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| Carle Johann Blenner was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1864. He was educated at Marburg, Germany, and graduated from the Yale University Art School. His studies continued at the Academie Julian in Paris for six years. From the 1890s, he maintained a working studio on 57th Street in New York City for more than fifty years. Blenner's talent was recognized in the United States early on, as two of his paintings were selected for exhibition at the important 1893 Chicago World's Fair Columbian Exposition. He also exhibited regularly at the National Academy of Design and won the prestigious Hallgarten Prize in 1899. The early years for Blenner were also his most successful commercially, as he was in high demand as a portraitist of the wealthy, titled and famous. He eventually settled in Connecticut. Details of Blenner's early success appear in an article from Pearson's Magazine, dated to October of 1901: “As he is only just over thirty years of age, and has already established a reputation, he has won an envied place among his fellow artists; but no one grudges him his good fortune, for he is a hard worker, and devotes himself entirely to his art.”1 Blenner was equally adept at floral still-life, figurative, and landscape work. Indian Summer is a little gem that presents a fine example of his painterly realistic style. The painting presents a humble landscape, created with carefully flecked brushwork in autumnal tones. The heavy paint application creates a uniformly broad composition that calls attention to the canvas’s two-dimensions, but a sense of space is suggested by the scene’s tonal organization. The painterly technique adds soft movement to the composition, reminiscent of the crisp winds that carry leaves across the New England countryside on an autumn day. Blenner was a member of several prominent art clubs and organizations including, the American Federation of Artists, the Greenwich Academy of Fine Arts, the Greenwich Art Association, the New Haven Paint and Clay Club, the Newport Art Association, Rhode Island, the Salmagundi Club, New York City, and the Washington Arts Club, Washington, D.C. Provenance: From the trade to the gallery. |
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