RARE Antique Early California Plein Air Seascape Oil Painting, SOWERSBY'30s
This is a Very Fine and RARE Antique Early California Plein Air Seascape Oil Painting on canvas, by early 20th century California Impressionist painter, Edith Lavina Sowersby 1875 - 1959. This artwork depicts a stunning and colorful Southern California seascape scene, with rollicking azure ocean waves, a pale blue sky above with wispy sunset clouds, and a rocky cliffside covered with greenery and foliage. In the foreground, water slicked coastal rocks are visible. The artist's fine brushwork, and talented usage of a wide color palette create a visibly stunning work of art.
Signed: "Edith Sowersby" in the lower left corner. Additionally, an old, yellowed artist's label affixed the verso of the canvas reads: Marine. 8421 Garden View Ave, South Gate, Calif. This piece likely dates to the 1930's - early 1940's. Approximately 30 3/4 x 36 1/2 inches including frame.
Actual artwork is approximately 24 x 30 inches. Good overall condition for nearly a century of age and storage, with moderate stable age-related craquelure throughout the painted surface, but mostly in the upper sky area, and a few shallow dimples to the canvas. Additionally, there is some light scuffing and edge wear to the original antique gilded wood frame please see photos carefully. Sowersby's original artworks are in the permanent collections of the Pasadena Museum of History, California, and were featured in the groundbreaking book series on female artists in California, Emerging from the Shadows: A Survey of Women Artists Working in California, 1860 - 1960. Acquired in Los Angeles County, California.
If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! 1959 - Huntington Beach, California. Landscape, florals and seascape painting, photography.
Edith Lavina Sowersby (1875 - 1959) was active/lived in California, Michigan / Canada. Edith Sowersby is known for Landscape, florals and seascape painting, photography. Parents: John Russell and Lavina (Butler) Sowersby. 1894 Ithaca High School Graduates Motto: Not finished, but begun.Miss Edith Sowersby goes to the State Normal at Kalamazoo this week for a six weeks' term of school. Joseph, Michigan 26 June, 1915.
1917-21 Watertown, New York City Directory. 1920 Census Watertown, New York. 1924 Los Angeles, California City Directory. 1926 Long Beach, California City Directory. 1931-32 Long Beach, California City Directory.Landscapes and flowers, painted by Edith Sowersby, are at the Assistance League. They show real feeling for nature and sympathy with the ideals and methods of such well-known painters as J. The finest piece shown is probably "Tujunga Canyon, " portrayed in a beautiful soft light of spring. The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) 29 July, 1934.
Art Gallery in Hollywood Reopens Today. The art gallery in the Hollywood Public library will be reopened after three years this afternoon with a special exhibition and reception. Women Painters of the West are in charge. The gallery has been redecorated and refinished during the past few weeks by a committee including Evylena Nunn Miller, Edith Sowersby...
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) 12 May, 1936. 1940 Census San Antonio, California. April-May Art Exhibition Is Opened At Laguna Beach.
Fifty-three canvases, oils and water colors, make up the April-May exhibition of the Laguna Beach Art association which opened here today at the galleries on Cliff Drive. Following is the official catalogue list of exhibitors and the subjects of their respective entries: Leonard Scheu, "The Wooden Bridge"; Aaron Kilpatrick, The Leaning Sycamore"; Edith Sowersby, "Surf". " Santa Ana Register (Santa Ana, California) 04 April, 1940. 1946 Huntington Park, California City Directory. Artist New Center Opened for Southland Artists. The formal opening of headquarters of the Southland Art Association at Poppy Trail galleries today attracted more than 300 persons. Two hundred paintings by member artists were exhibited. Artists participating were Paul Lauritz, Edward E. Chiapella, president of the California Art Club, Edith Sowersby. The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) 22 June, 1947. Bentley, Art Researcher and Historian, Greenville, Michigan.Born in Michigan on March 4, 1875 of Canadian parents, Edith Sowersby moved to Los Angeles in 1921 and settled in Huntington Park. Locally she studied with Jack W.
Smith, Nell Walker Warner, and Hanson Puthuff. She died in Huntington Beach, CA on Dec. Her work includes landscapes, florals, and seascapes. WPW (Women Painters of the West) ARTISTS IN PASADENA MUSEUM OF HISTORY. Emerging from the Shadows: A Survey of Women Artists Working in California, 1860 - 1960. This four-volume set presents the careers of 320 women artists working in California as well as throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe.Their work encompasses a broad range of styles-from the realism of the nineteenth century to the modernism of the twentieth. Within these volumes are works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, illustration and print-making. More than 2,000 images trace the 100-year history of 320 women artists. Features artworks from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.
Previously unknown artists and artwork, rediscovered and published for the first time. Its scope of examination covers 100 years of artistic output by these remarkable women showing examples of the work they created in California and throughout the world.The women showcased within the pages of Emerging from the Shadows are powerful, competent and thoughtful artists and their work encompasses a broad range of styles spanning the Realism of the nineteenth century to the Modernism of the twentieth century. The women selected for inclusion in the book were chosen not only for their artistic merit, but also for the role they played in furthering the art culture in California. For many of the women in Emerging from the Shadows, their reputations as artists have been largely ignored or forgotten-now within this book they are being recognized and acknowledged; some for the first time.
Intentionally, the lesser-known artists are presented in the book alongside their more acknowledged peers; it is time for their personal shadows to fade and for them to emerge-and Emerging from the Shadows is a first step. While researching the artists included in Emerging, one overriding question remained: Why are so many of these women barely recognized, if at all, for their artistic accomplishments? For many of the artists profiled in Emerging, any recognition or acknowledgement received during their lifetime was often fleeting.
Thus, years after their passing, many remain as a single line entry at best in most reference guides. The realization is that these forgotten women led full and fascinating lives; both in private and in their work as artists. Their experiences were all encompassing; They studied, they exhibited and they won awards.
They were members of art clubs and social, civic and art specific organizations and often times, they married and reared a family. They taught art and influenced generations of artists. For a number of these artists, their work was acquired by individual collectors and public institutions, not only in California, but across the country and around the world.
Included in Emerging from the Shadows are painters, sculptors, illustrators, printmakers and ceramicists. The women profiled were trailblazers, each one essential to the momentum and growth of the arts in California and the Nation; many lived, worked and created art in a time when women still were denied the right to vote, and their contributions ultimately opened the door for heartfelt expression and equality for future generations of artists.