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Artist or Maker: MARVIN CONE (American 1891-1961)
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Provenance: Marvin Cone
To Mrs. Beth Miller, circa 1936
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Notes: The offered lot is related to a number of similar works that Cone executed
between 1933 and 1936. It would seem likely that the offered lot was
executed around the same time as Cones paintings titled Washing Out-Stone
City, circa 1933 (catalog #282) Old Quarry, circa 1933-34 (catalog #292),
and River Bend (catalog #308). Furthermore it would seem possible that this
painting was done in the field while Cone was an instructor at Stone City Art
Colony.
Founded with a Carnegie Foundation grant, and under the leadership of the
Cedar Rapids Artists Association director Edward B. Rowan, Stone City Art
Colony was the Midwest’s answer to the various east coast and west coast
artist colonies that became popular at the first part of the 20th century.
Outdoor summer teaching was the cornerstone of the short-lived artist
colony. It was there that Cone applied his craft in the traditional academic
method as instructor painting landscapes for the benefit of his students who
were then expected to paint the same setting.
As is illustrated in the offered lot, Cone was without question a master of
subtleness in his unique depiction of Midwest landscapes. In an interview for
the Coe College Cosmos in the early 1930’s Cone said: “Art is one’s reaction
to his surroundings. It may be only a new light thrown upon something that
before seemed insignificant. In a landscape it may be only a new slant upon
a familiar scene…” Indeed it is was Cones “slant” on depicting landscapes that
more than anything else, brought him a degree of financial success as an
artist.
