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拍品专文
Born in Concord, Massachusetts, Edward Emerson Simmons studied at Harvard and was a founding member of that prestigious University’s art club. After graduation, and upon a recommendation of his famous cousin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the young man moved west to San Francisco to take up a teaching position. After returning to the east, Simmons spent a short time at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and in 1878 he traveled to Paris to begin his formal artistic education.
Simmons enrolled in the Académie Julien where he spent two years and then continued his studies at the École des Beaux Arts. Simmons blossomed under the instruction of Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre, and successfully went on to exhibit at the Paris Salon and London Royal Academy. In 1881, Simmons moved to the small, fishing town of Concarneau on the coast of Brittany, and the picturesque village French village provided him with a wealth of subject matter ranging from tonalist marine paintings to scenes of peasant life. The peasant subjects from his time spent in Concarneau demonstrate the influence of French naturalist Jules Bastien-Lepage. Drawing inspiration from the older artist, Simmons focused on capturing the bucolic simplicity of Breton life. Executed during the artist’s five year stay in the Breton fishing village, Le printemps depicts a young Breton girl walking through a field of wildflowers. Simmons has softened the background and reduced the flowering field to a more Impressionistic interpretation in order to focus the viewer’s attention on the figure of the beautiful young girl.
It is interesting to note that the title of this painting when exhibited in the 1884 Paris Salon was Le Printemps - panneau décoratif, indicating that it was never intended to have to same degree of finish as many of his other works. The looser brushwork and soft palette certainly create a dreamlike image and foreshadow Emerson’s later, more Impressionist work and his fame based upon his career as a muralist upon his return to the United States in 1886.
Simmons enrolled in the Académie Julien where he spent two years and then continued his studies at the École des Beaux Arts. Simmons blossomed under the instruction of Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre, and successfully went on to exhibit at the Paris Salon and London Royal Academy. In 1881, Simmons moved to the small, fishing town of Concarneau on the coast of Brittany, and the picturesque village French village provided him with a wealth of subject matter ranging from tonalist marine paintings to scenes of peasant life. The peasant subjects from his time spent in Concarneau demonstrate the influence of French naturalist Jules Bastien-Lepage. Drawing inspiration from the older artist, Simmons focused on capturing the bucolic simplicity of Breton life. Executed during the artist’s five year stay in the Breton fishing village, Le printemps depicts a young Breton girl walking through a field of wildflowers. Simmons has softened the background and reduced the flowering field to a more Impressionistic interpretation in order to focus the viewer’s attention on the figure of the beautiful young girl.
It is interesting to note that the title of this painting when exhibited in the 1884 Paris Salon was Le Printemps - panneau décoratif, indicating that it was never intended to have to same degree of finish as many of his other works. The looser brushwork and soft palette certainly create a dreamlike image and foreshadow Emerson’s later, more Impressionist work and his fame based upon his career as a muralist upon his return to the United States in 1886.