Wednesday, December 10, 2014

GUY PÈNE DU BOIS at AUCTION and in GALLERIES

  • Biography - National Gallery of Art

    A cultural critic and artist throughout his life, Guy Pène du Bois was born in Brooklyn, New York. He studied from 1899 to 1905 with William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, and Kenneth Hayes Miller. His earliest paintings were street scenes drawn in free brushstrokes and dark colors, reflecting Henri's influence.

     After 1920 most of his work focused on middle- and upper-class people in fashionable restaurants and nightclubs, often portrayed in a satirical manner. The rounded, simplified figures of his subjects have been compared to mannequins or caricatures and convey Pène du Bois' critical attitude. Many of his images seem like quiet pauses in unfolding dramas, lending them an air of tension and mystery.

     Pène du Bois' writing career developed along with his activities as an artist. He worked as a writer as well as a music and art critic for several New York newspapers. In 1913 he began a seven-year editorship of Arts and Decoration with a special issue on the Armory Show. The artist lived in France from 1924 to 1930. His autobiography, Artists Say the Silliest Things, was published in 1940. Pène du Bois died in 1958 in Boston, Massachusetts.
    A twentieth-century American artist, art critic, and teacher whose work highlights human and social interaction in urban settings.

     By Chelsea DeLay

     I. Biography
    II. Chronology
    III. Collections
    IV. Exhibitions
    V. Suggested Resources
    VI. Notes

     I. Biography

     Born in Brooklyn in 1884, Guy Pène du Bois was the son of Laura Hague and her husband, Henri Pène du Bois, a journalist with a penchant for French literature and culture. Henri decided to move his family to Staten Island when Pène du Bois was fourteen years old, and the next year the boy enrolled in the New York School of Art. He quickly developed a painterly technique and appreciation for Realism under his first instructor, William Merritt Chase. However, the notion of spending hours perfecting the academic method of painting was soon forgotten in the progressive classroom of legendary artist—and the New York School of Art’s newest instructor—Robert Henri.

     When Henri began teaching life-drawing at the New York School of Art in 1903, his realist approach appealed to Pène du Bois and several of his classmates, including Edward Hopper, Gifford Beal, George Bellows, and Rockwell Kent.(1) Henri instructed his students to venture out of the studio and into the city to better understand the subjects they were to paint; this observational approach had a profound influence on Pène du Bois—an emphasis on the underlying social interaction between figures later became a characteristic trait of his work.

     In 1905 Guy Pène du Bois and his father traveled to Europe, stopping briefly in London before finally settling in France. While in Paris, he briefly spent time studying at the Académie Colarossi and took private lessons from Théophile Steinlen.(2) The cafés, gardens, and opera houses offered Pène du Bois an inspiring glimpse at Parisian life that emerged as focal points in his early work.

     As his style initially began to develop, Pène du Bois’s thinly-lined pen and ink drawings clearly incorporated the influence of several established French artists including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, and Honoré Daumier. His skill as a graphic artist demonstrated a considerable amount of promise—his early ability and talent garnered Pène du Bois an invitation to debut his work at the Paris Salon in 1905.

     Pène du Bois’s time in France was cut short when his father fell ill in May of 1906 and, in an unfortunate turn of events, Henri Pène du Bois passed away while on the very ship returning him and his son to America. As a sentimental gesture honoring his father, he changed his signature from Guy du Bois to Guy Pène du Bois, a moniker used throughout the rest of his career.

     After he arrived back in New York, Pène du Bois began working for the New York American and assumed a full-time position as an art critic in 1909. Writing for the New York American proved to be an indispensable career choice for Pène du Bois, who initially covered the police beat and regularly ventured downtown to the Jefferson Market Police Court to observe the interactions between lawyers, police officers, prostitutes, and criminals. The pieces inspired by the courtrooms demonstrate a shift in Pène du Bois’s style: his paintings were small in size, integrated darker colors and broader brushwork, and the faces and figures of his subjects adopted a rounded, stout shape, which became a distinctive silhouette typical of his figures.

     Guy Pène du Bois married Florence “Floy” Sherman Duncan in 1911; the following year he left his position at the New York American and became a member of the Association of Painters and Sculptors.(3) 1913 was a busy year for Pène du Bois, both professionally and personally: he not only contributed work to the 1913 Armory Show, but also handled the show’s publicity and published a special edition of Arts and Decoration highlighting the exhibition.(4) That same year Pène du Bois welcomed the birth of his first child, daughter Yvonne, and also suffered the death of his mother, Laura Hague Pène du Bois.

     At this point in his life, Pène du Bois had been juggling two careers: working as an artist and writing as an art critic. He wrote for several publications and his opinions as a critic were strengthened by his success as a practicing artist—Pène du Bois spent seven years as the editor of Arts and Decoration, two years at The New York Post, and also acted as an assistant to Royal Cortissoz at The New York Tribune.(5)

     In 1913, Pène du Bois developed an artist-dealer relationship with Kraushaar Galleries in New York City and over the next few years his work was shown in exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Montross Gallery, the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Whitney Studio Club. Pène du Bois’s increased efforts to focus on painting resulted in a style progression that began just before 1920 and his work began to consistently feature several distinct characteristics: larger canvases featuring members of urban society, flattened and abstracted figures, and entire scenes emanating a satirical sentiment that bordered on the line of disdain—all which became a tell-tale stylistic traits of his paintings.(6)

     Pène du Bois decided to reconnect full-time with painting and moved his family to New Jersey in 1914—only to return to New York City three years later—and then to France in 1924.

    Taking up residence in Garnes, a French town north of Paris, Pène du Bois found that the modernist trend in the art world left little room for his realist approach. He became plagued with financial troubles and a lack of inspiration, which led the funding from John Francis Kraushaar to be consequently cut off in 1930.(7) 

    In need of money, Pène du Bois returned to New York the next year and resumed writing to make ends meet, publishing monographs on artists Edward Hopper, William Glackens, and John Sloan. He also founded an eponymous art school in 1932, which unfortunately closed in 1950 due to low enrollment.

    During the late thirties, Pène du Bois received several post office mural commissions, including Saratoga in the Racing Season in Saratoga Springs, New York and John Jay at His Home in Rye, New York. In 1940, his autobiography Artists Say the Silliest Things was published and he also was elected a Life Member of the Lotos Club and full Academician to the National Academy of Design.

     One year after the death of longtime friend and dealer John Kraushaar in 1946, Pène du Bois and Kraushaar Galleries officially ended their artist-dealer relationship. Pène du Bois was hospitalized in 1949 when it was discovered that he had cancer, and his wife, Florence, passed away from a stroke in 1950. The death of his wife took a toll on Pène du Bois, but he was eventually drawn out of his depression in 1953 when Edward Hopper and Isabel Bishop encouraged him to become involved in Reality: A Journal of Artists’ Opinions. Pène du Bois returned from a brief trip to Paris with his daughter in 1956, and passed away at her home in Boston in 1958.

     II. Chronology

     1884 Born in Brooklyn, New York
    1898 Henri Pène du Bois moves the entire family to Staten Island
    1899 Enrolls in the New York School of Art, where his first teacher is William Merritt Chase
    1902–03 Robert Henri begins teaching at the New York School of Art; his influence is evident in Pène du Bois’s bolder compositions
    1905 Travels to Europe with his father, who was sent by the New York American to review exhibitions; briefly enrolls in Académie Colarossi and takes private lessons from Théophile Steinlen
    1906 Decides to return stateside after his father falls ill in May, but Henri Pène du Bois passes away while en route to New York; after his father’s death, Pène du Bois changes his artist signature from Guy du Bois to Guy Pène du Bois
    1909 Becomes a full-time art critic writing for the New York American
    1910 Member of the hanging committee for the 1910 Exhibition of Independent Artists in New York
    1911 Marries Florence Sherman Duncan
    1912 Leaves New York American
    Joins the Association of American Painters and Sculptors
    1913 Daughter Yvonne is born
    Works as Royal Cortissoz’s assistant at the New York Tribune
    1913–15 Hired by Arts and Decoration; promoted to editor in 1913
    1916 Son William is born
    1916–18 Writes for New York Post
    1917–21 Returns as editor of Arts and Decoration
    1920–24 Teaches at the Art Students League, students include Alexander Calder and Isabel Bishop
    1922 First solo exhibition at Kraushaar Galleries in New York City
    1924 Decides to give up teaching and writing, moves to France to pursue painting full-time
    1932–50 Opens the Guy Pène du Bois School; holds classes at his New York studio and in Connecticut
    1937 Elected Associate member to the National Academy of Design
    Completes first commission, Saratoga in the Racing Season, a federal mural in the post office of Saratoga Springs, New York
    Receives mural commission for the post office in Rye, New York, completes John Jay at His Home in December
    1938–39 Teaches during the summer at the Amagansett Art School on Long Island
    1940 Publishes an autobiography entitled Artists Say the Silliest Things
    Elected Academician to the National Academy of Design
    1942 Completes mural for the Weymouth Branch of the Boston post office
    1949 Hospitalized, receives cancer diagnosis
    1950 Florence du Bois passes away
    1953 Begins writing for Reality: A Journal of Artists’ Opinions after encouragement from Edward Hopper and Isobel Bishop
    1953–56 Briefly moves to Paris with daughter Yvonne
    1955 Agrees to be listed as one of the fifty-five initiating sponsors for the Independent Citizens’ Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions
    1958 Passes away at his daughter’s house in Boston

     III. Collections

     Academy Art Museum, MD
    Addison Gallery of American Art, MA
    Art Institute of Chicago, IL
    Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL
    Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA
    The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
    Butler Institute of American Art, OH
    Carnegie Institute, PA
    Chrysler Museum of Art, VA
    The Columbus Museum of Art, OH
    The Columbus Museum of Art, GA
    Crocker Art Museum, CA
    Dallas Museum of Art, TX
    Detroit Institute of Arts, OH
    Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
    Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
    Memorial Art Gallery, NY
    Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
    Milwaukee Art Institute, WI
    Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL
    Museum of Fine Art | Fort Lauderdale, FL
    National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
    Neuberger Museum of Art, NY
    Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, PA
    Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
    Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, RI
    San Diego Museum of Art, CA
    Sara Roby Foundation Collection, Washington, D.C.
    Sheldon Museum of Art, NE
    Smith College Museum of Art, MA
    Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
    Snite Museum of Art–University of Notre Dame, IN
    Staten Island Museum, NY
    Toledo Museum of Art, OH
    United States Post Office, Saratoga Springs, NY; mural
    United States Post Office, Rye, NY; mural
    Whitney Museum of American Art, NY

     IV. Exhibitions

     1905 Paris Salon
    1906, 1917–1949 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, PA
    1907 Gallery of the New York School of Art, NY
    1908 Inaugural Exhibition of Independent Artists, NY
    1910 Exhibition of Independent Artists, NY
    1913 The Armory Show, NY
    1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, CA
    1914–57 Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Clark Prize, 1937
    1917, 1918 Whitney Studio, NY; solo exhibition, 1918
    1919 Newport Art Association, RI; solo exhibition
    1922, 1924, 1925, 1927–30, 1932, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1942, 1943, 1946 Kraushaar Galleries, NY; solo exhibitions
    1927–50 National Academy of Design, NY; Second Altman Prize, 1936; First Altman Prize, 1945
    1930 Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Norman Wait Harris prize
    1939 Carnegie Institute, PA
    Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
    1940 Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, MD
    Mint Museum of Art, NC
    Museum of Arts and Sciences, VA
    1942 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Maynard Prize
    1944 Mystic Art Association, CT
    1946 Century Association, NY; Robert Henri and Five of His Pupils
    1954 Staten Island Museum, NY
    1961, 1970, 1979, 1983, 1998, 2004 James Graham & Sons, NY
    V. Suggested Resources

     Baker, John. “Guy Pène du Bois on Realism,” The Archives of American Art Journal 17, no. 5 (1977): 2– 13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1557177.
    Cortissoz, Royal. “Guy Pène du Bois.” In American Artist Series. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1931.
    Falk, Peter H. “Guy Pène du Bois.” In Who Was Who in American Art, p. 969. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1999.
    Falman, Betsy. Guy Pène du Bois: Painter of Modern Life. New York: James Graham & Sons, Inc., 2004.
    Péne du Bois, Guy. Artists Say the Silliest Things. New York: American Artists Group, 1940.

     VI. Notes

     1. Valerie Ann Leeds, The Independents: The Ashcan School & Their Circle from Florida Collections (Winter Park, FL: Rollins College, 1996), 20.
    2. Betsy Falman, Guy Pène du Bois: Painter of Modern Life (New York: James Graham & Sons, Inc., 2004), 13.
    3. Peter H. Falk, “Guy Pène du Bois,” in Who Was Who in American Art (Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1999), 969.
    4. John Baker, “Guy Pène du Bois on Realism,” The Archives of American Art Journal 17, no. 5 (1977): 2. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1557177.
    5. Ibid.
    6. Falman 25.
    7. Ibid, 39.


     AUCTIONS

    Bonhams 2014







    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS
    (American, 1884-1958)
    Fly Fisherman 
    20 x 16in
    US$ 12,000 - 18,000
    £7,600 - 11,000

    Sotheby's 2014


    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS
    PROMENADE



    LOT SOLD. 5,000 USD

    Sotheby's 2013


    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS
    1884-1958
    SPEAKEASY



    LOT SOLD. 365,000
    Sotheby's 2012



    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS
    1884-1958
    CAFÉ DÔME



    LOT SOLD. 242,500 USD 










    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS
    1884 - 1958
    THE CROWD [SELF-PORTRAIT] LOT SOLD. 602,500 USD





    Sotheby's 2011
    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS

    LONGCHAMPS RACE TRACK



    LOT SOLD. 602,500
    Sotheby's 2008


    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS
    1884-1958
    POUTER PIGEON
    LOT SOLD. 397,000 





      Sotheby's 2007



    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS
    1884-1958
    CROQUET PLAYERS, LUXEMBOURG GARDENS
    Estimate 50,000 — 70,000





     


    Christie's



    Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958)
    Third Avenue El
    PRICE REALIZED
    $782,500



    Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958)
    Place Massena, Nice
    PRICE REALIZED
    $290,500



    Guy Pène Du Bois (1884-1958)
    Social Register
    PRICE REALIZED
    $194,500



    Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958)
    Bull Market Promenade
    PRICE REALIZED
    $158,500



    Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958)
    At the Met (The Old Met)
    PRICE REALIZED
    $122,500



    Guy Pène Du Bois (1884-1958)
    Old Styles and New
    PRICE REALIZED
    $75,000



    Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958)
    Summer Day, Old Manor Farm
    PRICE REALIZED
    $15,000


    Christie's 2014







    Christie's 2013





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    Chrstie's 2009






    Chrstie's 2005






    Christie’s 2004


                             
                            GUY PENE DU BOIS (1884-1958)
                            SEATED WOMAN
                            PR.$8,963

     Christie’s 











    Chrsitie's 2001





    Christie's 2000






    Swann 2005


    GUY PÈNE DU BOIS 
    Two Young Women
    Estimate $12,000 - $18,000
    Price Realized (with Buyer's Premium) $11,500



  • GUY PÈNE DU BOIS 
    Country Fair with Horses
    Estimate $4,000 - $6,000
    Price Realized (with Buyer's Premium) $10,350


Skinner 2009



National Gallery of Art


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