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Today I was the winning bidder at auction for this painting:
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I have an interest in American paintings depicting winter in the city. Budgetary limitations mean I keep my eye open for works by little known artists or by wholly unknown “Sunday” artists. An example of the latter is the painter James Jefferys, whom I profiled last year (see post, here). The fun of coming across these sparsely-documented painters is that it offers an opportunity to do a bit of detective work of one’s own.
This snow scene is a colorful oil on board, 16 by 12 inches, signed in the lower left. The artist, Vallie Fletcher (1874-1939), appears in American artists references and other sources. Those records indicate she was born in Beaumont, Texas. Her art studies took her to the Cooper Union in New York City and the Art Students League (she is mentioned in an 1899 catalog), although she returned west and was known as a “Texas artist.” Other than participating in regional competitions (for example, the 1927 Edgar B. Davis Wildflower Competition in San Antonio; she was not a winner), she did not leave much of a mark in the art world.
Regardless of of her lack of renown, I think she successfully achieves in this painting something direct and honest. The painting shares an approach to the urban landscape that was adopted by many of the best American painters of the 20th century.
My detective work started with a read of the scene depicted and the style of its execution. It looked to me to have been a spontaneous undertaking completed in a single afternoon. Some may object to using the term “en plein air” in this instance, since it seems Fletcher was comfortably positioned indoors, in a room on the second or third floor of the neighboring house, looking out through her window. Yet it’s possible the day grew warm enough for her to open the window, and, if so, describing it as an “open air” painting would not be incorrect.
Where was this painted?
The chief clue to the location is the gold-domed structure in the distance. It has the look of a state capitol building. Using Google Images I found these pictures of the capitol building in Denver, Colorado:
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It is a match, I believe. Even within the limitations of her loose painterly style, Fletcher has accurately captured the pillars and banding of the two-tiered masonry wedding cake that supports the gilded dome and cupola.
When did Fletcher paint this view?
She died at the end of the 1930’s, but the Keystone Cops-looking vehicle parked on the street suggests to me the preceding decade. A notation (whether it is in the artist’s hand is unclear) appears on the reverse of the framed painting:
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So, then, my working assumption is that Fletcher was in Denver and painted this view on April 25, 1928.
Is there anything to support this? Did it snow on that day, in that city? And if it did, was the storm sudden, surprising, and short-lived? Was it the kind of event that would keep the artist indoors? Was the cover of snow an evanescent subject she was eager to capture in paint?
Meteorological records maintained by the National Weather Service indicate that in Denver, on April 25, 1928: RAIN CHANGED TO SNOW … WHICH BECAME HEAVY AND TOTALED 7.4 INCHES IN DOWNTOWN DENVER. DUE TO MELTING … THE MAXIMUM SNOW DEPTH ON THE GROUND WAS 4.0 INCHES AT 6:00 PM. THIS WAS THE LAST SNOW OF THE SEASON. SOUTHEAST WINDS WERE SUSTAINED TO 19 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 20 MPH.
Which is to say, Vallie Fletcher likely kept the window closed.
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The circular porch, budding off the corner of the house, is a feature of many American Victorian-period homes of the late 1800’s. See here and here.