The Parrots

Painted at the height of the artist’s career, The Parrots is an archetypal example of Frederick Carl Frieseke’s large-scale paintings of women at leisure within their private homes. Depicting the artist’s wife Sarah Frieseke on the couch and niece Aileen O’Bryan in the foreground, The Parrots brilliantly conveys the intimism practiced by the American artist in Giverny. The work belongs to a group of Frieseke’s multi-figured, intricate large-scale exhibition paintings from the early 1910s, which included both interior scenes like the present work as well as outdoor scenes, such as The Garden Parasol (1910, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh). Shortly after its completion, The Parrots was exhibited prominently during the artist’s lifetime—a testament to Frieseke’s assessment of its importance. Notable venues included the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1910); The Art Institute of Chicago (1910); National Academy of Design, New York (1911-1912); Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts, Philadelphia (1911) and the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (1911). Composed with casual postures yet sumptuous fabrics and intricate designs, The Parrots is arguably one of the artist’s most accomplished interior scenes in scale, detail and color.
Frieseke was one of the leading figures among the second generation of American expatriates in France. He first studied at The Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York before leaving for Paris in 1898 to continue his studies. There Frieseke enrolled at the Académie Julian and also at the Académie Carmen, James McNeill Whistler’s short-lived school. Whistler's passion for Japanese art, for decoration, and for distinctive color arrangements had a lasting influence on Frieseke's work. By 1900 Frieseke was spending summers in Giverny and, after achieving artistic and financial success, was able to purchase a home there in 1906. He chose American Impressionist Theodore Robinson’s former house next door to Claude Monet’s. Frieseke remained in Giverny for almost two decades, where the artist colony also included Americans Theodore Butler, Willard Metcalf, Richard Miller and Guy Rose.
The present work is particularly notable for its inclusion at lower right of a pair of dazzling blue and green parrots within a bright gold cage. With this artistic device, Frieseke continues the storied tradition of the parrot within art history. Parrots have appeared as symbolic figures within paintings since the Middle Ages and have been featured in the work of artists such as Albrecht Durer, Jan Steen and Francisco de Goya. Imported to Europe in the sixteenth century as part of the Age of Exploration, parrots were brought from India, Africa and South Africa for menageries, study and use as household pets. By the eighteenth century, parrots were popular in the court of Versailles, which furthered a cultural interest and demand for foreign pets that could be easily transported. The bird continued to be of interest for Impressionist and Post-Impressionist French artists, appearing in works such as Edouard Manet’s La Femme au perroquet (1866, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La femme à la perruche (circa 1870, Guggenheim Bilbao). Frieseke himself employed parrots in at least one other instance with The Bird Cage (1910, New Britain Museum of American Art).
In the present composition, Sarah Frieseke, relaxed yet observant, admires the wondrous bird as Aileen gently caresses the cage. In contrast to the opalescent, smooth rendering of the women’s skin, their dresses and the surrounding room are painted in vivid colors in a tapestry of short, dense Impressionist strokes. The diverse palette of greens, blues, pinks, purples and yellows are characteristic colors of many Giverny paintings, which Frieseke used to great effect to provide contrast for the two women. Indeed, the intricately patterned sofa and shawl make for a wondrous fusion of patterns and texture, which has striking parallels to the work of the Nabis, including Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, who often featured artfully posed female models in decorative interiors illuminated by natural light. Frieseke’s arrangement and details in The Parrots recalls Vuillard works, such as L'Album (1895, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Femme en robe rayée (1895, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) and Marcelle Aron (Madame Tristan Bernard) (1914, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston).
Frieseke's images of women are celebrated as some of the finest achievements of American Impressionism. His ability to manipulate light and imbue his models with an air of psychological independence makes him one of the most accomplished American Impressionist painters of the female figure. With its subtle light, rich textures and beautiful tonal harmonies, The Parrots demonstrates Frieseke at the height of his abilities.