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About Gertrude Tonsberg
Tonsberg was born in Boston around 1903 and was trained in her native city, where she studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. When in New York City she studied at the Art Students League under William McNulty (1884-1963), where he taught beginning in 1931. Leon Kroll (1884-1974) was her teacher at the National Academy of Design. There, some of Kroll's superb skills as a draftsman and figure painter would have rubbed off. Tonsberg was active in several Massachusetts arts organizations: the Rockport Art Association, the Gloucester Society of Artists, the Guild of Boston Artists, and the North Shore Arts Association.
We believe that "Off Copley Square, Boston" was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1933 under the title "Wet Evening, Copley Square," since it is dated that same year. In 1934 she showed "Rainy Night, Boston" and "Indian Pipes" at the PAFA, while "A Stormy Day" appeared at the National Academy's spring show, also in 1934. Then Tonsberg participated in the Springfield Art League's annual exhibition of 1935. Her work appears in the Worcester Art Museum and in Boston high schools. Tonsberg was hired as technical director at Hatfield's Color Shop in Boston and later, Vose Galleries gave her a one-woman show in 1960.
In "Off Copley Square" we see part of H.H. Richardson's Trinity Church, built between 1874 and 1877 in the neo-Romanesque style. The intersection forms an "X" composition with traffic crisscrossing the wet streets. A streetcar lies at the base of a triangle of reflected lights, which is the focal point of the picture. Tonsberg captured the atmosphere of the rainy
night and the dynamic quality of a major square in Boston, in a free, painterly style. One might think of the urban scenes of her contemporary, Guy Wiggins (1883-1962), whose specialty was New York snow scenes, or even closer in style is the work of fellow Boston painter Arthur Clifton Goodwin (1864-1929), nicknamed "Sloppy Weather Goodwin," however, Goodwin had
already moved to New York by the time Tonsberg was only about eighteen. |
Paintings by Gertrude Tonsberg
| Off Copley Square, Boston |
| oil on canvas: 30 x 25 inches |
| signed: lower right |
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