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About Abbott Fuller Graves
BORN: Weymouth, Massachusetts 15 April 1859
DIED: Kennebunkport, Summer 1936
Because his flower pictures are so well known,1 it is surprising to learn that Graves executed a wide variety of subjects; in addition, he was a successful impressionist. Few did a better job in rendering texture, light, and color while his depictions of women in garden settings are excellent demonstrations of the *Boston School of American impressionism. Technically he was a competent draftsman and a very skilled manipulator of *broken color in the *plein-air manner. Born to Eliza Nichols Fuller and James Griswold Graves, a furniture designer and maker,2 he demonstrated prodigious talent in his youth, and since he was obliged to work in a greenhouse to assist his father whose business had failed, he continued his art by painting flowers.3 After some time he was able to enroll in the School of Design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he took courses in drawing and applied arts but found it impossible to continue his studies.4 Apparently it was with the help of Abbott's first patron, the historian Samuel Adams Drake that Graves began to work at the Studio Building in Boston around 1883. During that time the artist submitted works to the *Boston Art Club annuals and other local exhibitions. One assumes that Graves visited the now famous *Foreign Exhibition held in 1883 in the Mechanics Building, which featured the first eye-opening (though limited) showing of impressionism in America.
By 1884 Graves was one of several Boston area painters who, like *Frank W. Benson and *Edmund C. Tarbell, sought fresh inspiration and new opportunities in Europe. Graves's fiancée, Montie Aldrich, who had studied flower painting under him, accompanied him on the trip, chaperoned by her mother and
brother.5 In Paris Graves took quarters on the Avenue Victor Hugo, where Tarbell and a few other Americans also stayed. At that time impressionism was the main topic of controversy; Graves was well aware of the movement but preferred a more conservative manner. Hoping to learn more about flower painting, he sought the instruction of Georges Jeannin (1841-1925), who was impressed with Graves's work and agreed to critique his studies. Perhaps even at this point traces of impressionism subtly influenced Graves, for Jeannin suggested that although his color was good, his flowers were lacking in draftsmanship.6 After a period in Venice, the future Mrs. Graves and the others returned to America but Graves remained in Paris where he and Tarbell shared quarters.
In the *spring of 1886 Graves settled in Boston. Before long the *Cowles Art School hired him as a teacher of flower painting, thus providing the first step in the establishment of his reputation as one of America's greatest specialists in the field. It is reported that in addition to teaching, he was prolific in the production of his own flower pictures; unfortunately, not many of these early works are dated so that their origin must be deduced from stylistic comparison. Thanks to his gregarious personality, the artist had little difficulty establishing himself in the Boston art community; after some time he figured as a member of most local art groups. And less than a year after his return, he married Montie Aldrich: Tarbell and *Childe Hassam served as ushers at the wedding. In early 1887 he received a medal for his work.7
Although his success continued, Graves hoped to improve his *genre painting. To this end, he and Montie sailed to France, where the artist enrolled in the *Académie Julian in Paris, as a student of *Jean-Paul Laurens, Fernand Cormon, and Paul-Jean Gervais (1859-1936). While living with his wife in a studio apartment on the Avenue de Wagram, he studied the works of old masters in the Louvre and visited exhibitions. As with flower painting, Graves's talent in genre improved rapidly and he turned his full attention to the production of these subjects. As a distinct honor and a signal of his progress, Graves's work was accepted for the 1888 Paris Salon. A painting was accepted again for the 1889 Salon; furthermore, his Peonies and Basket of Flowers (both unlocated) were included with that of many Americans at the *Paris Universal Exposition of that year.
A daughter, Enid was born to the Graves at this time. In 1891 they returned to Boston and the artist resumed independent teaching. That summer he visited Kennebunkport, Maine, which he found so *picturesque that he convinced some of his students to study with him there. During the early 1890s, Graves maintained a studio-residence in Boston and Kennebunkport, painting a wide variety of subjects that ranged from flowers to genre and landscapes. Noting the contrasts in Graves's environment, one writer pointed out that although he spent "most of his time on the New England coast, he did not withdraw from artistic contract with the world."8 While his flower and landscape works reflected the influence of impressionism in their spontaneous execution, the genre paintings are almost Germanic in their realistic precision. His themes were typical of the *Genteel Tradition and included more conventional American subjects showing the contrasts of youth and old age. At that time Graves was quoted as saying: "The greatest thing that art can do, it seems to me, is to touch the heart."9
Living in Boston in 1892, he exhibited a painting, entitled A Finished Romance, which he offered for sale at $500 in the annual of the *National Academy of Design. A year later, one of Graves's flower pictures, known as Poppies (unlocated), was included in the *World's Columbian Exposition. By 1895 the lure of Kennebunkport was so great that he purchased a home, the first of many he would own over the years to come. From this time onward his participation in local social and civic affairs assumed even greater proportions. He was fond of the "ordinary" New England folk he found there and increasingly incorporated them into his genre works as these paintings provided steady income. In 1897 a son Louis was born.
Consistently Graves demonstrated his ability to exploit impressionism to suit himself. At times his canvases, scintillating from edge to edge with a spontaneous application of *broken color, depicted an attractive young woman in a garden or some similar *decorative impressionist subject one might expect from his Boston associates, Tarbell or Benson. However, at other times he juxtaposed his styles, using for example a very impressionistic handling for the subject's environment and a much more realistic, or portrait-like rendering for his sitter. Then again, especially in his quaint genre scenes depicting the folks at Kennebunkport, Graves excluded impressionism altogether. Like others of the Boston group, Graves was not only capable but quite willing to swing in and out of impressionism in order to achieve his pictorial goals. Although he demonstrated a good working knowledge of impressionism, he applied no formula to it.
In Boston Graves was a regular exhibitor at the Boston Art Club and he maintained membership in the Paint and Clay Club and the Society of Watercolor Painters. His work was known and appreciated at the turn of the century, as indicated by the caustic art critic, *Sadakichi Hartmann, when he stated that the works of "Abbott Graves, who paints elaborate compositions in the French Salon style, endeavoring to lend his flower masses a raison d'etre by introducing a wheelbarrow or the bow of a boat, on which they rest, are noteworthy exponents of this delicate art."10 Graves yielded to the lure of Europe again in 1902: he returned to France for an extended stay. After settling with his family in the Latin Quarter of Paris, Graves executed a large number of works and joined in the *American Art Association of Paris.11 In 1903 Graves summered near Volendam, Holland, where he executed various genre pictures, while the following summer he spent at *Cornwall, St. Ives, in England, a picturesque spot well-known to many American impressionists. One canvas resulting from this sojourn was shown in the 1905 Salon, where it received a medal and critical praise.
Also in 1903 Graves and his family returned to America. In Boston he continued his usual activities, and in Kennebunkport he designed Westlook, a home influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright's work. From about this time onward Graves's unusual motif, New England doorways and surrounding gardens, figured increasingly in his oeuvre. The multi-colored texture of flowers is an important asset in these works and in this vein Graves also returned to the production of flower pictures. However, the influence of impressionism became more obvious in his work evidenced by brighter color, greater concern with light, and a very rapid but skillful technique. In later years, art critic George Alfred Williams commented on these works:
Who has not stood and gazed at Maine's sunlit seaside gardens and not been enthralled? The gentle sea winds of summer toss the blooms about, and from these profuse color masses of beautiful swaying forms, Abbott Graves has wisely essayed to paint garden pictures of truly rare permanent charm.12
Graves devoted more time to his colorful garden scenes and occasionally added figures in a manner similar to the work of *Frederick C. Frieseke, *Richard Miller, and others of the expatriate group in *Giverny or of Tarbell and Benson in Boston.
In some years Graves also remained in Kennebunkport during the winter season. This was reported by a Boston Evening Transcript correspondent, who wrote on 1 March 1907 that the artist was busy "painting snow scenes there. One picture is a winter moonlight effect, with the shadow of a tree on the sloping roof of a century-old blacksmith shop...." It was probably in 1909 that Graves became a member of the *Salmagundi Club in New York.
Graves exhibited regularly in various national shows, but his paintings were also frequently presented in several art galleries in Boston. In the spring of 1910 his work was seen at Leonard and Company Gallery in Boston: Graves was described in the Boston Evening Transcript (5 April 1910) as a "painter of flowers, Yankee genre, landscapes, marines, and all sorts of European and Western motives." Then located at 398 Boylston Street, *Vose Galleries of Boston handled Graves's work to a large extent and eventually became the artist's primary dealer. Vose Galleries presented a successful one-man show in 1912 and in the following year the Walter Kimball and Company Gallery exhibited his paintings. Discussing the exhibition, the Boston Evening Transcript's critic thought that "in introducing here and there a figure, among his masses of flowers...the figure is given just the right degree of relative importance, and is neither an insignificant accent in the picture nor an intruder among the flowers." (30 December 1913). Like *Theodore Earl Butler, Graves was fascinated with the flower garden motif, but unlike the former who remained in *Giverny, Graves traveled to South America in search of more exotic gardens. In 1915 when World War I ravaged Europe, Graves went to Venezuela where he painted some of his most colorful garden and flower pictures.13 Now applying a decidedly impressionistic treatment, the artist was particularly capable of achieving light effects by laying on pigment in dashes of bright color. Later Graves worked these sketches up into finished canvases, which were mounted in a solo show at the Babcock Gallery in New York, an event which brought his art to the attention of the New York art community. Following this successful exhibition, Graves's versatility and variety of subjects were praised.
Graves went beyond the illustrative side of impressionism by including bits of architectural decoration such as doorways, fences, vases, fountains, and gates, resulting in a near idyllic Fragonard-type dream garden quite different from those done by Theodore Earl Butler, John L. Breck, Frederick C. Frieseke, *Lawton Parker, and others near *Claude Monet in Giverny. The artist's work consistently received greater recognition and was reproduced regularly in various magazines. Indeed, after some time Graves and his wife moved to New York City, where the artist became active in art groups such as the *National Arts Club and the *Allied Artists of America. By 1926 Graves's work was recognized by the National Academy of Design when he was elected an Associate member.
But in spite of his increased activity in New York, Graves's compositions retained their New England *subject matter. Moreover, his Colonial door and garden motif became more prominent in shows. Confiding to John Gayton in 1927, Graves wrote: "I am, as you see, here in New York at the old game of picture making. Not paying any attention to the epidemic of wild modern atrocities which the people who perpetrate it call art."14 In 1932, during the peak of America's Great Depression, Graves was given a one-man show at Vose Galleries entitled "New England Gardens and Doorways." In the following year he won the First Prize of the Thumb-box Sketch Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club and the Kay Prize from the Palm Beach Art Center in 1934. The artist remained fairly active until the summer of 1936 when he died in Kennebunkport at the age of seventy-seven.
REF.
Hartmann, 1902, vol. 1, p. 249; Williams, 1923; Brick Store Museum, 1979; Butler, 1982; Gerdts, 1983, pp. 85-89; Gerdts, 1990, vol. 1, p. 25; Gerdts, 1992-B, pp. 138-140; Peters, 1997, cat. no. 7. |
Paintings by Abbott Fuller Graves
| The Flower Garden |
| oil on canvas: 12 x 16 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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Click Picture to Enlarge
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