Description
Two watercolor paintings of polo players, conveying the energy and intensity of the game as they lean over their horses and dust is kicked up from the field. One watercolor shows four players, two in yellow shirts and two in green striped shirts. Two have mallets raised to hit the ball. The other watercolor shows four players charging toward the ball, two in red shirts, two in white, with a referee in the background. Pease conveys action with a loose brushy style. Both paintings are enclosed in a hand-painted border. According to a relative of Pease, he made a series of polo painting when he lived in Weston, Connecticut, making on-site watercolors at the nearby Fairfield Polo Grounds as preparatory studies for final works, usually in oil. She confirmed that there is an oil version of the composition of four riders (in yellow and green shirts) shown above.
Raymond S. Pease was a painter and illustration artist, especially of outdoor sports, including polo, and of Western subjects. Born in Vermont, he grew up with horses, and remained interested in them the rest of his life. Pease attended Grand Central Art School and the National Academy of Design in New York City, and received a B.F.A. degree from the Yale University School of Art. He also studied art in Paris at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts and Academie Julian. Pease painted portraits, still lifes, wildlife, polo scenes, a series of paintings of wild horses, scenes in Mexico and many more, in a range of media including oil, watercolor, and egg tempera. He illustrated magazines such as Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, Argosy, Adventure and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as periodicals in the Western genre. He also produced book covers of novels and science fiction books for Signet and Pocket-Books and illustrated Jeff Griffen’s encyclopedic reference book The Hunting Dogs of America (1964). A longtime member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists, he exhibited his paintings in Southern New England, New York City, and in the West, where he eventually settled, living in Arizona in the latter years of his life.
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light toning, wear, soiling. Some minor faint stray marks, typical for working illustration art, not obtrusive. Each with artist’s oval estate stamp verso.
References:
“Raymond Pease.” Adobe Gallery. http://www.adobegallery.com/artist.php?artist_id=1572 (10 October 2006).
“Re: Raymond S. Pease.” E-mail correspondence. 6 March 2007.
