Amazing Will Henry Stevens seashore watercolor. 20 x 16 inches. Provenance: private owner.
Biography: 1881 - 1949. During his career, Stevens captured the spirit of the Southern landscape from the highlands of Appalachia to the lowlands and deltas of Louisiana. His faithful commune with nature began in early boyhood and lasted his entire life, providing the inspiration for thousands of exquisite paintings. Proficient in a variety of media, Stevens poetic vision is reflected in oil, tempera, watercolor and pastels that he crafted by hand. His quiet intelligence, keen vision, modernist disposition and technical mastery are seen throughout his body of work.Stevens drew and painted simultaneously in two styles -- one abstract, influenced by Klee and Kandinsky, and the other a lyrical body of work that is more traditional. He was a pioneer of modernism in the American South, and his representational work and objective abstractions reflect his deep love of nature, particularly the bayou and mountains. The geometry he found in nature was easily translated by him into non-objective abstractions as well.Stevens was born in Vevay, Indiana in 1881. As a young painter he studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy and the Art Students League in New York City. While living briefly in New York, he had several one-man shows at the New Gallery where he was befriended by such artists as Albert Pinkam Ryder. In 1921 Stevens moved to New Orleans, where he became a professor of art at Sophie Newcomb College, now part of Tulane University. He traveled to the mountains in the summers, where he painted primarily in east Tennessee and western North Carolina.Stevens died in 1949 after retiring and moving back to Vevay. The work of Will Henry Stevens is represented in major museum collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans, LA), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA), Louisiana Arts and Science Center (Baton Rouge), Greenville County Museum of Art (SC), Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, TN) and Morris Museum of Art (Augusta, GA).

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In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

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Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

Mint