Spruce

Snow

Important work

ARTIST:

Spruce, Everett b.1908 d. 2002


Technique:

Lithograph


Paper:

Printed on creamy wove (possibly yellowed with age) 20.7 x 25.5 cm


Condition:

The paper is in good condition. There were handling creases and a yellowish stain on the left hand side. This has been treated. The image itself has not been blemished at all. The work has been custom framed.


Realisation / Publication:

The edition for this work is not clearly known but is believed that less than 40 were made and the work offered here could be a HC (Hors Commerce) or an Artist’s Proof. Confirmation of the numbered print in the Dallas Museum of Art confirms that the number made was 34. It is unlikely that a larger number was printed after this.


Reference / Literature:

see inventory of Dallas Museum of Art, see also http://flashbackdallas.com/category/weather/


Provenance:

Estate of Everett Spruce, Texas, Valley House Gallery, Dallas,Texas, 2014. Current owner 2015


Asking:

Contact for price


Salon considers this lithograph by Texan artist Everett Spruce, one of the most important in the inventory. It is not for the fame of the artist, but for the power of the artist’s pictorial language. It is a special; work whose energy is invested in the shapes used to convey life where there is seemingly none. Being a Texan, Spruce recorded the terrain, the surrounds, all aspects of the natural world. Essentially Spruce was interested in mapping his home. This work titled “Snow” is possibly an artist’s proof, (normally noted as a AP) or a HC (Hors Commerce) given that it is not signed, yet it is undoubtedly by his hand.  This same lithograph is in collection of the Dallas Museum of Art and is signed and dated, 8/34 confirming that the edition made was in 1938 and was small. The same collection boasts another work by Spruce titled Rainy Day, dated 1944.  Both works thematically document the extremes in Texan weather, with Rainy Day having been based on historical fact - massive falls in precipitation ending a long drought.  While “Snow” is also in a sense documenting the conditions beyond mortal control, the work is highly suggestive of “American Gothic” by Grant Woods[1] painted in 1930. One of the messages Woods wished his work to impart to the viewer is that people in rural areas are first and foremost survivors.

In Spruce’s representation of the landscape, humans are conspicuous in their absence, yet survival as a theme pervades the imagery. This is typified by the barren, craggy tree, foregrounded and dominant amidst the largely sparse surrounds brought on by winter, and the menacing murder of crows, some in mid air, having made the tree their temporary abode. The stark nature accentuated by contrast of dark and light, with snow as far as the eye can see, lends the image an eerie resonance. As a motif, the tree, (also foregrounded and centred in Rainy Day) was one of Spruce’s favourite motifs and figures prominently. In this instance, the tree has both secular and Biblical implications. In referencing nature, Spruce reminds viewers of necessity to persevere, despite the hostile conditions, yet there is glimpses of new life sprouting from the beneath the blanket of snow. In Spruce’s world, the world keeps turning. Powerful and evocative work indeed.

[1] This very famous work can be found in the Art Institute of Chicago.