Carl Gustaf Simon Nelson (1898-1988)
Pair of Sailboats
American: 1933
Signed lower left and dated 1933
Watercolor on paper
14 x 17 inches each
$1,500, the pair
Pair of Carl Nelson Sailboat Watercolors
Louis C. Tiffany Long Island Residence
Louis C. Tiffany Long Island Residence
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This pair of watercolors of sailboats was painted by Carl Nelson during his fellowship at Laurelton Hall, the Long Island residence of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Nelson received Tiffany Foundation awards from 1931 to 1933. When these paintings were made, Nelson was on the verge of receiving wider recognition for his work, exhibiting in major museum group exhibitions. The works are in an open, modernist style, leaving the white of the page showing through, with expressive calligraphic brushwork conveying sparkling light and motion.
Carl Gustaf Simon Nelson was a prolific American painter and printmaker, as well as a respected art teacher. His subjects included landscapes, still life and religious themes. Nelson emigrated from Sweden to the United States as a boy, and though he spent his childhood in Iowa, he is associated with New England, where he lived and worked for most of his long life, especially Boston and Cranberry Island, Maine. In the 1920s, he studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art and Art Student's League in New York City, and by the mid 1930s he was exhibiting in prestigious venues including the Whitney Museum Biennial, Carnegie International, Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He is well known for his pictures of New York City. Nelson had numerous exhibits during his life, and his works are in numerous museum collections, including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts. As an interesting aside, a photograph of Nelson’s expressive craggy face appears on the cover of the 1993 Newberry Award-winning novel The Giver.
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) was the founder of the Tiffany Glass Company in 1885, which became the leading American producer of fine art glass during the Art Nouveau era. In 1918, he established a foundation for young artists and increasingly withdrew to his country home Laurelton Hall on Long Island. He died in 1933 at the age of 85.
References:
Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1985. p. 445.
Komusin, Bruce and Wadsworth, Charles. “Carl Gustaf Nelson.” The Cranberry Isles, Maine. http://www.cranberryisles.com/photos/carl_nelson.html (28 June 2004).
“Louis C. Tiffany: Masterpieces of American Art Nouveau.” March 1999. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg. http://mkg-hamburg.de/ausstell/98_tiffa/tiffanye.htm (28 June 2004).
Lowry, Lois. “Books: Carl Nelson.” Lois Lowry. 2002. http://www.loislowry.com/nelson.html (28 June 2004).