Young Tree in a Red Courtyard

Artist

Oscar Bluemner

Date

1919

Medium

Watercolor on paper

Object Type

Work on Paper

Dimensions

H- 19 x W- 14 in. (48.3 x 35.6 cm)

Artist's Country of Birth

Germany

Collecting Area

American Modernism

Credit Line

The Vilcek Foundation

Accession Number

VF2023.07.06

Copyright

About the Object

A watercolor of a tree in the center of the courtyard. A halo of white paint envelopes the tree, its branches outstretched with leaves at the ends. The tree stands in a patch of sunlight, the walls of the courtyard closing in on three sides. Two other types of trees appear along the edges of the courtyard: small trees with thin trunks and leaves that read as bushes and a dark brown tree with no leaves. On the other side, two red buildings with blue roofs. Layers of white and blue in the sky.

Additional Information

A smaller version of this watercolor, about a quarter of the size, Young Tree in a Red Courtyard, 1919, is in the collection of the Smithsonian America Art Museum.

The Artist;
Private Collection;
Mr. and Mrs. Charles U. Banta;
Collection Melissa W. Banta;
[The Owings Gallery, Santa Fe, NM];
Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection, New York, NY, 2010-2023;

Possibly: New York, NY. Bourgeois Galleries. Annual Exhibition of Modern Art. February 28-March 20, 1920, np., cat. no. 3, Court-yard.

Mahwah, NJ. Ramapo College Art Gallery. Oscar Bluemner: The New Jersey Years, Drawings and Watercolors 1916-1926. October 18-November 17, 1982, pp. 7, 17, cat. no. 28, ill. front cover.

Washington, D.C. The Corcoran Gallery of Art. Oscar Bluemner: Landscapes of Sorrow and Joy (December 10, 1988-February 19, 1989); Fort Worth, TX. The Amon Carter Museum (March 18-May 14, 1989); Trenton, NJ. New Jersey State Museum (June 17-September 3, 1989); ill. p. 47, cat. no. 59.

Painting & Theory Diaries: Painting Diary, 1919-1920. Oscar Bluemner Papers, Box 1, Folder 38, Frames 25-28. Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution.

Hayes, Jeffrey R. Oscar Bluemner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. xi, 101, ill. p. 101, fig. 63.

Agee, William C. and Lewis Kachur. Masterpieces of American Modernism: From the Vilcek Collection. London: Merrell, 2013, pp. 38-39, 262, ill. p. 39.

Pochoda, Elizabeth. “Freedom and the abstract truth: Jan and Marica Vilcek’s collection of American modernist art,” The Magazine Antiques (May/June 2013), ill. p. 103, fig. 15.