Richard A. de Menocal (1919-1995)
Desk Objects Still Life
American: c. 1970s
Signed verso: "De Menocal 255"
Watercolor and gouache on paper
11.25 x 14.5 inches, image
12 x 15 inches sheet, overall
18.5 x 21.5 inches, gilt frame
$1,500

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Watercolor still life in vibrant colors of a group of desk objects, from left to right, an ink bottle with red stem pen inserted, a bottle of mucilage glue, old stamps, a roll of string, scissors, and a bottle with pencils, all artistically arranged on a winding roll of brown paper, on a desk ledge, with green background.  Perhaps this was a study of objects on the artist’s desk.   This painting appears to relate to the artist’s still-life works done in the 1970s and 1980s, bearing stylistic similarities to two works by the artist in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, both gifts of the Sara Roby Foundation.

The Smithsonian Institution has the following online biography of the artist from the catalog of the Sara Roby Foundation collection:

De Menocal graduated from the school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  During his early career he drew illustrations for Condé Nast publications, organized displays for the Lord and Taylor department store in New York City, and created costume designs for Radio City Music Hall.  He had his first solo exhibition in 1951, and continued to show in this country even after moving to Brazil.  In the 1960s de Menocal withdrew from the secular world and spent over a decade at the Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, and later with the Trappists in Derryville, Virginia, and Spencer, Massachusetts.  After leaving the monastery he settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and returned to painting.  In the still life arrangements for which he is best known, de Menocal is concerned with quietude of mood and with formal issues of balance and tone.

Condition:  Generally very good, the colors rich, with only light toning and wear.  In custom whitewash linen, 8-ply mat with gilt bevel mounted in a vintage associated gilt wood frame (possibly as prepared by artist).  Frame slightly distressed, but pleasing overall with this work.

Reference:

Mecklenburg, Virginia M.; Essay By William Kloss.   Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection.  Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1987.  p. 48. Online at http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=1205 (9 August 2006).