John Louis Wellington (American 1878-1965) Original Watercolor, Wooded View, Greenland Gap, WV area c. 1930-40s. Signed lower right. Framed and matted, under glass. In Frame measures 20x17x.1". Weight 3 pds 2 oz. PROVENANCE: A Cumberland Maryland and Charleston South Carolina Private Estate. Mr. Wellington was a personal family friend of this Estate. Best known as a watercolorist, Mr. Wellington exhibited numerous times in New York and Philadelphia. His work has been shown in several annual exhibitions of the American Watercolor Society at the National Academy Galleries, New York, and also in several exhibitions with the Allied Artists of America in New York. Wellington entries have been given prominent places in the Philadelphia Watercolor Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and in shows of the Washington Watercolor Club. He appears in Mallett, Index of Artists, and in Who’s Who in American Art. References: Johnlouiswellington.com and biography from C. William Gilchrist of the Gilchrist Gallery and Museum. The works of John L. Wellington follow in the tradition of many distinguished American artists of an earlier, less hurried era. They show his love of the land and his understanding of the beauty that lies in quiet rural scenes and commonplace events of the countryside, the village and the town. Born in Cumberland, Maryland, in 1878, he graduated from Princeton University in 1901. He wanted to study art in Europe, but his father, United States Senator George L Wellington, a dominant figure in two Cumberland banks, inevitably directed his career into the banking field which he followed until his retirement. Denied the formal training he wished, and largely self-taught, he spent his vacations taking instruction in various phases of art. He enjoyed working with other artists in such summer colonies as Cape Cod, Provincetown and the Berkshires, and the winter vacation at Sarasota. His paintings reflect the variety of his interests. He found his subjects in a crowd of shoppers on a Cumberland street, on the dock in Provincetown, by the country roads, streams and mountains of Western Maryland and in the south branch of the Potomac. John Wellington was truly a native artist, who painted for his own self-development and knowledge, without thought of financial gain or recognition. A severe stroke in 1939 forced his retirement from business. His right side paralyzed, and speech difficult, he trained his left hand to replace the skill of his right, and continued his search for excellence in painting until his death in 1965.

good, toning to mat only