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Frank Weston Benson

Autumn

Maker

Frank Weston Benson (American, 1862-1951)

Title

Autumn
Autumn

Year

1895

Medium

  • Oil on canvas

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Oil on canvas

Materials

oil paint

Supports

  • canvas

Dimensions

76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signature: Unsigned

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Isaac C. Bates

Object Number

97.002A

Type

  • Paintings

Exhibition History

Joseph Lindon Smith and His Circle in Dublin, New Hampshire
Oct 14, 1998 – Mar 03, 1999

Label copy

These are preliminary studies for the murals that Benson painted in the Library of Congress in 1897. The final works, allegorical representations of the four seasons, are framed within elaborately sculpted roundels on the vault spanning the south corridor. The construction and embellishment of the library coincided with America's growing interest in mural paintings for both public and private buildings. In the same year that Benson painted Autumn and Spring, both Joseph Lindon Smith and John Singer Sargent were awarded commissions to paint murals in the Boston Public Library. The balanced compositions of Autumn and Spring reveal Benson's academic training. The graceful, mannered poses of the figures, the diaphanous drapery, and their placement close to the picture plane evoke the work of the Pre-Raphaelite artists in England. Benson's refined use of color and texture also anticipates the late 19th to early 20th century Art Nouveau style as practiced in America. The allegorical figures Autumn and Spring achieve an intimacy similar to that of the many portraits Benson painted of his family in Dublin.

After Eden
The Rise and Reform of American Art, 1840-1910
Apr 26, 1996 – Dec 29, 1996
From the Reserve IV
Nineteenth-Century American Painting
Jul 22, 1994 – Oct 02, 1994
Romanticism and Revival
Nineteenth-Century American Art from the Permanent Collection
Dec 04, 1992 – Jun 26, 1993
Following the Light
Impressionist Paintings by Frank Weston Benson
Sep 20, 1991 – Nov 10, 1991
  • More Exhibition History +

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Frank Weston Benson (American, 1862-1951)
Autumn; Autumn, 1895
Oil on canvas
76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 inches)
Gift of Isaac C. Bates 97.002A

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Feedback

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