Overlooking the Bay - Coastal Maine Landscape in Oil on Masonite by Lydia 1957

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Overlooking the Bay - Coastal Landscape in Oil on Masonite

Serene coastal landscape by unknown artist "Lydia" (American, 20th century). … Read more Overlooking the Bay - Coastal Landscape in Oil on Masonite

Serene coastal landscape by unknown artist "Lydia" (American, 20th century). The viewer stands at a vantage point above a small coastal town in possibly Maine. The town is nestled in lush landscape, full of vibrant foliage. Beyond the town, there is a bay with prominent cliffs surrounding it.
Signed and dated "Lydia 57" in the lower right corner.
Board size: 15.5"H x 19.5"W
We are researching Lydia Cooley Freeman (American, 1906-1998) as a possible artist for this painting. Born in Tacoma, Washington on January 13, 1906, Lydia Cooley, by the 1930s, had settled in New York City where she studied at the Art Students League under John Sloan. Her portraits of women, children and the working class are of the Ash Can school and show the influence of her teacher, John Sloan. While there, she met her husband-to-be, graphic artist and children's book author Don Freeman. She co-authored several of her husband's children's books (Chuggy and the Blue Caboose, Pet of the Met) and illustrated two children's books (Onion Journey by Julia Cunningham, and Wind in My Hand by Hanako Fukuda).

The couple moved to Santa Barbara in 1958. After her husband's death in 1978, Mrs. Freeman moved to Switzerland in 1988. She continued to paint up to 6 months before she died at the age of 92. She changed her style radically, drawing nightly small, very beautiful and personal abstract sketches, and working on a book of illustrations to her own haikus that had been set to music by a pianist friend of hers. See less