of decidedly different stock, that of American loyalists who fled Virginia for England in 1775. 1858 the younger brother Curtis Osborne Sargent was born. For family environment also included two well-known artists: the sculptor Richard Saltonstall Greenough (1819-1904), an uncle of Daniel Sargent Curtis, as well as the painter John Singer Sargent , the son of a cousin of his father. The family first lived in Boston's Beacon Hill , before 1863 in the exclusive suburb of Chestnut Hill moved to once again settle in Boston in 1869.

Life

John Singer Sargent: Ralph Curtis on the Beach at Scheveningen, 1880 After completion of school education Ralph Curtis studied law at the Harvard University . He graduated in 1876 and then went to Europe to have to train as a painter. In Paris he attended the Académie Julian, where his teachers included the Salon painter Gustave Boulanger and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre, and history painter Joseph Nicolas Robert-Fleury belonged. He then moved to the studio of Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran . Here was already a group of American painters, which included his distant cousin John Singer Sargent was one, whom he met for the first time in Paris. Between Sargent and Curtis, a close personal and artistic friendship with Sargent significantly influenced Curtis developed.

In the fall of 1877, the parents of Ralph Curtis moved to Europe and first settled some time in Rome and later in Florence. In the spring of 1878 he visited his parents for a few months in Rome, took painting lessons here also and spent the summer together with the parents in Venice. In the fall of 1878 he returned to Paris and took his own studio. Together with Sargent he undertook in the following years several sketches travel. This led the two painters in 1880 in the Netherlands, to the work of Frans Hals study. A testimony of the friendship between the two artists is Sargents of the beach of Scheveningen resulting Portrait of Ralph Curtis. More common travel undertaken by the two painters in 1882 to London and 1886 Lucerne .

In 1879, Curtis met in Venice James Abbott McNeill Whistler know, who maintained a studio in the Palazzo Rezzonico on the Grand Canal. Curtis made at this time to several portrait drawings by Whistler. Also on the Grand Canal, the Palazzo Barbaro, where in 1881 einmieteten the parents of Ralph Curtis before she finally bought the apartment in 1885. The parents' apartment in Venice developed in the following years a meeting place for art lovers, artists and writers to the next Ralph Curtis and Son Singer Sargent such famous contemporaries such as Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Vernon Lee and Claude Monet included. During his frequent stays in the summer months of the 1880s in Venice numerous works of Ralph Curtis emerged.

As a renowned and successful artists presented Curtis from 1881 to 1893 his work regularly in the Salon de Paris from. At the Paris World Fair of 1889 he received an honorable mention for his painting Vue à Venise. In addition, he repeatedly showed his work in London in the Royal Academy of Arts and the prestigious Grosvenor Gallery and also in the Manchester Art Gallery . Together with his friends Sargent and Whistler took Curtis in 1884 in an exhibition in Dublin Sketching Club.

Curtis married in 1897 Lisa de Wolfe Colt. From this marriage the daughter Sylvia emerged. The family settled in Beaulieu-sur-Mer in Monte Carlo down, where Curtis died in 1922.

Work

Works of Ralph Curtis include portraits, genre scenes, interiors, still life and especially landscape painting. Dieaw show coastal views, river landscapes and urban scenes, a large part of his work deals with Venice. His Venetian genre scenes show the influence of Édouard Manet recognize and stand in close relationship to the works of Italian painters such as Giuseppe de Nittis and Giovanni Boldini . In addition, it was the work of Sargent and Whistler friends that inspired Curtis. Especially in his views of Venice showed Curtis a masterful rendition of lighting effects on the water in the style of Impressionism . In addition to paintings, he created numerous watercolors and drawings.

The Garden

White Lotus

James McNeill Whistler at a party

Return from the Lido 1,884 Works in public collections [ Edit ] Return from the Lido - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston A Japanese Teahouse - Palazzo Rucellai, Florence Portrait of Robert Browning - Armstrong Browning Library, Waco Literature [ Edit ] Ralph W. Curtis. In: Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker u. a .: General lexicon of visual artists from antiquity to the present day . Volume VIII, EA Seemann, Leipzig 1912, S. 214th Ralph Wormsley Curtis. In: artists of the world . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 23, Saur, Munich, and others 1999, ISBN 3-598-22763-9, page 186 Elizabeth Anne McCauley: Gondola Days, Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 2004, ISBN 0-914660-21-7 . Web Links [ Edit ] Commons: Ralph Curtis - collection of images, videos and audio files Standard data (Person): VIAF : 95801348 | Wikipedia People Search