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Lot Essay
By early in the second decade of the twentieth century, Louis Ritman had joined American artists like Frederick Frieseke and Richard Miller in the painter's haven of Giverny in the French countryside. He was drawn by the colony's physical and cultural landscape, just as famous French Impressionists Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir had been. In 1916, France became his permanent home, and he split his time between Paris, where he owned and operated a studio during the winter months, and Giverny, where he lived and worked from spring to fall.
A Day in July from 1918, is emblematic of the artist's unique brand of American Impressionism. The impasto application of paint--in Ritman's patchwork, thick, almost squared strokes--creates a sense of the movement of light on the water's surface and on the immediacy of the moment, a solitary woman caught in inward reflection. This subject was a recurring one in Ritman's work. David Dearinger remarks "by 1912, he was painting what quickly became his characteristic subject matter: a young woman, sometimes nude, seated or reclining in an interior or out-of-doors." (Masterworks of American Impressionism from the Pfeil Collection, Alexandria, Virginia, 1992, p. 222)
The subtlety of Ritman's approach to light and color is evident in A Day in July. His palette is softened, not as keyed-up as some of his American contemporaries in Giverny, who preferred to emulate the ebullient canvases of Claude Monet. The blues and greens that depict the reflected trees and sky as well as the boat floor's soft shades of purple are gentler than the excited reds and oranges of, for example, Frieseke's garden pictures, or even Ritman's own flower pictures, and the feeling of relaxation therefore more full.
Ritman's subdued depiction of a solitary moment underscores his affection for "the depiction of an attractive young female in an intimate setting," (R.H. Love, Louis Ritman: From Chicago to Giverny, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, p. 154) pioneered by Dutch artists like Vermeer and adopted by American Impressionists, among others. The American version, Ritman's version of intimism, "was...quiet, reserved, and above all, discreet, never outside the parameters of the genteel tradition." (Louis Ritman: From Chicago to Giverny, p. 155) The woman's downward gaze and placid posture relate directly to the introspection and restfulness of an intimate moment, away from the increasingly bustling modern world of early-1900s Paris.
A Day in July from 1918, is emblematic of the artist's unique brand of American Impressionism. The impasto application of paint--in Ritman's patchwork, thick, almost squared strokes--creates a sense of the movement of light on the water's surface and on the immediacy of the moment, a solitary woman caught in inward reflection. This subject was a recurring one in Ritman's work. David Dearinger remarks "by 1912, he was painting what quickly became his characteristic subject matter: a young woman, sometimes nude, seated or reclining in an interior or out-of-doors." (Masterworks of American Impressionism from the Pfeil Collection, Alexandria, Virginia, 1992, p. 222)
The subtlety of Ritman's approach to light and color is evident in A Day in July. His palette is softened, not as keyed-up as some of his American contemporaries in Giverny, who preferred to emulate the ebullient canvases of Claude Monet. The blues and greens that depict the reflected trees and sky as well as the boat floor's soft shades of purple are gentler than the excited reds and oranges of, for example, Frieseke's garden pictures, or even Ritman's own flower pictures, and the feeling of relaxation therefore more full.
Ritman's subdued depiction of a solitary moment underscores his affection for "the depiction of an attractive young female in an intimate setting," (R.H. Love, Louis Ritman: From Chicago to Giverny, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, p. 154) pioneered by Dutch artists like Vermeer and adopted by American Impressionists, among others. The American version, Ritman's version of intimism, "was...quiet, reserved, and above all, discreet, never outside the parameters of the genteel tradition." (Louis Ritman: From Chicago to Giverny, p. 155) The woman's downward gaze and placid posture relate directly to the introspection and restfulness of an intimate moment, away from the increasingly bustling modern world of early-1900s Paris.