1957 "House, & Flowers, & Moonlight" Oil Painting on Canvas by Ralph Rosenborg Framed

Description

Artist: RALPH ROSENBORG (1913-1992)
Title: HOUSE, AND FLOWERS, AND MOONLIGHT
Medium & Surface: ORIGINAL OIL ON CANVAS (framed)
Signed: HAND … more Artist: RALPH ROSENBORG (1913-1992)
Title: HOUSE, AND FLOWERS, AND MOONLIGHT
Medium & Surface: ORIGINAL OIL ON CANVAS (framed)
Signed: HAND SIGNED AND DATED BY ARTIST LOWER RIGHT AND ON VERSO
Year Created: 1957
Country of Creation: UNITED STATES

Canvas Dimensions: 22.25 x 28.25 INCHES
Frame Dimensions:* 33.25 x 39.25 x 1.875 INCHES
*This work of art is being sold framed.

Additional Info: HIGHLY COLLECTIBLE WORK BY RALPH ROSENBORG IN GREAT CONDITION AND FEATURING ITS BEAUTIFUL CUSTOM WOOD FRAME. ORIGINAL ARTIST LABEL IS AFFIXED TO VERSO, AS WELL AS SOTHEBY'S AND CHRISTIE'S LABELS.
Artist Info/Bio: ARTIST BIOGRAPHY DOCUMENT IS INCLUDED
Documentation: CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY BY CALIFORNIA FINE ART BROKERS IS INCLUDED

Provenance:
CHRISTIE’S, NEW YORK, JAN 12, 2010
COLLECTION OF H. MARC MOYENS
SOTHEBY’S, NEW YORK, APRIL 1, 1998
COLLECTION OF NATHAN (1907-1983) & HELEN HALPER (1908-1996), MA
HCE GALLERY, PROVINCETOWN, MA (OWNED BY NATHAN HALPER)

"House, and Flowers, and Moonlight," an original oil on canvas by Ralph Rosenborg, is a piece for the true collector. In 1988, Louise Nevelson wrote: "Ralph Rosenborg was the first recognized pioneer whose experimental art announced the coming of Abstract Expressionism in the United States during the mid-1930s. Rosenborg was the first to introduce and instruct Jackson Pollock on Abstract Expressionism while at the Non-Objective Painting Museum in the early 1940s, which became the Guggenheim Museum. Ralph Rosenborg is The American Artist. Rosenborg produced daring artworks and explored the possibilities of movements that are expressive of ideas, sensations and passions intended to provoke pure emotions." Both the technical talent of Rosenborg and his choice of subject matter pair perfectly with custom wood frame. This masterful work is perfect for those who have an affinity for abstracts, abstract expressionism, landscapes, and color-rich works. This Rosenborg painting has an important history, with the rare provenance of moving through both Sothebys and Christies auction houses, as well as two notable dealers including Nat Halper and H. Marc Moyens. Full provenance details are outlined below.

Ralph Rosenborg, an American painter, was known for his abstract paintings that inclined not toward geometric form, but rather the interpretation of nature.

Rosenborg was born in New York in 1913, his talent for the fine art appearing early. While still in high school, he won a scholarship to classes at the American Museum of Natural History, meeting Henriette Reiss, who he continued to study under privately well after the classes ended. Reiss had worked with Wassily Kandinsky earlier in her career, and as such introduced Rosenborg to the vast arena of vanguard European ideas, as well as provided him a broad-based instruction in music, literature, and art history.

After four years, Rosenborg was ready to exhibit. He did so initially in group exhibitions at ACA Galleries, and later in Mayor La Guardia’s 1934 Mile of Art at Radio City. He quickly gained notoriety, and began to show frequently throughout the 1930s, leading up to his first solo exhibition at the Eighth Street Theater in 1935.

In 1936, Rosenborg became a founding member of the “American Abstract Artists,” where he participated in the group’s annual exhibitions and contributed to their efforts to bring attention to the development of modern art in America. Soon thereafter, he also joined “The Ten,” a group of abstract painters that included Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and Louis Schanker, who came together to promote experimentation within modern art. Other colleagues of Rosenborg included Arshile Gorky, Ad Reinhardt, William Baziotes, Joseph Stella, Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Rosenborg moved freely between expressionist watercolors and more consciously structured oils, such as The Far-away City, in which deep-toned, dream-world landscapes take on the color and architecture of expressive stained glass. His work reflected nature as a perennial motif while his fellow members of the American Abstract Artists leaned toward geometric form.

This was reflected in his later paintings, as they increasingly portrayed the energies, as well as the appearances, of the natural world. Tumultuous seascapes, serene landscapes, and brightly colored floral still lifes, were all executed with an attention to richly textured, heavily painted surfaces. Inspiration for these works came, in no small part, from his extensive travels – in particular, a tour through Europe, made possible by an award in 1966 from the National Council on the Arts and Humanities.

Throughout his career, Rosenborg mounted more than 60 one-man shows and more than 300 group exhibitions, culminating to a 50-year retrospective at the Princeton Gallery of Fine Art in 1984. His work is represented in the collections at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the Phillips Collection and the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington.

Ralph Rosenborg passed away in Portland, Oregon in 1992, leaving a prolific career in which he ceaselessly strived upward. It was an ideal represented by an arrow in a rectangular box on the back of his paintings. In his words, “It’s very important because I try to stay on earth, but actually, the painting is another world.” less