Lot 750 | Edward Cucuel | Sailboats on Lake

CUCUEL, EDWARD
1875 San Francisco - 1954 Pasadena/USA

Title: Sailboats on Lake.
Technique: Oil on fibreboard.
Measurement: 37.5 x 48cm.
Notation: Signed lower left: Cucuel.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Verso:
On the plate once more signed.

Certificate:
Wolfgang Schüller, Munich, 10.03.2022.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Canada.

Edward Cucuel was born in San Francisco in 1875 and attended the School of Design there. As the son of a newspaper publisher, he began working as an illustrator at an early age, which later accompanied him for a long time in Europe. Art studies drew Cucuel to Paris, where he attended the Académie Julian, the Académie Colarossi and finally the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Influenced by academic art and the study of the Old Masters in Europe, he first went to Berlin, then settled in Munich in 1907 and now devoted himself entirely to free painting. Through the artists' group "Die Scholle" he met Leo Putz, who was considered an outstanding representative of en plein air painting and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. As his student, Cucuel regularly stayed with Putz at Chiemsee, where they worked together in the summer at Hartmannsberg Castle. The Bavarian lake landscape is a popular pictorial motif in the artist's oeuvre. In addition to his residence in Starnberg, Cucuel regularly stays in New York during the winter months. In 1939 he returned to America due to the beginning of the war and settled in Pasadena, California.

The study of outdoor painting and the works of Leo Putz inspired Cucuel and led to the development of his individual Impressionist style. The landscapes, social scenes and especially the portraits of women in the famous "Kahnbilder" are dominated by an atmospheric play of light and colour.

The painting "Sailboats on the Lake" shows an impressionistic shore landscape typical for Cucuel on the Bavarian lakes. The rapid, impasto application of paint reflects the fleeting capture of a moment that is characteristic of en plein air painting. At the center of the painting are two sailboats sailing in shallow shore water, framed by a wooded shoreline landscape. The light blue sky reflected in the water contrasts with the earthy tones of the shore and the green of the forest, creating a lively mood that captivates the viewer.