Ben (Robert Benjamin) Norris (1910-2006) Landscape with Norfolk Pines signed and dated 'Ben Norris 1945' (lower right) watercolor on paper sheet size 13 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (34.3 x 52.0 cm) Executed in 1945. Footnotes: Provenance By descent in the family of the artist. N.B. Robert Benjamin Norris was born in southern California and studied at Pomona College, Harvard, and the Sorbonne. He painted both throughout California and in Hawaii, where he moved in 1936. He became Chairman of the Art Department at the University of Hawaii after World War II. Norris's work was greatly influenced by the abstraction and surrealism of artists like Josef Albers and Max Ernst, as well as by Eastern and Quaker spirituality. He was best known for his watercolor works and, despite his being located primarily in Hawaii, identified for his whole career as a member of the Southern California Watercolor School. His landscapes of southern California and Hawaii are heavily atmospheric and take on an almost abstract character in their fluid strokes and rich colors, qualities that are epitomized in the present work. Lot to be sold without reserve. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ¤ ¤ Unless indicated by the ¤ symbol next to the lot number (or bearing an explicit statement such as 'No Reserve' or 'Without Reserve'), which denotes no reserve, all lots in the catalog are subject to a reserve. The reserve is the minimum hammer price that the seller is willing to accept for a lot. This amount is confidential and does not exceed the low estimate value. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing