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Lot Essay
"It's such a seductive enterprise to paint a river, the reflections, the prettiness of it, and so on." - Wayne Thiebaud
Well known for his distinctive style of painting, American painter Wayne Thiebaud is celebrated for his bright colors and emphasis on the textures of food and other everyday objects . In the 1990s, Thiebaud had a drastic departure from his “pop art” like paintings and his previous cityscapes of San Francisco from the 1970s, moving towards depicting the country side with a play between abstraction and realism.
Growing up, Thiebaud visited his families farms in Southern California where he began to deeply understand and appreciate the diverse and beautiful landscape. The artist reveals, "Sacramento is certainly the headquarters and where I've done most of [my] work....I've painted a lot in the valley, on the river....I've painted a lot of the ridges around Coloma and Napa and places here, a lot of little areas... where these sorts of little bumps of earth grow up and people build little private worlds on top of them, things of that kind. I'm working on... the river and the way in which agricultural patterns relate to the river. A lot of that does have to do with aerial perspective. The big trick is to try to avoid... the pictorial aspect of the river. It's such a seductive enterprise to paint a river, the reflections, the prettiness of it, and so on" (Wayne Thiebaud, quoted in S. McGough, Thiebaud Selects Thiebaud: A Forty-Year Survey from Private Collections, exh. cat., Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, 1996, p. 12). These experiences influenced him as an artist, and his luscious landscape paintings celebrated “the love of that and in some ways the idea of replicating that experience” (Exh. Cat., San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective, 2000, p. 33). At this time, Thiebaud truly came into his own and created works that had a deep meaning and importance to him, all which became a part of his well-known Riverscapes series. His 2001 painting “Delta Sloughs” encapsulated his love for this western landscape and his ability to capture the light and atmosphere of the delta that makes paintings of this time so captivating.
Like Thiebaud’s other paintings from this notable series, Delta Sloughs reveals a wealth of intricate details and subtle nuances. Thiebaud's use of thick, impasto brushstrokes creates a sense of depth and dimensionality that brings the painting to life. The canvas is bathed in a soft, diffused light that is reminiscent of the early morning or late afternoon, when the sun is on the horizon. The gentle blue glow of the river adds to this overall all feeling of the calm and serene atmosphere that so well reflects the tranquil beauty of the region. This subtlety and smoothness is slightly broken up and geometricized by the orderly rows of agricultural crops. His knowledge of paint and material is made clear as he “uses his medium to modulate our understanding of the details. Dabs of paint suggest rows of crops, but the amount of detail does not correspond to a system of perspective that diminishes the information perceived in the further distant field” and it is his “buildup of paint that suggests the horizontal rows of crops or diagonal furrows of the fertile Sacramento river valley” (The Collection of Allan Stone, Vol II The Art of Wayne Thiebaud, Sotheby’s, New York, May 9, 2011, p. 91).
Wayne Thiebaud’s experience as an art teacher also had a massive influence on his work. He had a true eye for painting and this ability partially “comes from a democratic belief in the equal importance of drawing, printmaking and painting that is rare among artists” (S. Nash, Thiebaud from Thiebaud: Prints and Works on Paper from the Private Studio of Wayne Thiebaud, Christie’s, New York, September 29, 2016, p. 10). He understood the fundamentals of creating a captivating work of art, from composition to the use of color and material. He recognized the importance of art history and appreciated the influence other artists had on his own vision and work. His daring color choices that “At times, (it) look(s) as if Thiebaud had picked his vibrant hues from a cosmetics counter, while at others he demonstrates an acute sensitivity to the sour tones of yellow, blue, and green found throughout California’s environs” are reminiscent of great Fauvist artists such as Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard. His paintings are made more unique through his impressive use of multiple perspective and points of view in one single work of art, creating a view that is “simultaneously aerial and direct” (J. Yau, California Landscapes: Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud, New York, 2018, p. 36). This distinctive viewpoint is prevalent in Delta Sloughs, forcing the viewer to take an extreme visual journey across the canvas and really take it all in.
Wayne Thiebaud’s ability to capture the essence of a place through his use of color, texture, composition, and light makes him an extremely recognizable and appreciated American painter. His understanding and love for this California landscape and the fundamentals of painting is rare among artists and gave his works such as Delta Sloughs a wonderfully rhythmic and serene.
Well known for his distinctive style of painting, American painter Wayne Thiebaud is celebrated for his bright colors and emphasis on the textures of food and other everyday objects . In the 1990s, Thiebaud had a drastic departure from his “pop art” like paintings and his previous cityscapes of San Francisco from the 1970s, moving towards depicting the country side with a play between abstraction and realism.
Growing up, Thiebaud visited his families farms in Southern California where he began to deeply understand and appreciate the diverse and beautiful landscape. The artist reveals, "Sacramento is certainly the headquarters and where I've done most of [my] work....I've painted a lot in the valley, on the river....I've painted a lot of the ridges around Coloma and Napa and places here, a lot of little areas... where these sorts of little bumps of earth grow up and people build little private worlds on top of them, things of that kind. I'm working on... the river and the way in which agricultural patterns relate to the river. A lot of that does have to do with aerial perspective. The big trick is to try to avoid... the pictorial aspect of the river. It's such a seductive enterprise to paint a river, the reflections, the prettiness of it, and so on" (Wayne Thiebaud, quoted in S. McGough, Thiebaud Selects Thiebaud: A Forty-Year Survey from Private Collections, exh. cat., Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, 1996, p. 12). These experiences influenced him as an artist, and his luscious landscape paintings celebrated “the love of that and in some ways the idea of replicating that experience” (Exh. Cat., San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective, 2000, p. 33). At this time, Thiebaud truly came into his own and created works that had a deep meaning and importance to him, all which became a part of his well-known Riverscapes series. His 2001 painting “Delta Sloughs” encapsulated his love for this western landscape and his ability to capture the light and atmosphere of the delta that makes paintings of this time so captivating.
Like Thiebaud’s other paintings from this notable series, Delta Sloughs reveals a wealth of intricate details and subtle nuances. Thiebaud's use of thick, impasto brushstrokes creates a sense of depth and dimensionality that brings the painting to life. The canvas is bathed in a soft, diffused light that is reminiscent of the early morning or late afternoon, when the sun is on the horizon. The gentle blue glow of the river adds to this overall all feeling of the calm and serene atmosphere that so well reflects the tranquil beauty of the region. This subtlety and smoothness is slightly broken up and geometricized by the orderly rows of agricultural crops. His knowledge of paint and material is made clear as he “uses his medium to modulate our understanding of the details. Dabs of paint suggest rows of crops, but the amount of detail does not correspond to a system of perspective that diminishes the information perceived in the further distant field” and it is his “buildup of paint that suggests the horizontal rows of crops or diagonal furrows of the fertile Sacramento river valley” (The Collection of Allan Stone, Vol II The Art of Wayne Thiebaud, Sotheby’s, New York, May 9, 2011, p. 91).
Wayne Thiebaud’s experience as an art teacher also had a massive influence on his work. He had a true eye for painting and this ability partially “comes from a democratic belief in the equal importance of drawing, printmaking and painting that is rare among artists” (S. Nash, Thiebaud from Thiebaud: Prints and Works on Paper from the Private Studio of Wayne Thiebaud, Christie’s, New York, September 29, 2016, p. 10). He understood the fundamentals of creating a captivating work of art, from composition to the use of color and material. He recognized the importance of art history and appreciated the influence other artists had on his own vision and work. His daring color choices that “At times, (it) look(s) as if Thiebaud had picked his vibrant hues from a cosmetics counter, while at others he demonstrates an acute sensitivity to the sour tones of yellow, blue, and green found throughout California’s environs” are reminiscent of great Fauvist artists such as Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard. His paintings are made more unique through his impressive use of multiple perspective and points of view in one single work of art, creating a view that is “simultaneously aerial and direct” (J. Yau, California Landscapes: Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud, New York, 2018, p. 36). This distinctive viewpoint is prevalent in Delta Sloughs, forcing the viewer to take an extreme visual journey across the canvas and really take it all in.
Wayne Thiebaud’s ability to capture the essence of a place through his use of color, texture, composition, and light makes him an extremely recognizable and appreciated American painter. His understanding and love for this California landscape and the fundamentals of painting is rare among artists and gave his works such as Delta Sloughs a wonderfully rhythmic and serene.