Russell Cheney (1881-1945). "Place de la Concorde, Paris", 1914. Oil on artist board. Signed & inscribed "Paris '14", lower right. Dimensions: 13" x 16"; framed: 15 1/2" x 18 1/2". Condition: Good. This painting not only documents the Place de la Concorde in Paris as it looked in 1914, but is executed during Cheney’s study in Paris right after his first selection into the Paris Salon of 1911. A cloudy day rendered in his loosely painted style, it is a fine example of the artist's work. In 1907, Cheney embarked for Paris where he studied under Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian. Laurens (1838–1921) was a history teacher whose ultra-realistic works strove for photographic clarity. Cheney seldom attempted this academic realism in his own work. While he was in Paris, Cheney reconnected with his first teacher from Hartford, the Maine-born artist Walter Griffin (1861–1935), who had also studied under Jean-Paul Laurens. Griffin, who was a close friend of Childe Hassam, became a mentor to Cheney, who was twenty years his junior. In later years they were to paint together in the south of France.Born in South Manchester, Connecticut in 1881, he was the grandson of artist John Cheney. Following graduation from Yale in 1904, Cheney studied at the ASL in NYC under Chase, Cox, and Woodbury, and in Paris at Académie Julian. Most of Cheney's career was spent in the East; however, bouts with tuberculosis forced him to seek warmer climates. Active in California from 1916, he often painted in Santa Barbara where his sister lived. He died in Kittery, Maine on July 12, 1945.Exh: Paris Salon, 1911; San Francisco Art Association, 1916-18; Nicholson Gallery (Pasadena), 1926; Babcock Gallery (NYC), 1927. This painting is from the Thomas and Teresa Russell collection of overlooked American region artists assembled in the 1970’s.

Good

15.5 x 18.5 in

3 lb