'As You Like It' by Marcus Waterman, Circa 1890, Shakespearean Comedy, Theater Scene, Pastoral

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Signed with monogram lower right, 'MW' for Marcus (Mark) Waterman (American, 1834-1914) and painted circa 1890.

“All the world’s a … Read more Signed with monogram lower right, 'MW' for Marcus (Mark) Waterman (American, 1834-1914) and painted circa 1890.

“All the world’s a stage” – In the late 1880s, an expanding rail network enabled American stage companies to bring elaborate and star-studded performances across the country to entertain an increasingly educated middle-class. From Los Angeles to New York City, high-budget productions of 'As You Like It' (notably by the companies of Mary Anderson, Augustin Daly, and Helena Modjeska), received widespread acclaim and helped cement Shakespeare into the American cultural milieu.

Waterman depicts the characters of Shakespeare's comedy in the Forest of Arden, where much of the romantic drama unfolds, inviting the audience into conversation while, in the background, Orlando and the princess Rosalind bask in their affections for each other. Discarded in the foreground is the jester Touchstone’s marotte, perhaps symbolizing his abandonment of courtly life in favor of the simpler pleasures of pastoral romance.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Marcus A. Waterman attended Brown University, graduating in 1857. He subsequently moved to New York where he maintained his studio until 1875 when he transferred it to Boston with artists Frank Hill Smith and Thomas Robinson. During this time, he spent significant time in his home city of Providence and also took a trip to California where he painted with Thomas Hill and well-known landscapist William Morris Hunt.

A traveler, Waterman frequently visited Vermont and Cape Cod. In 1878, he sold many of his paintings at a Williams & Everett auction (Boston) to finance overseas trips and, from 1879-1884, he traveled to Algeria (twice), France, Holland, and Spain. In 1908 he married, and the next year he and his wife settled in Moderno, Italy, her native country, where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life.

Marcus Waterman was a member of the American Watercolor Society, Artists Fund Society, Boston Paint and Clay Club, and National Academy of Design (Associate Member, 1861). He exhibited widely and with success including at the Centennial Exposition (Philadelphia, 1876), the National Academy of Design (1861-1877), Brooklyn Art Association (1864, 1872), Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1861-62, 1866, 1876), Boston Art Club (1883-1909), and Corcoran Galleries (1910). Marcus Waterman’s work is held in the permanent collections of institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Worcester Art Museum, among others. He is well-listed in all relevant art reference dictionaries including Who’s Who in American Art, which includes a signature sample.

Reference:
Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 3, page 3476; E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 14 , page 467; Thieme-Becker Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zu Gegenwart, Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 35, page 184; Mallett’s Index of Artists, Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, Peter Smith: New York 1948 Edition, R.R. Bowker Company 1935, page 464; Biographical Encyclopedia of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers of the U.S.: Colonial to 2002, Bob Creps, Dealer’s Choice Books, Inc. 2002, Vol. 2, page 1446; Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, Glen B. Opitz, Apollo Press 1983, page 983; The New York Historical Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860, George C. Groce and David H. Wallace, Yale University Press: New Haven and London 1957, page 664; 300 Years of American Art, Compiled by Michael David Zellman, Wellfleet Press 1987, Vol. 1, page 264; et al. See less