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Elizabeth Morse Walsh (1886-1983) Oil Portrait Painting - $300 (Johnston, Rhode Island)
condition:
excellent
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Please call me at show contact info with any questions or to view the painting with no obligations to buy. Thank you, Tom.
The date associated with the actual photo was 1907. This painting itself was not dated. I am estimating this portrait to be from the 1920's to the 1950's time frame. This little beauty is in very good vintage condition. Under a black light it shows no signs of paint loss, in-painting or repair.
Together with what appears to be the original gold frame it measures 5 1/2" wide x 7 1/2" in height. The vintage backing on the frame is held together by very small flat-head screws. I have not examined the painting out of the frame. It is likely that the painting itself may be a traditional 3x4 format that is framed by the oval shape of the frame. I will leave it to the winning bidder to decide if they want to open it up to inspect it further.
The vintage frame is also in overall good condition with very minor chipping and loss to the gesso consistent with its age. In my opinion, it displays beautifully. This small oil portrait is an excellent example of Elizabeth Morse Walsh's work. It truly is a small gem and will make for a welcome addition to any savvy art connoisseur's collection!
As for the artist, Elizabeth Morse Walsh was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1866. She is best known for her oil portraits of prominent citizens of Lowell and the Boston area, but also painted figures, landscapes, and industrial scenes.
Her parents, Alonzo and Adelaide Walsh, encouraged her to pursue the study of art and after completing her education in the Lowell Public Schools and the Quincy Mansion School, she entered the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston, MA. Miss Walsh studied under such Boston notables as Frank Weston Benson (1862-1951), Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862-1938), William McGregor Paxton (1869-1941), and Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931).
Walsh graduated with honors from the MFA School. In 1915 she won the Sears prize for advanced painting and in 1916, the Paige Traveling Scholarship - a $2400 prize and two-years study in the European art centers.
The outbreak of WWI caused her to delay her trip abroad. While she waited, she painted portraits and exhibited her work at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the St. Louis Art Museum. She also had a solo show at the Whistler House in Lowell in 1918 and again later in life she had another one-man show at the Whistler House in 1980. The Whistler House has several paintings of Elizabeth's amongst their permanent collection.
In 1922, Elizabeth was off to Paris. She studied in a studio on the Left Bank with the portrait painter, Louis Francois Biloul (1874-1947) and exhibited her work at the Paris Salon. During the two years, she visited the studio of John Singer Sergent, copied the Masters at the Louvre, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Prado Museum in Madrid, and visited Holland, Switzerland, and Italy.
Sarah returned to America in 1925. She exhibited her European work at the MFA in Boston and the Whistler House Museum in Lowell, painted portraits and worked as an artist for "Readers Digest" and Filene's Department Store. Walsh was also an actress under the WPA project and played the part of "Topsy" in the Harriet Beecher's Stowe's, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
Her portraits of notables include Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers, Calvin Cooledge Jr., son of President Coolidge, Judge Reynolds, and Judge Fisher.
Walsh was fascinated with the life and work of James Abbot McNail Whistler (1834-1903) because he was born in her hometown, Lowell, MA. She was able to achieve the blurry affect of Whistler's use of lost and found edges because, as she stated, she was nearsighted. In 1947, she gave a talk on Whistler to a civic group and later, in 1979, published a book with her sketches of his work and a commentary on their composition. She also published two other books: A selection of quotes entitled " The Picturesque English of Henry James" published in 1976, and a biography on the artist and inventor, Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872), a relation on her mother's side of the family.
Miss Walsh became Mrs. Hunking in 1950 when, at the age of sixty-four, she married a construction engineer by the name of Sidney Hewes Hunking. They were together until he died in 1966.
Elizabeth was a member of the Concord Art Association, MA and the Brush and Chisel Club in Boston. In her career she painted over 150 portraits, which today are primarily in public and private collections. Interestingly, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston included her work in an exhibition in 2001 entitled "A Studio of Her Own: Boston Women Artists" (1970-1940), a collection of 40 exceptional woman artists.
Elizabeth was known for her sense of color and her technical excellence. She continued to paint into her nineties, producing miniatures, watercolors and drawings. Elizabeth Morse (Hunking) Walsh passed away as an active artist in her hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts in 1983.
Again, please call me at show contact info with any questions or to view the painting with no obligations to buy. Thank you, Tom.