Roger King Fine Art

Features R.I. Artists

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Helena Sturtevant (1872–1946), “St  George’s School, Middletown, Rhode Island,” 1926, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 25 by 30 inches.

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ROGER KING FINE ART RHODE ISLAND ARTISTS, July–September

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NEWPORT, R.I. — “Rhode Island Artists, 1900 to 1950,” an exhibit of paintings by Rhode Island artists from the first half of the Twentieth Century, is now showing at Roger King Fine Art. Inspired by a group of recent acquisitions, it features works by Anna Richards Brewster, Antonio Cirino, Sydney Burleigh, George Hays, Charles Walter Stetson, Helena Sturtevant, Frederick Batcheller, Bryant Chapin and H. Anthony Dyer.

By 1900, Providence was home to some of the finest painters in New England, many of whom were influenced by modern art movements and experimented in new styles. The strong influence of the Fall River School with its old-fashioned, mid-Nineteenth Century style of still life painting persisted in works by Batcheller and Chapin.

The French Barbizon School that had so influenced landscape painter Edward Bannister was overtaken by the more intense vision of the tonalist, symbolist and Arts and Crafts movements, in which the works of Charles Stetson figure prominently. He was a colleague of Sydney Burleigh, whose humorous vignettes are a counterpoint to Stetson’s moody work.

Local artists continued to travel abroad in search of new subjects, as American artists had done for decades. Hezekiah Anthony Dyer and Anna Brewster made frequent trips to Europe, memorializing their visits in dozens of paintings. George Hays was one of the few content to remain at home, painting bucolic scenes with cattle and sheep on which his reputation was built.

As the century progressed, American artists turned enthusiastically to native themes. The paintings of Antonio Cirino, who taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and was a founder of the Rockport Art Association, embody the style identified with the Rockport colony. Though the subjects are traditional, Cirino’s combination of vivid colors and strong brushstrokes convey a sense of movement and pulsating energy that has come to be identified with mid-Twentieth Century painting.

Roger King Fine Art is on the second and third floors of 21 Bowen’s Wharf. For information, 401-847-4359 or www.rkingfinearts.com.