B.J.O. Nordfeldt - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, October 24, 2023 | Phillips

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  • “Pictures are like poems. A good poem doesn’t tell a story; it contains beauty of rhythm.”
    —B.J.O. Nordfeldt

     

    Like many of his fellow Provincetown Printers, Nordfeldt took significant inspiration from the canon of French art history, having previously lived in Paris before returning to the United States following the outbreak of the first World War. It was in Paris that Nordfeldt first became acquainted with processes of printmaking, which had shifted from its traditionally reproductive role to an elevated status of fine art in France by the late 1880’s.1 Continuing his admiration for the creative climate of France, and the artists it produced, the present print sees Nordfeldt cast his gaze towards bathers, a subject which famously engaged the Post-Impressionists and served as a common scene on the Provincetown shores.

     

    Henri Matisse, Le Bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life), 1905-1906, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. Image: © The Barnes Foundation / Bridgeman Images, Artwork: © 2023 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

    As the pioneer of the white-line woodcut technique, Bathers exhibits a masterful early utilization of the methodology, from the delicate lines that distinguish details in the bather’s backs, to the bold forms and bright color, perhaps emulating the figurative style of Henri Matisse.2 Matisse’s work, which Nordfeldt likely would have seen during his time in Europe, may have also inspired Nordfeldt to explore the expressive possibilities of color and form as an element of his printing process.Bathers, in particular, exhibits similarities to one of Matisse's most famous canvases, Le Bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life), executed between 1905 and 1906. Nordfeldt's lounging bather is depicted in the same reclining pose as Matisse's central figure, both gazing out towards action in the distance. Nordfeldt also embraces a more Fauvist use of color than was typical in America at this time, tinting the natural scene with brighter, more expressive tones, his trees washed with shades of  teal and azure. 

     

    Paul Cézanne, The Large Bathers (Les grandes baigneuses), c. 1894–1906, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. Image: Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation, Merion and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Many Provincetown Printers took further inspiration from the Fauvist use of color, utilizating brilliant hues in nonnaturalistic ways that freed artists from the confines of realism, resulting in vividly expressionistic compositions. While drawing from the robust history of French painting, the landscape and dazzling quality of light in Provincetown would have additionally contributed to Nordfeldt’s use of such intense colors, as Cape Cod shaped the aesthetic of so many Provincetown Printers in terms of light, color, and subject. Influenced by both sides of the Atlantic, Bathers illustrates not only the undeniable impact of French artistry on the Provincetown printers, but the ways in which the small Massachusetts town proved to be an equal creative guide. 

     

     

    1 University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, The Woodblock Prints of B.J.O. Nordfeldt, 1991, p. 20

    Barbara Stern Shapiro, Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, 2002, p. 13

    University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, The Woodblock Prints of B.J.O. Nordfeldt, 1991, p. 52

    • Exhibited

      University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, The Woodblock Prints of B.J.O. Nordfeldt, January 7 - March 22, 1991 (this impression)
      Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, From Paris to Provincetown: Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, January 23 - April 29, 2002 (this impression)
      The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, From Paris to Provincetown: Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, May 19 - July 28, 2002 (this impression)
      Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, From Paris to Provincetown: Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, September 7 - November 3, 2002 (this impression)

    • Literature

      Fiona Donovan, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, The Woodblock Prints of B.J.O. Nordfeldt, 1991, cat. no. 20 (this impression)
      Barbara Stern Shapiro, Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, 2002, cat. no. 110, p. 13 (this impression)

Property from a Distinguished Maryland Estate

2

Bathers (D. 20)

circa 1916
White-line woodcut in colors, on laid paper, with margins.
I. 9 x 10 in. (22.9 x 25.4 cm)
S. 14 5/8 x 13 1/8 in. (37.1 x 33.3 cm)

Signed and annotated 'imp' in pencil, additionally titled 'Bathers.' in the lower left margin (the 'B' partially trimmed), framed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$6,000 - 9,000 

Sold for $22,860

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Editions@phillips.com
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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 24-26 October 2023