old jail art center
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Lucien Abrams: An Impressionist From Texas – Exhibition CatalogueTRANSCRIPT
Lucien AbramsA N I M P R E S S I O N I S T F R O M T E X A S
An exhibition organized by The Old Jail Art Center, Albany, Texas
LUCIEN ABRAMSCover (DETAIL) Untitled [City Waterfront], n.d. & Frontispiece Oil on canvas, 18.25 x 21.25 inches
Private Collection
Lucien AbramsA N I M P R E S S I O N I S T F R O M T E X A S
THE OLD JAIL ART CENTER • ALBANY, TEXASJune 1 – September 1, 2013
PANHANDLE-PLAINS HISTORICAL MUSEUM • CANYON, TEXASSeptember 14, 2013 – February 14, 2014
FLORENCE GRISWOLD MUSEUM • OLD LYME, CONNECTICUTMarch 21 – June 1, 2014
Michael R. Grauer, Guest Curator
PANHANDLE-PLAINS HISTORICAL MUSEUM2503 4th Avenue • Canyon, Texas 79015panhandleplains.org • 806.651.2244
FLORENCE GRISWOLD MUSEUM96 Lyme Street • Old Lyme, Connecticut 06371flogris.org • 860.434.5542
THE OLD JAIL ART CENTER201 S. 2nd • Albany, Texas 76430theoldjailartcenter.org • 325.762.2269
The catalogue and exhibition have been generously sponsored by:
Cynthia and Bill GaydenJimmy MusselmanSally Blanton PorterExhibition Fund of The Old Jail Art Center
Russ and Liz Fleischer
We also wish to thank the trustees and staff of our partner museums in this project:
Florence Griswold MuseumPanhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction 6by Margaret Blagg
Lucien Abrams: An Impressionist from Texas 9by Michael R. Grauer
Color Plates 19
Exhibition Checklist 34
Lenders to the Exhibition and Credits 40
6
Introductionb y M a r g a r e t B l a g g , I N T E R I M D I R E C TO R , T H E O L D JA I L A RT C E N T E R
THE OLD JAIL ART CENTER, SITUATED IN RURAL WEST TEXAS, may seem
an unlikely museum to organize an exhibition of the work of such an urbane artist
as Lucien Abrams, who was at home in Connecticut, Dallas, San Antonio, New York
City, Paris, and North Africa. He, however, would have appreciated the collection
of the Old Jail, which comprises Asian and Pre-Columbian art and artifacts as well as
European and American art. His own art sits easily with the museum’s Fantin-Latour
still life, Renoir nude, Caillebotte landscape, and Boudin harbor scene—works by
artists whom he no doubt admired, most of whom were still alive and painting when
he arrived in France in 1894.
This is not the first group of Abrams’s work to be shown at the museum. In 2001,
we mounted a small exhibition of the charming Christmas cards he and members
of the second generation of American Impressionists in Connecticut’s Old Lyme
Colony made and exchanged annually. That glimpse into his work and career piqued
my interest when I was director and I subsequently proposed the idea of an Abrams
show to the Exhibitions Committee, knowing that it would take a fairly long lead
time to research and present.
Years later, the exhibition finally made it onto the schedule, with the welcome
addition of Michael Grauer as guest curator. Grauer, who had just completed
curating Texas Impressionism, was eager to learn more about Abrams, most of whose
work remains in private hands. He requested that the exhibition travel to the
museum where he is curator—the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon,
Texas—after it closed in Albany. We enthusiastically agreed and he began his research.
It is impossible to look at Abrams’s work without delving into the Old Lyme
Colony. From 1900 through the 1930s, Old Lyme was the site of an active art colony,
attracting scores of artists each summer, some of whom, like Abrams, eventually settled
in the area. In the earliest years, American Impressionists such as Childe Hassam and
Willard Metcalf made Old Lyme their summer retreat, attracted to the quaint New
England town and its varied coastal landscape. Situated on the Connecticut River
where it empties into Long Island Sound, the Old Lyme area offers beach and bluff,
marsh, meadow, and forest—a wealth of subjects for outdoor sketching and painting.
7
Florence Griswold (1850-1937), who turned her family home in Old Lyme into
an inn, was the guiding light of the art colony. She encouraged “her boys,” as she
called her artist friends, by exhibiting and selling their work in her hallway gallery
and generously extending credit to them when they needed it. Miss Florence, who
understood public taste and had a practiced and critical eye, was invaluable to the
local and seasonal artists of Old Lyme. Her obituary in The New York Times stated,
“the memory of this gracious and generous spirit survives; and not in the Griswold
House alone, but as part of no inconsiderable chapter in the history of our native
art.” Her home is now the Florence Griswold Museum, a thriving repository and
legacy of Old Lyme Colony work. Grauer contacted the museum in the course of
his research and began discussions with Jeff Andersen about taking the Abrams
exhibition following its run in Texas.
Thus is Abrams’s work now being shown in two states he called home. Visitors
to our three museums will discover a “native son” of sorts, claiming him for Texas
or Connecticut at will. The work of this Texas/American Impressionist will no longer
be unknown.
I am particularly grateful to the family of Lucien Abrams for sharing precious work
with us for the exhibition. Michael Grauer, working on time borrowed undoubtedly
from his sleep bank, was an invaluable partner who tracked down countless research
leads to reconstruct and present a talent almost lost to the public. Jeff Andersen
and his Florence Griswold Museum staff completed the circle with unfailing support.
Cynthia and Bill Gayden and Sally Blanton Porter underwrote the catalogue, ensuring
documentation for this groundbreaking exhibition. Other generous sponsors include
Jimmy Musselman and Russ and Liz Fleischer. Patrick Kelly, OJAC Curator of
Exhibitions, shepherded the project on our end, with the assistance of Registrar Amy
Kelly, and designed and installed the exhibition in Albany. The Old Jail Board of
Trustees is proud to have supported a project that highlights a name too long dimmed
on the art history rolls.
9
PERHAPS THE ONLY TEXAS ARTIST TO BE CLEARLY IDENTIFIED WITH
AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM DURING ITS ZENITH WAS LUCIEN ABRAMS
(1870-1941). A landscape, figure, and still life painter as well as a trained architect,
Abrams became a member of the art colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut in 1914. This
is significant for Abrams because by this time “the artistic identification of Old Lyme
[had] turned to Impressionism,” and Old Lyme became the “American Giverny.”1
Born at Lawrence, Kansas, Abrams moved to Texas with his family in 1874, first to
Marshall, Texas, then to Dallas by 1883. Lucien’s father, William Henry Abrams (1843-
1926), a Civil War veteran and land commissioner for the Kansas Pacific Railway, took
a position in Marshall with the Texas and Pacific Railway from 1873 to 1875. W. H.
Abrams later worked for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway in extending their lines
from Fort Worth to El Paso and from Marshall to New Orleans. As land agent for the
Texas & Pacific Land Trust, he sold some four million acres of Texas lands in West
and East Texas, given by the State of Texas for railroad rights of way. He later leased
thousands of acres for oil and gas development in the Permian Basin and in East Texas.
His Abrams No. 1 oil well established the West Columbia oil field in Brazoria County,
Texas. A prominent Dallas citizen, W. H. helped found the Dallas Club and supported
other civic organizations in Dallas.
Lucien’s mother, Ella Murray Harris Abrams (1845-1918), a Virginian, was the
daughter of William A. Harris, U.S. Minister to Argentina and a U.S. Congressman. She
and William had two other sons, Clarence (1873-1902) and Harold (1885-1938).2 Ella
Abrams maintained grand homes, first in Lawrence, Kansas and later at 2628 Maple
Avenue in Dallas. The Dallas home where Lucien grew up had ornately carved
woodwork and was furnished with fine furniture and carpets, decorative arts, fine art
reproductions, and original paintings. Ella Abrams helped organize and was first
president of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Club in 1901 and helped found the Dallas
Art Association in 1903. Coincidentally, the first work of art purchased by the fledgling
Dallas Art Association was Childe Hassam’s September Moonrise (1900).3 Hassam
(1859-1935) was a major figure in American Impressionism and especially at Old
Lyme, where he and Abrams later knew each other.
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texasby Michael R . Grauer , A S S O C I AT E D I R E C TO R F O R C U R ATO R I A L A F FA I R S
C U R ATO R O F A RT, PA N H A N D L E - P L A I N S H I STO R I C A L M U S E U M
TEXAS ROOTS
ACADÉMI ES 10
After completing studies at Dallas schools, Lucien Abrams attended Beloit College
(Wisconsin), where his father had matriculated, then transferred to and graduated from
Princeton University in 1892 with a degree in architecture. Intent on becoming a painter,
Abrams then studied at the Art Students League (ASL) in New York from October 1892
to May 1894. His instructors at the ASL included J. H. Twachtman, William Merritt
Chase, Frank Vincent DuMond, Kenyon Cox, J. Carroll Beckwith, and probably, J. Alden
Weir.4 Twachtman, Chase, DuMond, and Weir are today considered core American
Impressionists. Abrams took four classes under DuMond, including two sketch classes
and two “antique” classes. He also studied painting under Chase and Weir.
Some of his ASL instructors had connections to rural Connecticut. In 1902,
DuMond (1865-1951) began directing the Lyme Summer School of Art. Whereas
the school moved from Old Lyme, Connecticut, to Woodstock, New York in 1906,
DuMond purchased a home at Old Lyme that same year. Weir began painting in
the Connecticut countryside in 1888 and painted Impressionist landscapes for 40
summers on his Branchville and Windham, Connecticut, farms. Twachtman (1853-
1902) acquired his own Connecticut farm in 1889, and the surrounding area became
his Impressionist muse. Chase (1849-1916) spent summers at Shinnecock on Long
Island from 1891 to 1902. He directed the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art,
a school devoted to plein air painting.
ARCHIVAL PHOTO1 Example of Abrams’s ornate furnishings
Studio – Paris, 1910Courtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
11 ACADÉMI ES
Following in the footsteps of his instructors at the Art Students League, Lucien
Abrams in 1894 traveled to France to study. Due to its nearly insurmountably rigorous
entrance requirements, the official École des Beaux-Arts rarely accepted non-French
students. Private ateliers in Paris offered courses of study preparatory to applying to the
École, taught by academic juste milieu instructors at the École who
steered a middle course between more avant-garde art movements
and styles acceptable to the École and the public.
Beginning in August 1894, Abrams studied at the Académie
Julian, one of the most successful—and most popular, especially
with Americans—of Paris’s petits ateliers, run by Rodolphe Julian
(1839-1907).5 Julian’s spaces scattered in several arrondissements
around Paris were crowded with international students jostling
for room to draw and paint from the human figure and to receive
criticisms from instructors who appeared periodically. Arguments
were common; fisticuffs were not rare; teasing was constant.
Abrams studied at the Académie Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens
(1838-1921) and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902).
Laurens, a disciple of the French academic tradition, painted murals
and was one of France’s last great history painters. Benjamin-
Constant, a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts, began his career
as an Orientaliste who depicted exotic scenes and figures from the
Near and Middle East, but who turned to mural painting and portraits while Abrams
studied with him.
Abrams also studied at the Académie Colarossi, founded by the Italian sculptor
Filippo Colarossi, where he received criticisms from Louis-Joseph-Raphael Collin
(1850-1916). Another academic painter and muralist, Collin began to incorporate
Impressionist techniques into his work by the 1890s. Collin also mentored at the
Académie Colarossi the first group of Japanese painters to study in Paris, just before
Abrams arrived there. Japanese painting, in turn, influenced Collin’s own work.
Abrams studied briefly at J.M.W. Whistler’s short-lived Académie Carmen in Paris.
Founded in October 1898 and run by its namesake, Whistler’s model Carmen Rossi,
the Académie Carmen offered separate classes for men and women. Inez Addams was the
massiere (student supervisor), with Whistler (1834-1903) contributing occasionally. The
Académie Carmen closed in April 1901.6
Living in Europe from 1894 to 1914, Abrams returned to the United States for a
few months at a time each year from 1899 to 1903. For example, in 1900 he lived in Fort
ARCHIVAL PHOTO2 Image labeled by Abrams
My studio windows, Belgium, 1904Courtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
Worth, Texas, for six months. Abrams spent 1907 painting at Mystic, Connecticut;
New York City; Monhegan Island, Maine; and Rockport, Massachusetts. His painting
Untitled [Beach with Three Women] was likely done on Monhegan and echoes the
paintings of such other Monhegan painters as Winslow Homer and Frederick Waugh.
Maintaining a studio in Paris, he painted in several parts of Europe and
in North Africa for months at a time. He painted in Italy for several months in
1896; Belgium and The Netherlands in 1900 and 1902; Spain in 1901 (where he
studied Velásquez); in France, at Brittany, Pouldu, Normandy, and Pont Aven
in 1902, 1905, and 1912; and Algeria for four months in 1905. From 1908 on,
Abrams painted mostly in France’s Provence region, primarily near Cassis, Martigues,
and Marseille. During
his extensive travels
throughout Europe
until about 1914, he
studied the Old Masters
and de veloped a keen
sense of connoisseur-
ship. For instance,
Abrams copied paintings
in the Opera della Metro-
politana in Siena (1896),
the Louvre (1897), and
the Alhambra in Granada,
Spain (1901).
12
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
ARCHIVAL PHOTO3 Unidentified individuals
Cassis – Southern FranceCourtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
ARCHIVAL PHOTO4 Abrams with pet dog
Marseille, 1907Courtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
TICKET5 Abrams’s 1897 Louvre Museum
permission receipt to copy a Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco painting.Courtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
NORTH AFR ICA AN D EU ROPE
13 NORTH AFR ICA AN D EU ROPE
North Africa was a magnet for European artists during the nineteenth century,
especially for French artists. Having embraced a French lifestyle and study and painting
habits, Abrams’s time in Algeria is con sistent with this French focus on the “Orient,”
as it was then called. In fact, a group of French painters known today as Les Orien-
talistes were drawn to the exoticism of North Africa and made it their primary source
of inspiration. Perhaps one-time Orientaliste Benjamin-Constant encouraged young
Abrams to travel to Algeria in 1905 to paint, resulting in such works as Bou Saada,
Algeria and Kabyle Woman (plate 1), both consistent with the Orientaliste focus on
North African women. However, with its sun-drenched light, plunging perspectives,
and shallow compositional
space, his Untitled [Stucco Street
Corner] (plate 2) speaks directly
to the lessons he learned from
the French Impressionists and
Post-Impressionists.
While Abrams was in Europe,
the art world—especially in
France—was at fever pitch as one
movement succeeded the next
in rapid succession in the devel-
opment of Modernism. Just eight
years before Abrams arrived in
Paris, the last French Impressionist
exhibition was held in 1886.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and
Paul Signac (1863-1935) exhibited in the last Impressionist exhibition and spawned a
movement called Pointillism or Neo-Impressionism, adherents to which held a final
exhibition in 1893, the year before Abrams appeared. These fin-de-siecle currents were
still fresh for the newly arrived art student in Paris.
Paul Serusier (1864-1927), Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), Maurice Denis (1870-
1943), and Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940) banded together as Les Nabis (prophets in
Hebrew) from 1888 to 1899, to throw off the shackles of academic painting. Serusier’s
1888 Le Talisman, painted under the supervision of Paul Gauguin (who also named the
group), became the touchstone for Les Nabis. After 1899, Bonnard’s and Vuillard’s
paintings evolved into an Intimiste style in which they depicted figures in small
domestic interiors, abandoning linear perspective and modeling in favor of rich surface
ARCHIVAL PHOTO6 Abrams’s photograph from Algeria labeled as
Here they sell…clothesCourtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
textures while eliminating the distinction between figure and background.
By the early 1880s, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) had re-settled in Provence hoping
to lend structure to Impressionist paintings. His work ultimately gave rise to Cubism.
In his still lifes of the late 1870s, he had abandoned Albertian linear perspective,
allowing each object to exist individually in the painted space. Cézanne’s landscape
paintings of Provence and his series of figure paintings begun in the early 1890s were
featured in a solo exhibition in Paris in 1895. Posthumous exhibitions in Paris in 1907
solidified him as a master of Post-Impressionism while Lucien Abrams was there.
In 1891, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was recognized as the leader of the Symbolist
movement, although the antecedents for Symbolism had begun in the
1870s. Gauguin’s use of flat areas of color and symbolic color—begun
after his move to Pont Aven in 1886—greatly affected a large number of
avant-garde painters in France. He painted briefly at Arles with Vincent
Van Gogh (1853-1890) in 1888. Van Gogh’s mature style of intense active
brushwork using saturated complementary colors eventually gave rise
to the Fauves movement, led by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Andre
Derain (1880-1954), which held sway from about 1904 to 1908.
In this French art maelstrom, Abrams lived and worked for 20 years.
From 1902 to 1914, he exhibited annually in Paris at the Salon d’Automne
and the Salon des Independants, and his work showed the influences
of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Fauvism.7 Yet years later
Abrams would note, “My art was developed, not in the schools, but by
independent study before nature, not trying to copy, but to interpret, to
find order in chaos, and put it in plastic form.”
Nevertheless, Abrams noticeably absorbed the lessons learned from
the various French masters whose work he saw and experienced. Moreover, he
carried these lessons with him to the United States and to Texas especially. The influence
of the French Impressionists, Les Intimistes, and even Whistler, shows unmistakably in
Lucien Abrams’s paintings, such as Dejeuner en Provence (plate 3).
The female figure posed in an outdoor, yet still close setting, was a favorite
Impressionist device, used particularly by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). An admirer
of Renoir, Abrams pays homage to him through the use of a small female model in a
casual patio setting in Dejeuner en Provence. Combined with short brushstrokes, a high-
keyed palette and a diagonal composition coalesce into an Impressionist painting.
On the other hand, this painting carries the Intimist message as well. Although an
outdoor scene, Dejeuner is quite familiar and homey. Moreover, allowing the figure to
14
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
CONTEMPORAR I ES
ARCHIVAL PHOTO7 Posed photograph of Abrams in France
(possibly studio). Labeled 1910.Courtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
15 CONTEMPORAR I ES
dissolve into the rich surface textures, while still providing the anchors of the chair
and the hat, is consistent with Intimist paintings by Vuillard and Bonnard.
Finally, Lucien Abrams’s monogram in the lower left is a visual cypher to his
time—albeit brief—under the tutelage of at least a Whistler protégée. Whistler’s own
“intimist” paintings of female figures posed in rich domestic settings are referenced
in Dejeuner. Furthermore, the brushstrokes and daubs of pure color on a two-dimen-
sional surface that comprise Dejeuner harken back to Whistler’s “art for art’s sake”
argument a half century earlier.
As a devoted still life painter, Abrams clearly emulated Cézanne in some of his
own paintings such as Untitled [Still Life with Bananas] and especially Fruit and Feather
Flowers (plate 4). Abrams also channeled Gauguin’s use of flat planes of unmodulated
color—as well as Gauguin’s Symbolist leanings—in uncluttered paintings such as Still
Life of Tulips; Irises (plate 5); and Roses. Moreover, some of Abrams’s landscapes
reverberate with the influence of Cézanne’s paintings of Provence, as in Abrams’s
Untitled [Trees in Autumn] and Untitled [French Landscape with Olive Trees] (plate 6).
Abrams’s many paintings of female models seated in chairs, usually of his own
Madame Abrams and/or their daughter, invite comparisons to Cézanne’s myriad
portraits of Madame Cézanne. While rich and powerful, Abrams’s Woman in Blue
(plate 7) clearly echoes Cézanne, but stops short of Cézanne’s fracturing of planes, the
very device that later gave rise to Cubism. Les Fauves also found purchase with many
of Abrams’s female sitters. His Femme au Grande Chapeau reminds one of Matisse’s
Woman with a Hat, for example. While we do see Abrams’s use of more expressive
brushwork, we do not see him heading toward the arbitrary use of color as in Matisse’s
Green Stripe. Lucien Abrams could only get so wild.
Maintaining his American and Texas roots, Abrams was surely aware of art
movements in his native land. In 1897, a group of ten American artists broke away from
the Society of American Artists in protest over the direction of the Society’s annual
exhibitions, particularly the devaluation of Impressionist paintings. Childe Hassam,
J. Alden Weir, John Henry Twachtman, Robert Reid, Willard Metcalf, Frank Weston
Benson, Edmund Charles Tarbell, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Joseph DeCamp, and
Edward Simmons comprised “The Ten.” When Twachtman died in 1902, William
Merritt Chase joined “The Ten” in his place. The group exhibited together for twenty
years. Lucien Abrams had studied at the Art Students League under five of “The Ten.”
Contemporaneous with exhibitions of “The Ten,” another group called “The Eight”
helped establish the so-called “Ash Can School” of painting in the United States.
Responding to their rejection by the jury for the National Academy of Design annual
in 1907, eight American painters held their own exhibition at MacBeth Galleries in New
York in 1908. Led by Robert Henri (1865-1929), this group sought to break away from
academic restrictions. Using a largely German- and Dutch-influenced palette of browns
and greys and bravura brushwork, these artists also took their cues from Dutch genre
paintings of the 17th century, focusing on the seamier sides of American life hitherto
considered unacceptable subjects for “official” American art. Only occasionally did
Lucien Abrams depart from his Impressionist palette, but he certainly used the
expressive brushwork of the Ash Can School painters from time to time. The social
realism practiced by “The Eight,” however, did not interest Abrams.
Exhibiting in the American annuals, Abrams could not have avoided knowing
of the exhibitions and efforts of “The Ten” and “The Eight.” He exhibited at the Art
Institute of Chicago annual in 1899; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
annuals of 1903 and 1911; and the National Academy of Design annual in 1908.
By establishing his home at Old Lyme in 1914, he was at the epicenter of Ameri-
can Impressionism before the movement began to fade in the United States by about
1920. He exhibited with the Lyme Art Association annually from 1916 through 1938.8
Ironically, while the French Impressionists clearly influenced Abrams while he was
still in France [see Au Parc Borely (plate 8), Untitled [City Waterfront] (frontispiece) or
Femme au Grande Chapeau, for example], he seems to have fully embraced the
Impressionist strategies he witnessed first-hand in France only after he settled at the
“American Giverny.” In particular with his numerous seated female figure paintings,
using his wife or daughter as models, he echoes especially the works of Mary Cassatt
in his Girl Sewing (plate 9) and particularly Berthe Morisot in paintings such as
Untitled [Young Woman Reading in Bed] (plate 10). His “American Impressionist”
leanings found affirmation and encouragement at Old Lyme. Abrams’s paintings such
as In the Garden (plate 11) echo paintings by the other members of the Old Lyme
colony, chiefly Childe Hassam.
In Texas, where Abrams’s work opened a conduit to Old Lyme and France,
Impressionism held on until the early 1930s. Abrams exhibited—as a Texas artist—in
the annual Texas-artist exhibitions in Fort Worth in 1913, 1914, 1916, and 1917; at the
State Fair of Texas in 1908, 1909, and 1923; and at the Texas Centennial Exposition in
1936 with Garden on the Ledge (plate 12). To these “Texas” exhibitions, Abrams sent
primarily Impressionist paintings done in Europe and Old Lyme.
En lieu of true French Impressionist paintings, Texas artists relied on those
submissions by Lucien Abrams to exhibitions exclusive to Texas artists, as well as his
paintings and those of his fellows of the Old Lyme Colony to the State Fair of Texas
16
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
OLD LYME
17 OLD LYME
ARCHIVAL PHOTO8 Gina and Lucien Abrams in the
arbor of their Old Lyme home.Courtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
exhibitions. Although filtered through Abrams and Old Lyme, these paintings brought
the Impressionist gospel to Texas. Moreover, Abrams’s habit of painting en plein air
while visiting Texas periodically encouraged Texas artists to see their state with fresh
eyes. Journalists underscored this by reporting that Abrams was “one of many artists
who are discovering the beauty of the [Texas] landscape, in the color of the sky and
clear atmosphere which gives such an opalescent tint to Texas.”9 Moreover, Abrams
even used Impressionist schemes to create a series of paintings of the Alamo and other
Spanish missions in San Antonio, symbols to all Texans [see Mission de la Concepcion,
San Antonio, Texas (plate 13)].
In 1914, when Lucien Abrams returned to the United States, he
brought along his fiancée, parisienne Charlotte Gina Onillon (1886-
1961) (plate 14), a graduate of the Sorbonne. They married in 1915
and built a home at Old Lyme with a fine view of Long Island
Sound. They had one daughter, Elinor F. Abrams. The Abramses
divided their time between his family place in Dallas, a winter
home in San Antonio, and the summer home in Old Lyme. Abrams
also painted in the Deep South, including New Orleans; Pass
Christian, Mississippi; and Charleston, South Carolina. Along with
exhibiting regularly with the Lyme Art Association, Abrams had
one-man shows at the State Fair of Texas (1914); Montross Gallery,
New York (1928); Pabst Galleries in San Antonio, Texas (1930); the
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (1934); and at Durand-Ruel Galleries,
New York (1934). Posthumously, his work was featured in the 1978
exhibition “Three American Impressionists: From Paris to Old
Lyme” at A. M. Adler Fine Art, Inc., New York. Abrams was a long-
time member of the American Federation of Artists, the Lyme Art
Association, and the Princeton Club of New York City.
Public collections of Abrams’s work include the Florence Griswold Museum, Old
Lyme, Connecticut; the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas; the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London,
Connecticut; Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia; and the Dallas Museum of Art.
As a collector, Abrams was particularly interested in the French Impressionists,
acquiring an important collection of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His widow
donated at least one Renoir painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Abrams’s
daughter donated another to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas and she
and her daughter (Abrams’s granddaughter) helped place one more at the McNay.
Lucien Abrams lived in Europe during one of the richest periods in art history. The
French Impressionists had thrown the gates wide open and new movements ebbed
and flowed around him in France. By the time he came to maturity as an artist, American
Impressionism held a prominent place in American art. As William H. Gerdts writes,
“The period from about 1885 to 1920 constitutes the years of [Impressionism’s]
ascendancy [in the United States] and the achievements and innovations of the
principal American masters of the movement.”10 By about 1920, “Impressionism, once
a vital, modern force in American painting, had become both conventionalized and
conservative in the light of newer developments in American art.”11 Intriguingly,
Abrams wrote in 1925 that he “never cared much for pure realism or impressionism,
but rather prefer[red] a more decorative interpretation of nature.”12
So where is Lucien Abrams’s place in art history? His exhibition record is
impressive, yet his work is very little known largely due to the relatively small number
of his paintings in public collections. The current exhibition, however, drawing almost
exclusively from private collections, allows for a much broader and more qualitative
examination of his place. Considering his schooling, residencies and travel in the
artistically enriching environments of New York, Paris, North Africa, and Old Lyme,
Lucien Abrams should be considered one of the few significant conduits for Impres-
sionism and Post-Impressionism—and therefore Modernism—into Texas in the early
part of the 1900s. Abrams can now surely take his place in the roll call of American
artists. His work, influenced by so many significant late-19th and early-20th century
currents in art, certainly deserves far greater appreciation and objective analyses than
it has been heretofore afforded.
1William H. Gerdts, The Golden Age of American Impressionism(New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003): 27.
2Harold J. Abrams committed suicide, Dallas Morning News, 9 May 1938.3Dallas artist Frank Reaugh (1860-1945) encouraged the purchase of this painting.4Stephanie Cassidy, Archivist, The Art Students League of New York to Michael R. Grauer, 2 April 2008.5The Académie Julian was also the only atelier to offer study to women artists.6Nigel Thorp, “Carmen Rossi,” in Jill Berk Jiminez ed, Dictionary of Artists’ Models(Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001): 268-269.
7The Salon d’Automne of 1907 featured a posthumous Cézanne exhibition.8My thanks to Hedy Korst, research assistant, Florence Griswold Museum, for researching Abrams’s exhibition record with the Lyme Art Association.
9“Noted Artist Visiting Dallas,” Unknown Dallas newspaper, 3 April 1920, Lucien Abrams scrapbook.10William H. Gerdts, The Golden Age of American Impressionism
(New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003): 42.11Ibid.12Abrams to unknown correspondent, letter, 17 July 1925, Private Collection.
18
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
20
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 1 Kabyle Woman, c.1906
Oil on wood panel, 13.687 x 10.437 inchesPrivate Collection
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
21
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 2 Untitled [Stucco Street Corner], n.d.
Oil on canvas, 15.125 x 19.875 inchesPrivate Collection
22
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 3 Dejeuner en Provence, c.1910
Oil on canvas, 24.125 x 19.75 inchesCollection of the McNay Art Museum,Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morgan Chaney
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
23
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 4 Fruit and Feather Flowers, n.d.
Oil on canvas, 25.25 x 30.25 inchesPrivate Collection
24
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 5 Irises, 1922
Oil on canvas, 30.125 x 25.125 inchesPrivate Collection
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
25
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 6 Untitled [French Landscape with Olive Trees], 1909
Oil on canvas, 28.187 x 35.625 inchesPrivate Collection
26
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 7 Woman in Blue, 1915
Oil on canvas, 30.187 x 24.125 inchesPrivate Collection
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
28
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 9 Girl Sewing, n.d.
Oil on panel, 18.5 x 15.5 inchesPrivate Collection
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
29
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 10 Untitled [Young Woman Reading in Bed], n.d.
Oil on canvas panel, 15 x 18 inchesPrivate Collection
30
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 11 In the Garden, n.d.
Oil on canvas, 36.125 x 29.125 inchesPrivate Collection
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
31
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 12 Garden on the Ledge, n.d.
Oil on canvas, 36.125 x 29.125 inchesPrivate Collection
32
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 13 Mission de la Concepcion, San Antonio, Texas, 1928
Oil on canvas board, 15 x 18.125 inchesPrivate Collection
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
33
LUCIEN ABRAMSPlate 14 Mrs. Abrams in Paris, c.1912
Oil on panel, 18 x 14 inchesThe Brousseau Family Collection LLC
34
Dejeuner en Provence, c. 1910Oil on canvas24.125 x 19.75 inchesCollection of the McNay Art Museum;Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morgan ChaneyPlate 3, Page 22
Femme Au Grande
Chapeau, 1910Oil on canvas28.875 x 23.875 inchesPrivate Collection
Ferry at Marseille, n.d.Watercolor on paper9 x 11 inches [sight]Private Collection
Fruit and Feather
Flowers, n.d.Oil on canvas25.25 x 30.25 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 4, Page 23
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas
Exhibition ChecklistAu Parc Borely, n.d.Oil on canvas21.375 x 25.5 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 8, Page 27
Bathers, 1912Oil on canvas panel16 x 13 inchesPrivate Collection
Bou Saada, Algeria,1906Oil on wood panel18 x 14.75 inchesPrivate Collection
Canal Martigues, n.d.Watercolor on paper9 x 11 inches [sight]Private Collection
35
Irises, 1922Oil on canvas30.125 x 25.125 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 5, Page 24
Jardin Normand, c. 1917Oil on canvas23.812 x 28.75 inchesPrivate Collection
Kabyle Woman, c. 1906Oil on wood panel13.687 x 10.437 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 1, Page 20
La Promenade, n.d.Watercolor on paper9 x 11 inches [sight]Private Collection
Garden on the Ledge, n.d.Oil on canvas36.125 x 29.125 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 12, Page 31
Girl Sewing, n.d.Oil on panel18.5 x 15.5 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 9, Page 28
Gorge de Loup, Cagnes, n.d.Oil on canvas25 x 30.125 inchesScott Higginbotham,Dumas, Texas
In the Garden, n.d.Oil on canvas36.125 x 29.125 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 11, Page 30
36
Lieutenant River
near Old Lyme, n.d.Oil on canvas24.5 x 29.125 inchesPrivate Collection
Mexican Fete at
the Alamo, 1928Oil on canvas board14.875 x 18.125 inchesPrivate Collection
Mission de la Concepcion,
San Antonio, Texas,1928Oil on canvas board15 x 18.125 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 13, Page 32
Mothers Meeting
at the Old Port,
Marseille, n.d.Watercolor on paper9 x 11 inches [sight]Private Collection
Mrs. Abrams in Paris, c. 1912Oil on panel18 x 14 inchesThe Brousseau Family Collection LLCPlate 14, Page 33
On the Spanish Main, n.d.Oil on canvas20.25 x 24.25 inchesPrivate Collection
Parc Borely, n.d.Watercolor on paper9 x 11 inches [sight]Private Collection
Promenade Marseille, n.d.Watercolor on paper9 x 11 inches [sight]Private Collection
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas – Exhibition Checklist
37
Still Life of Tulips, n.d.Oil on canvas26.125 x 22.125 inchesPrivate Collection
Untitled [Beach with
Three Women], n.d.Oil on canvas28.5 x 35.25 inches [sight]Private Collection
Untitled [City
Waterfront], n.d.Oil on canvas18.25 x 21.25 inchesPrivate CollectionFrontispiece
Untitled [Day at
the Beach], n.d.Oil on board6.5 x 8 inchesPanhandle-Plains Historical Museum,Canyon, Texas; Anonymous Gift
Untitled [French
Landscape], n.d.Oil on board10.5 x 13.75 inchesPanhandle-Plains Historical Museum,Canyon, Texas; Anonymous Gift
Untitled [French
Landscape with
Olive Trees], 1909Oil on canvas28.187 x 35.625 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 6, Page 25
Untitled [French
Village], n.d.Oil on board7.25 x 9.5 inchesPanhandle-Plains Historical Museum,Canyon, Texas; Anonymous Gift
Untitled [House
with Green Shutters
and Trees], n.d.Oil on panel12.75 x 16.125 inchesPrivate Collection
38
Untitled [Landscape
with Trees, Pond and
White House], n.d.Oil on canvas18 x 24.062 inchesPrivate Collection
Untitled [Seated
Lady in Hat], n.d.Oil on canvas24 x 18.25 inchesPrivate Collection
Untitled [Still Life
with Bananas], n.d.Oil on canvas30 x 25 inchesPanhandle-Plains Historical Museum,Canyon, Texas; Gift of the Sone Family
Untitled [Still Life
with Roses], n.d.Oil on canvas24.187 x 18.125 inchesPrivate Collection
Untitled [Stucco
Street Corner], n.d.Oil on canvas15.125 x 19.875 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 2, Page 21
Untitled [Trees
in Autumn], n.d.Oil on canvas25 x 20 inchesPrivate Collection
Untitled [Trees on
Hillside Near Water], n.d.Oil on canvas23.625 x 28.687 inchesPrivate Collection
Untitled [Woman
in White], n.d.Oil on canvas18.125 x 14.937 inchesPrivate Collection
LUCIEN ABRAMS An Impressionist from Texas – Exhibition Checklist
39
Untitled [Young Woman
Reading in Bed], n.d.Oil on canvas panel15 x 18 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 10, Page 29
Untitled [Zinnias], 1932Oil on canvas24 x 20.125 inchesPrivate Collection
Villa Rose Ciel, n.d.Oil on panel14.75 x 18 inchesPrivate Collection
Woman in Blue, 1915Oil on canvas30.187 x 24.125 inchesPrivate CollectionPlate 7, Page 26
CreditsThis catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibitionLucien Abrams: An Impressionist from Texas
An exhibition organized by The Old Jail Art Center, Albany, Texaswww.theoldjailartcenter.org
Exhibition Dates:The Old Jail Art Center, June 1 – September 1, 2013Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, September 14, 2013 – February 14, 2014Florence Griswold Museum, March 21 – June 1, 2014
Archival photographic images from Abrams’s personal photo album. Courtesy of the Family of Lucien Abrams.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in anyform or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording orinformation storage or retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher.
Designed and Published by: WinshipPhillips, Dallas, Texaswww.winshipphillips.com
Copyright©2013ISBN: 978-0-9893719-0-2First edition: 1000 copies
We are grateful to the following lenders, whose generosity in sharingworks from their collections has made the exhibition possible:
The Brousseau Family Collection LLCScott Higginbotham, Dumas, TexasCollection of the McNay Art MuseumPanhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, TexasPrivate Collection
Lenders to the Exhibition