Irving Ramsey Wiles (American, 1861-1948), "Girl with Bonnet", oil on canvas, signed lower left "Irving R. Wiles", 48" x 28". Presented in a period giltwood frame affixed with artist plaque. Provenance: Christie's, Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries, New York, May 23, 1990, lot 50; The Estate of Elaine Smith Frost White, Houston, Texas and East Hampton, New York. Exhibited: Chapellier Galleries, New York, Irving Ramsey Wiles, November 1967, no. 27, illustrated. "His art has originality...the attitudes possessing both the grace of naturalness, and, what is not quite the same thing, the naturalness of grace." Theodore Dreiser, Metropolitan Magazine, April 1898. Wiles was considered one of the pre-eminent portrait painters of Gilded Age America, often mentioned in artistic circles alongside John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), and his instructor, mentor, and eventual friend William Merritt Chase (1849-1916). Employing a rich color palette and an expressive, yet controlled, brushstroke, Wiles produced luminous portraits which reveal an integral understanding and appreciation of the interplay of light and shadow. As the artist once stated, "Color is whatever light makes it, and light changes and transfers everything - color, line, everything. Light is beauty." His portraits emphasize the elegance and refinement of his sitters, yet never at the expense of the personality and individuality of his sitters. Wile's reputation was so strong, and he was considered such an accomplished painter by his peers, that the dying William Merritt Chase asked him to complete an unfinished portrait of his wife and child. The painting, "Mrs. Chase and R. D. Chase", was signed jointly by both men at the insistence of the Chase family. Wiles received his initial training from his father, the landscapist Lemuel M. Wiles (1826-1905), before moving to New York to study at the Art Students League with Chase and James Carroll Beckwith (1852-1917). In 1882, he traveled to Paris, spending several months at the Academie Julien before entering the atelier of the great "high society" portraitist Carolus-Duran (1837-1917). He returned permanently to New York in 1884, making periodic study trips to Europe. Wiles exhibited extensively throughout his career, and was awarded many of the most significant and prestigious art awards, most notably the Hallgarten and Thomas B. Clark Prizes of the National Academy, the Shaw Fund Prize of the Society of American Artists, the Lippincott prize from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts Annual of 1922, and countless silver, bronze and gold medals from the various world Expositions. He was a member of numerous art associations, including the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Society of American Artists, the National Association of Portrait Painters, and the American Watercolor Association. In 1889, he was made an Associate of the National Academy of Design and was named a full member in 1897. References: Harper's Monthly Magazine (1904), Vol. CIX, No. DCXLIX, p. 802 and illustrations.; Pisano, Ronald G. William Merritt Chase, Vol. 2. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.; "Art of Irving Ramsey Wiles", The Albrecht Gallery - Museum of Art, Missouri, Exhibition Catalogue, April 8-May 30, 1971.; "The National Association of Portrait Painters". Art and Progress (May 1915), Vol. 6, No. 7, pp. 237-239.

In overall very good condition. Small dimple at upper left edge where canvas meets frame. Small vertical line at mid-left area which fluoresces very faintly under UV light, likely due to imperfection in canvas. No visible signs of past restoration; painting has not been relined.