Paul Dougherty (artist)
Encyclopedia
Paul Hampden Dougherty was one of America's most important marine painters. He was elected to membership of the prestigious National Academy of Design
and was one of the most honored painters of his era. Often compared to Winslow Homer
, Dougherty became internationally recognized for his American Impressionism
paintings of the coasts of Maine
and Cornwall
in the years after the turn of the 20th Century. His work has been described as bold and masculine and his artistic production consisted of many paintings of breakers crashing against rocky coasts and mountain landscapes, but he was more versatile than many viewers realized. Dougherty painted still lifes, created prints and even sculpted.
The son of a prominent attorney, Paul Dougherty graduated from law school and passed the bar, but chose art over the law. His artistic training was relatively brief but through natural talent and a prodigious work ethic, he quickly came to prominence. A sophisticated and erudite man and a world traveler, Dougherty sketched and exhibited extensively on both the east and west coast of the United States, in the British Isles, throughout Europe and in Asia. He spent the first half of his career based in the east, but he moved west in 1928 and eventually spent the summers in Carmel, California
and the cooler winter months in the desert. Dougherty won almost every major award at the annual exhibitions of the National Academy of Design
in New York as well as a Gold Medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. By 1915 many American museums had purchased his works for their permanent collections.
in 1897, which is the only formal training he mentioned. However, there are accounts that he studied with the innovative ship designer and marine painter William S. Barnett (1854–1927) from Rockport, Maine, who had been living in Brooklyn since 1885 when he returned from his studies at the Académie Julian
. Dougherty did share a studio in Brooklyn early in his career with Barnett as well as Gustave Wiegland (1870–1957), George McCord
and Harry Roseland
. About 1901 these artists were joined by Frederick and Joseph Boston, Charles Burlingame, Edward Rorke, and Benjamin Eggleston in forming The Brooklyn Ten which then became known as The Society of Brooklyn Painters. The first annual exhibition of the society was held at the Hooper Gallery on Fulton Street in Brooklyn in 1903.
Dougherty (1879–1955), left on an extended trip to Europe. On this sojurn, he sketched and painted throughout the continent and studied the Old Masters in museums in order to educate himself. Munich, Venice, Paris and Florence were all stops on the Dougherty brother's European tour. In 1901 Dougherty sent a landscape painting home for the annual exhibit of the National Academy of Design and he showed his landscapes with the Academy for the next several years. In Paris he met a young Swedish music student named Antje Berthe Lund and they were married in 1902. The Doughertys returned to America and the artist opened a home and studio in Nutley, New Jersey
, where their daughter Lisa was born. Tragically, Antje Dougherty died of appendicitis
just weeks later. Soon after returning to the United States, Dougherty began to work on Monhegan Island, Maine, an area which was already a famous summer place for painters. In Maine, the young painter began to build his first significant body of the marine paintings he would become known for and the dramatic views of the Island offered him a host of subjects. He joined the Society of American Artists
in 1904, a group of younger painters who had broken away from the National Academy years before because it was then dominated by the aging members of the Hudson River School
. When the Society merged with the National Academy in 1905, Dougherty automatically became an Associate Member. In 1907 he had his first exhibition at the William Macbeth's Macbeth Gallery in New York City. Irish born William Macbeth (1851–1917) was the first dealer to only represent American artists and he opened his first gallery in 1892. Macbeth and Dougherty forded a lasting friendship and the young painter began a long series of successful exhibitions in the 5th Avenue Gallery.
of St. Ives
lies on the Cornish Peninsula in Southwestern England and Dougherty worked there extensively. While J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) did a pencil sketch of St. Ives as early as 1811, it wasn't until the completion of a rail line to Penzance
in 1859, that artists began to frequent the area and paint its dramatic views. After the mining industry collapsed, more artists began to visit including James Whistler and his students, who painted there in 1884. By 1886, there was a colony of painters in St. Ives, led by the American Edward Simmons
and the Victorian marine painter Adrian Stokes
(1854–1935). Simmons influenced the Swedish painter Anders Zorn
who learned to work in oil in St. Ives. The British painter Julius Olsson was one of the most influential artists in St. Ives in the years after the turn of the 20th century and he brought many other painters to the area. Paul Dougherty came to love St. Ives and some of his most dramatic works were done of the dramatic cliffs there. Dougherty spent about six months a year there from 1908 to 1913. For many years, Dougherty lived a bi-continental existence, splitting his time between his New York studio and Europe. In the spring and summer he went on lengthy sketching trips abroad, coming back to New York for the fall and winter exhibitions. In May 1915 for example he applied for a new passport, stating that his travels would take him to England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. In 1921 for yet another passport he stated he would travel to Belgium, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Spain.
, the Memorial Art Gallery
in Rochester New York, the Brooklyn Museum
and the Art Institute of Chicago. While his friend and dealer William Macbeth (1851–1917) had died in 1917, Dougherty's long relationship with Macbeth Galleries continued through his rotund son, Robert Wilson Macbeth who took over the gallery upon his father's passing. Even though the modern movements
were becoming more popular, especially in New York City, landscape and marine paintings still remained popular and had a dedicated constituency. Another major feature on Dougherty appeared in the pages of the International Studio, the most famous English language art publication in 1921 and again, the writer, Ameen Rihani, compared the painter to Winslow Homer: "...there is no doubt that the mantle of Winslow Homer has fallen on Paul Dougherty. Does it fit? Does it trail? Does it inspire respect? I can answer the last question in the affirmative."
." Dougherty had a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
in the summer of 1914. In an attempt to become known for landscapes as well as marines paintings he was represented by a number of his pictures of the Swiss Alps including "Evening Calm." In the bulletin of the Art Institute the editor said that "Mr. Dougherty is now chiefly thought of as a painter of accomplished marines; but his mountain pictures, though less well known are no less important." In 1915 the Panama-Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco to celebrate the city's rebirth after the San Francisco Earthquake and fire. The San Francisco world's fair featured a massive exhibition of paintings from the history of art as well as hundreds of works by contemporary artists from the United States and Europe. This exhibition is considered a turning point in California Art and it was also a triumph for Paul Dougherty who had four works exhibited and was awarded a Gold Medal. In his guide to the exhibition, the writer Michael Williams stated that "Another marine artist whose work is well and favorably known and which has been awarded a Gold Medal, is Paul Dougherty. Four pictures by him hang on Wall A. Paul Dougherty is a New York man, of such independence of mind that he studied without any masters in Paris, London, Florence, Venice and Munich. Examples of his work hang in all the principal galleries of the country." Dougherty was in such demand that a 1916 issue of the Bulletin for the Detroit Museum of Art mentioned him among the American artists who had "reached the zenith of their power" whose works they were seeking for their permanent collection. That December, his watercolors were the subject of an exhibition at Macbeth Gallery and in a review, the writer for the New York Times complimented Dougherty's progress by saying that "in his oil pictures has worked during the last ten years with a steadily increasing appreciation of chromatic values, is showing at the Macbeth Galleries a group of water colors that challenge comparison with the best of their kind."
by 1925 because he entered "Evening at Monterey" in the large exhibition of American watercolors that Macbeth Gallery opened in December of that year. Searching for a better climate to ease its effects, he and his last wife, the socialite Paula Gates, moved west, first to the dry desert climate of Tucson, Arizona. Still wanting to be near the sea, In 1931 the Doughertys found a home in the art colony of Carmel, California
, a picturesque spot on the rugged central coast of California, south of San Francisco. He joined the Carmel Art Association and became active in the local art scene. There, he sketched Carmel Bay and the coastal inlets from vantage points on the cliffs. For a number of years, Dougherty spent the cooler months in the desert and the rest of the year in Carmel where he still painted prolifically. Despite his ailments, he and his wife Paula still traveled abroad, going to Europe in 1934 and 1937. still By the 1940s, the effects of old age began to creep up on him and he was unable to work for the last four years of his life. Finally, he was struck with cancer and died in Palm Springs, California where he was wintering, at the age of sixty-nine.
eventually supplanted traditional art in the 1930s. In 1978 the major American sculptor Mahonri Young
wrote of him that "Everything came to him; all his pictures sold, he won all the prizes...the rich delighted to honor him, and his wives were glamorous." While he is primarily recognized for his coastal scenes, he also painted landscapes, mountain scenes and even the arid desert. His best known paintings were rugged coastal scenes of Maine, Cornwall
, Brittany
and the Monterey peninsula in California. His artistic production is well divided between scenes of the Maine Coast, the Cornish Coast of England, pictures from his extensive travels in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, a bold series of Alpine paintings and hundreds of paintings done in Carmel, where he had his last studio. Most of these works were in oil, with many smaller works on board and larger works on canvas, but he also worked extensively in watercolor. In her summary of Dougherty's work for the National Arts Club
's collection, art historian Carol Lowrey wrote that "The drama and realism of Dougherty's marines also prompted comparisons to Winslow Homer and indeed, the master's later seascapes served as an aesthetic and thematic model for Dougherty and a number of artists of his generation, such as Frederick Waugh. Like Homer, Dougherty liked to depict churning, turbulent waters, exemplified in canvasses such as Grey Sea, a work that demonstrates his favorite compositional scheme - an outcropping of rocks pounded by the rough surf in the foreground, a high horizon line, and an expansive of cloud streaked sky. As in the majority of his coastal scenes, Dougherty avoids allusions to man, architecture or boats, preferring to concentrate on the tumultuous motion of the sea and the glimmer of light on the wave crests and the rocky shore - denoted here by means of an energetic brushwork and a palette of blues, mauves, greens and browns with a pale yellow, gray and white. While his approach is grounded in the Realist tradition, Dougherty's painterly touch and iridescent hues indicate a debt to Impressionism
as well."
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
and was one of the most honored painters of his era. Often compared to Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art....
, Dougherty became internationally recognized for his American Impressionism
American Impressionism
Impressionism, a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-An emerging artistic style from Paris:...
paintings of the coasts of Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
in the years after the turn of the 20th Century. His work has been described as bold and masculine and his artistic production consisted of many paintings of breakers crashing against rocky coasts and mountain landscapes, but he was more versatile than many viewers realized. Dougherty painted still lifes, created prints and even sculpted.
The son of a prominent attorney, Paul Dougherty graduated from law school and passed the bar, but chose art over the law. His artistic training was relatively brief but through natural talent and a prodigious work ethic, he quickly came to prominence. A sophisticated and erudite man and a world traveler, Dougherty sketched and exhibited extensively on both the east and west coast of the United States, in the British Isles, throughout Europe and in Asia. He spent the first half of his career based in the east, but he moved west in 1928 and eventually spent the summers in Carmel, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, often called simply Carmel, is a small city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, the town is known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history...
and the cooler winter months in the desert. Dougherty won almost every major award at the annual exhibitions of the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
in New York as well as a Gold Medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. By 1915 many American museums had purchased his works for their permanent collections.
Early life
Paul Dougherty was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was the eldest of six children born to J. Hampden Dougherty, a prominent attorney, legal scholar and leader of the New York State Bar Association. While his father wanted to see him pursue a career in law, Dougherty was always drawn to art, and sketched and painted incessantly. He graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1896 where he received some training in art. His talent in art was always apparent and by the time he was eighteen one of his works was accepted for the Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design. In spite of his artistic abilities, he diligently followed through on his education and graduated from New York Law School and passed the bar, but he was never to practice law. Information on his artistic training can be contradictory and sketchy. In filling out an information card for the National Academy, he stated that he studied with the noted landscape painter Henry Ward RangerHenry Ward Ranger
Henry Ward Ranger , American artist, was born in western New York State. He became a prominent landscape and marine painter, much of his work being done in the Netherlands, and showing the influence of the modern Dutch school. He became a National Academician , and a member of the American Water...
in 1897, which is the only formal training he mentioned. However, there are accounts that he studied with the innovative ship designer and marine painter William S. Barnett (1854–1927) from Rockport, Maine, who had been living in Brooklyn since 1885 when he returned from his studies at the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
. Dougherty did share a studio in Brooklyn early in his career with Barnett as well as Gustave Wiegland (1870–1957), George McCord
George McCord
Known for atmospheric marine and landscape paintings in oil, pastel, and watercolor and for black and white drawings, George McCord was born in New York City and remained primarily a resident in Brooklyn although he traveled widely and from 1883 also had a studio in Morristown, New Jersey...
and Harry Roseland
Harry Roseland
Harry Herman Roseland was one of the most notable painters of the genre painting school around the turn of the 20th century. An American, Roseland was primarily known for paintings centered on poor African-Americans....
. About 1901 these artists were joined by Frederick and Joseph Boston, Charles Burlingame, Edward Rorke, and Benjamin Eggleston in forming The Brooklyn Ten which then became known as The Society of Brooklyn Painters. The first annual exhibition of the society was held at the Hooper Gallery on Fulton Street in Brooklyn in 1903.
European Travel and Early Career
In order to advance his studies, Dougherty and his younger brother, the stage actor Walter HampdenWalter Hampden
Walter Hampden is the artist name of Walter Hampden Dougherty was a U.S. actor and theatre manager. He was the younger brother of the American painter Paul Dougherty ....
Dougherty (1879–1955), left on an extended trip to Europe. On this sojurn, he sketched and painted throughout the continent and studied the Old Masters in museums in order to educate himself. Munich, Venice, Paris and Florence were all stops on the Dougherty brother's European tour. In 1901 Dougherty sent a landscape painting home for the annual exhibit of the National Academy of Design and he showed his landscapes with the Academy for the next several years. In Paris he met a young Swedish music student named Antje Berthe Lund and they were married in 1902. The Doughertys returned to America and the artist opened a home and studio in Nutley, New Jersey
Nutley, New Jersey
2010 Census Data:*TOTAL: 28,370 or 100%*White: 23,405 *African American: 628 *Asian: 2,824 *American Indian and Alaska Native: 36 *Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander: 4...
, where their daughter Lisa was born. Tragically, Antje Dougherty died of appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
just weeks later. Soon after returning to the United States, Dougherty began to work on Monhegan Island, Maine, an area which was already a famous summer place for painters. In Maine, the young painter began to build his first significant body of the marine paintings he would become known for and the dramatic views of the Island offered him a host of subjects. He joined the Society of American Artists
Society of American Artists
The Society of American Artists was an American artists group. It was formed in 1877 by artists who felt the National Academy of Design did not adequately meet their needs, and was too conservative....
in 1904, a group of younger painters who had broken away from the National Academy years before because it was then dominated by the aging members of the Hudson River School
Hudson River school
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...
. When the Society merged with the National Academy in 1905, Dougherty automatically became an Associate Member. In 1907 he had his first exhibition at the William Macbeth's Macbeth Gallery in New York City. Irish born William Macbeth (1851–1917) was the first dealer to only represent American artists and he opened his first gallery in 1892. Macbeth and Dougherty forded a lasting friendship and the young painter began a long series of successful exhibitions in the 5th Avenue Gallery.
St. Ives
The famous art colonyArt colony
right|300px|thumb|Artist houses in [[Montsalvat]] near [[Melbourne, Australia]].An art colony or artists' colony is a place where creative practitioners live and interact with one another. Artists are often invited or selected through a formal process, for a residency from a few weeks to over a year...
of St. Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...
lies on the Cornish Peninsula in Southwestern England and Dougherty worked there extensively. While J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) did a pencil sketch of St. Ives as early as 1811, it wasn't until the completion of a rail line to Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
in 1859, that artists began to frequent the area and paint its dramatic views. After the mining industry collapsed, more artists began to visit including James Whistler and his students, who painted there in 1884. By 1886, there was a colony of painters in St. Ives, led by the American Edward Simmons
Edward Simmons (painter)
Edward Emerson Simmons was an American Impressionist painter, remembered for his mural work. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, the son of a Unitarian minister....
and the Victorian marine painter Adrian Stokes
Adrian Scott Stokes
Charles Adrian Scott Stokes RA was an English landscape painter. Born in Southport, Lancashire, he became a cotton broker in Liverpool, where his artistic talent was noticed by John Herbert RA, who advised him to submit his drawings to the Royal Academy. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in...
(1854–1935). Simmons influenced the Swedish painter Anders Zorn
Anders Zorn
Anders Leonard Zorn was one of Sweden’s foremost artists who obtained international success as a painter, sculptor and printmaker in etching.-Biography:...
who learned to work in oil in St. Ives. The British painter Julius Olsson was one of the most influential artists in St. Ives in the years after the turn of the 20th century and he brought many other painters to the area. Paul Dougherty came to love St. Ives and some of his most dramatic works were done of the dramatic cliffs there. Dougherty spent about six months a year there from 1908 to 1913. For many years, Dougherty lived a bi-continental existence, splitting his time between his New York studio and Europe. In the spring and summer he went on lengthy sketching trips abroad, coming back to New York for the fall and winter exhibitions. In May 1915 for example he applied for a new passport, stating that his travels would take him to England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. In 1921 for yet another passport he stated he would travel to Belgium, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Spain.
Mid career
As Dougherty reached middle age, he kept up his exhibitions and travels. He spent the late spring and summer of each year abroad, usually arriving home in October or November. His New York studio changes locations almost annually. In the 1920s he exhibited his watercolors more frequently and in 1920 and 1921 alone his work in this medium was exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
, the Memorial Art Gallery
Memorial Art Gallery
The Memorial Art Gallery is the civic art museum of Rochester, New York. Founded in 1913, it is part of the University of Rochester and occupies the southern half of the University's former Prince Street campus...
in Rochester New York, the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
and the Art Institute of Chicago. While his friend and dealer William Macbeth (1851–1917) had died in 1917, Dougherty's long relationship with Macbeth Galleries continued through his rotund son, Robert Wilson Macbeth who took over the gallery upon his father's passing. Even though the modern movements
American modernism
American modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic...
were becoming more popular, especially in New York City, landscape and marine paintings still remained popular and had a dedicated constituency. Another major feature on Dougherty appeared in the pages of the International Studio, the most famous English language art publication in 1921 and again, the writer, Ameen Rihani, compared the painter to Winslow Homer: "...there is no doubt that the mantle of Winslow Homer has fallen on Paul Dougherty. Does it fit? Does it trail? Does it inspire respect? I can answer the last question in the affirmative."
Artistic Recognition
As he reached the heart of his career, Dougherty became more interested in light and experimented with "broken color" techniques and "optical blending." In 1913, in the museum journal Aesthetics, he was described said to be..."now pre-eminently a painter of light, as much an exponent of it as Claude MonetClaude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
." Dougherty had a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
in the summer of 1914. In an attempt to become known for landscapes as well as marines paintings he was represented by a number of his pictures of the Swiss Alps including "Evening Calm." In the bulletin of the Art Institute the editor said that "Mr. Dougherty is now chiefly thought of as a painter of accomplished marines; but his mountain pictures, though less well known are no less important." In 1915 the Panama-Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco to celebrate the city's rebirth after the San Francisco Earthquake and fire. The San Francisco world's fair featured a massive exhibition of paintings from the history of art as well as hundreds of works by contemporary artists from the United States and Europe. This exhibition is considered a turning point in California Art and it was also a triumph for Paul Dougherty who had four works exhibited and was awarded a Gold Medal. In his guide to the exhibition, the writer Michael Williams stated that "Another marine artist whose work is well and favorably known and which has been awarded a Gold Medal, is Paul Dougherty. Four pictures by him hang on Wall A. Paul Dougherty is a New York man, of such independence of mind that he studied without any masters in Paris, London, Florence, Venice and Munich. Examples of his work hang in all the principal galleries of the country." Dougherty was in such demand that a 1916 issue of the Bulletin for the Detroit Museum of Art mentioned him among the American artists who had "reached the zenith of their power" whose works they were seeking for their permanent collection. That December, his watercolors were the subject of an exhibition at Macbeth Gallery and in a review, the writer for the New York Times complimented Dougherty's progress by saying that "in his oil pictures has worked during the last ten years with a steadily increasing appreciation of chromatic values, is showing at the Macbeth Galleries a group of water colors that challenge comparison with the best of their kind."
Moving west - California
By the 1920s, Dougherty was beginning to suffer the debilitating effects of arthritis. Although he did not move to California for a number of years, he was painting on the Monterey PeninsulaMonterey Peninsula
The Monterey Peninsula is located on the central California coast and comprises the cities of Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, and unincorporated areas of Monterey County including the resort and community of Pebble Beach.-Monterey:...
by 1925 because he entered "Evening at Monterey" in the large exhibition of American watercolors that Macbeth Gallery opened in December of that year. Searching for a better climate to ease its effects, he and his last wife, the socialite Paula Gates, moved west, first to the dry desert climate of Tucson, Arizona. Still wanting to be near the sea, In 1931 the Doughertys found a home in the art colony of Carmel, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, often called simply Carmel, is a small city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, the town is known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history...
, a picturesque spot on the rugged central coast of California, south of San Francisco. He joined the Carmel Art Association and became active in the local art scene. There, he sketched Carmel Bay and the coastal inlets from vantage points on the cliffs. For a number of years, Dougherty spent the cooler months in the desert and the rest of the year in Carmel where he still painted prolifically. Despite his ailments, he and his wife Paula still traveled abroad, going to Europe in 1934 and 1937. still By the 1940s, the effects of old age began to creep up on him and he was unable to work for the last four years of his life. Finally, he was struck with cancer and died in Palm Springs, California where he was wintering, at the age of sixty-nine.
Assessment and Oeuvre
Paul Dougherty was a prolific and successful painter. He forged a national artistic reputation early in his life and his works sold steadily until the modern movementsAmerican modernism
American modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic...
eventually supplanted traditional art in the 1930s. In 1978 the major American sculptor Mahonri Young
Mahonri Young
Mahonri Macintosh Young was an American sculptor and artist. Although he lived most of his life in New York City, Young is most remembered in Utah as being the grandson of Brigham Young, and who sculpted the This Is The Place Monument and the Seagull Monument in Salt Lake City...
wrote of him that "Everything came to him; all his pictures sold, he won all the prizes...the rich delighted to honor him, and his wives were glamorous." While he is primarily recognized for his coastal scenes, he also painted landscapes, mountain scenes and even the arid desert. His best known paintings were rugged coastal scenes of Maine, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
and the Monterey peninsula in California. His artistic production is well divided between scenes of the Maine Coast, the Cornish Coast of England, pictures from his extensive travels in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, a bold series of Alpine paintings and hundreds of paintings done in Carmel, where he had his last studio. Most of these works were in oil, with many smaller works on board and larger works on canvas, but he also worked extensively in watercolor. In her summary of Dougherty's work for the National Arts Club
National Arts Club
The National Arts Club is a private club in Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J...
's collection, art historian Carol Lowrey wrote that "The drama and realism of Dougherty's marines also prompted comparisons to Winslow Homer and indeed, the master's later seascapes served as an aesthetic and thematic model for Dougherty and a number of artists of his generation, such as Frederick Waugh. Like Homer, Dougherty liked to depict churning, turbulent waters, exemplified in canvasses such as Grey Sea, a work that demonstrates his favorite compositional scheme - an outcropping of rocks pounded by the rough surf in the foreground, a high horizon line, and an expansive of cloud streaked sky. As in the majority of his coastal scenes, Dougherty avoids allusions to man, architecture or boats, preferring to concentrate on the tumultuous motion of the sea and the glimmer of light on the wave crests and the rocky shore - denoted here by means of an energetic brushwork and a palette of blues, mauves, greens and browns with a pale yellow, gray and white. While his approach is grounded in the Realist tradition, Dougherty's painterly touch and iridescent hues indicate a debt to Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
as well."
Galleries
Paul Dougherty's works were exhibited in a number of leading commercial galleries in his lifetime, but then primarily on the east coast of the United States. New York's Macbeth Gallery was always his primary dealer. Even by the 1920s, there were not a large number of professional galleries and Carmel was still a small town without the galleries that are familiar to modern visitors. The pioneering Macbeth Gallery in New York was his main representative and for many years he exhibited there each winter. Today, with the tremendous revival of interest in the California Plein-Air movement, his work is primarily sold by galleries in California where he spent the last fifteen years of his life. These firms, which specialize in the works of deceased, historic artists, include George Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood, California, Steve Stern Galleries and William Karges Gallery in Beverly Hills, Redfern Galleries in Laguna Beach, Terry Trotter Fine Art, Westbrook Galleries and James Reiser in Carmel, Michael Johnson Fine Arts in Fallbrook and finally Edenhurst Gallery in Palm Desert. Other galleries who deal in the work of Paul Dougherty are Spanierman Gallery in New York City, Caldwell Gallery in Manlius, New York and the historic Vose Galleries of Boston.See also
- California Plein-Air PaintingCalifornia Plein-Air PaintingThe term California Plein-Air Painting describes the large movement of 20th century California artists who worked out of doors, directly from nature in California, United States. Their work became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California in the first three decades after the...
- American ImpressionismAmerican ImpressionismImpressionism, a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-An emerging artistic style from Paris:...
- French Impressionism
- National Academy of DesignNational Academy of DesignThe National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
- California Art ClubCalifornia Art ClubThe California Art Club , founded in 1909, is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. It celebrated its centennial in the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved from the Painters Club of Los Angeles...
Memberships and Affiliations
- National Academy of Design, New York, New York
- National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, New York
- National Arts Club, New York, New York
- Society of American Artists, New York
- American Watercolor Society, New York
- Bohemian Club, San Francisco, California
- Lotos ClubLotos ClubThe Lotos Club is a gentleman's club in New York City. Founded in 1870 by a young group of writers and critics, Mark Twain, an early member, called it the "Ace of Clubs"...
, New York, New York - Salmugundi Club, New York, New York
Exhibition History
- 1901 - Group Exhibition - Salon des les Artistes Francais, Paris, France
- 1903 - Group Exhibition - Society of Brooklyn Painters, Hooper Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, 1903
- 1904 - Group Exhibition - Louisiana Purchase ExpositionLouisiana Purchase ExpositionThe Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
, The St. Louis World's Fair, St. Louis, Missouri, 1904 - 1907 - Solo Exhibition - Paintings by Paul Dougherty, Macbeth Gallery, February 1–16, 1907 (Dougherty's first solo exhibition)
- 1908 - Group Exhibition - 104th Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Dougherty was on jury, his work was not in competition)
- 1908 - Solo Exhibition - Paintings by Paul Dougherty, Macbeth Gallery, January 20- February 1, 1908
- 1909 - Solo Exhibition - Paintings by Paul Dougherty, Macbeth Gallery, February 5–18, 1909
- 1910 - Solo Exhibition - Sixteen Paintings of the Cornish Coast by Paul Dogherty, Macbehth Gallery, January 6–19, 1910
- 1910 - Solo Exhibition - 66 Sketches in Oil by Paul Dougherty, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, March 26-April 11, 1910
- 1911 - Group Exhibition - Dougherty, Davis, Garber, Satain, Williams, Macbeth Gallery, March 9–22, 1911
- !912 - Group Exhibition - Dougherty, Davis, Foster, Sartain, Symons, Williams, Macbeth Gallery February 14- March 2, 1912
- 1912 - Group Exhibition - 7th Annual Exhibition of Selected American Paintings, City Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (Dougherty exhibited #38 "Base of the Cliff")
- 1913 - Solo Exhibition - Paintings by Paul Dougherty, Macbeth Gallery, January 28- February 10, 1913
- 1913 - Group Exhibition - National Academy of Design, Annual Spring Exhibition, 1913 (Dougherty won the Inness Award)
- 1914 - Group Exhibition - Dougherty, Carlsen, Frieseke, Hassam, Metcalf, Miller, Weir, Macbeth Gallery, January 6–19, 1914
- 1914 - Group Exhibition - Friends of American Art Loan Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, January 8–28, 1914 (Dougherty was represented by five works, Sargent, Benson, Ranger, Moran also had multiple works)
- 1914 - Group Exhibition - 18th Annual International Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, April 30-June 14, 1914 (Special selection of pictures by Dougherty)
- 1914 - Solo Exhibition - Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Paul Dougherty, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Illinois, July 15-August 14, 1914
- 1914 - Detroit Art Institute Loan Exhibition, October 3–26, 1914 (Exhibited Mahana Point)
- 1915 - Group Exhibition - Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California (Dougherty exhibited four works and won a Gold Medal at the World's Fair)
- 1915 - Group Exhibition - 8th Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Illinois, November 16, 1915-January 2, 1916 (Dougherty was a judge and his work was not judged)
- 1916 - Group Exhibition - Exhibition of Painter Members of the National Arts Club, New York, January, 1916 (Dougherty exhibited one painting)
- 1916 - Group Exhibition - American Artists, Toledo Museum of Art, 1916
- 1916 - Group Exhibition - Dougherty, Davis, Miller, Ryder, Sartain, Macbeth Gallery, March 8–21, 1916
- 1916 - Group Exhibition - 3rd Annual Exhibition at Mystic, Connecticut, Fall, 1916 (Dougherty exhibits with Ranger, Miller, Weir, Hawthorne, Charles H. Davis organizes)
- 1916 - Group Exhibition - 9th Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, November 2 - December 7, 1916 (Dougherty exhibits #86, "October Morning")
- 1917 - Solo Exhibition - Watercolors by Paul Dougherty, Macbeth Gallery, December 13- January 15, 1917
- 1918 - Group Exhibition - 93rd Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, New York, March 13-April 21, 1919 (Won Altman Prize with Bottalac Cove")
- 1918 - Group Exhibition - Founders' Day Exhibition of Stimmel Collection, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Dougherty painting was exhibited, among the 65 works that Stimmel purchased from International Exhibitions)
- 1919 - Duo Exhibition - Paintings by Paul Dougherty and Charles H. Davis, Macbeth Gallery, January 27-February 8, 1919
- 1919 - Group Exhibition - 31st Annual Exhibition of Watercolors, Pastels and Miniatures by American Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, May 15-June 15, 1919 (Special exhibition by three masters, Beal, Hassam and Dougherty, five works)
- 1920 - Group Exhibition - Exhibition of American Painters, Cleveland Museum of Art, February 15-March _, 1920 (Works drawn from AIC Annual went to Tornonto and Cleveland including Dougherty, Thayer, Waugh)
- 1921 - Group Exhibition -Watercolors by Nine American Artists, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York, January, 1921
- 1921 - Group Exhibition - American Watercolors, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, November 8 - December 7, 1921 (four works by Dougherty)
- 1923 - Group Exhibition - 9th Annual Exhibition, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, April 11-May 31, 1923 (Dougherty exhibits #29 Dahlias and Gladiolas")
- 1925 - Group Exhibition - Exhibition of Watercolors by Distinguished American Artists, Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York, December 8, 1925-January 4, 1926 (Dougherty, Hassam, Hopper, Potthast, Davies, Hawthorne)
- 1926 - Group Exhibition - Intimate Impressionists, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1926 (Sisley, Bonnard, Morisot, Perendergast, Andre, Phillips, Halpert, Dougherty)
- 1939 - Group Exhibition - Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, California
Awards and honors
- Gold Medal, Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915)
- Altman Prize, National Academy of Design, 93rd Annual Exhibition (1918) (Won with "Bottalac Cove")
- Inness Gold Medal, National Academy of Design (1913)
- Carnegie Prize, National Academy of Design (1915)
- Palmer Memorial Prize, National Academy of Design (1941)
- Silver Medal, 18th Annual Carnegie International Exhibition (1914)
Studio Locations
- Sebasco, Maine,
- Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
- Paris, France
- St. Ives, Corwall, England
- New York, New York
- Tucson, Arizona
Public Collections with Works by Paul Dougherty
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York ("October Seas" purchased by the museum in 1911)
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Illinois ("Blue Gale" was a museum purchase in 1910)
- Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey,
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, College
- Addison Museum of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
- Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, Utica, New York
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
- Albright-Knox Museum of Art, Buffalo, New York
- Ball State Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana
- Arizona State Museum of Art, Tempe, Arizona
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
- Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
- Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
- Museum of Art at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
- The Irvine Museum, Irvine, California
- Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia
- The Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Hackley Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan ("A Golden Light" was a museum purchase in 1913 soon after the museum was founded)
- National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.
- National Gallery of Art, Canada, Ottawa, Canada
- St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts, St. Louis, Missouri ("After the Gale" was purchased in 1916)
- Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
- Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York ("Coast of Cornwall" presented by George Eastman of Eastman-Kodak)
- Brooklyn Museum, New York, New York
- Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina
- Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
- Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
- High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
- Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, Long Island, New York
- The Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
- Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, Wisconsin
- The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland
- Montclair Art Gallery, Montclair, New Jersey
- Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida,
- Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
- The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. ("Storm Voices" was one of Duncan Phillip's first purchases, the Phillips also has "Round the Bay")
- The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
- Mabee-Gerrer Museum of ArtMabee-Gerrer Museum of ArtThe Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art is an independent, non-profit art museum located in Shawnee, OK. It is affiliated with St. Gregory's Abbey. It is on the campus of St. Gregory's University. The museum works under the belief that art enriches individual lives and enhances the entire community....
, Shawnee, Oklahoma - The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
- The Arkell Museum at Canajoharie, Canajoharie, New York
- Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
- Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
- The Parish Art Museum, Southhampton, New York
- The Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina (A "Freshening Gale" and "No Man's Bay" were a museum purchase and "California Sunset" was a gift from the artist's daughter Lisa Dougherty Coons in 1988)
Dougherty Paintings Exhibited at Annual Exhibitions at the Detroit Art Institute
- 1918 - 77. Gurnard’s Head
- 1919 - 73. Summer Morning
- 1923 - 35. Moonlit Surf
- 1922 - 39. Rock Fortress (Illustrated)
- 1923 - 29. Dahlias and Gladiolus
- 1925 - 28. At Sunset
- 1926 - 33. The Big Wave
- 1927 - 34. Across the Bay
- 1931 - 101. Shadowed
Paul Dougherty Paintings Exhibited in Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York
- Exhibition of Paintings by Paul Dougherty, January 8-February 15, 1915
- 50 The Matterhorn
- 51 The Sunlit Moraine
- 52 Botallack Cove
- 53 Near the Runnel Stone
- 54 Mid-Summer
- 55 Summer Morning
- 56 Surf Running off Rocks
- 57 Black Norther
- 58 On a Far-Away Coast
- 59 Low Tide at Evening
- 60 Monte Rosa from Zermatt Glacier
- 61 Evening Calm
- 62 On the Riffelalp
- 63 Gabelhorn from Schwarz-See
- 64 Mussel-Bedded Rocks
- 65 Barnacled Rocks
- 66 At the Base of the Cliff
- 67 Matterhorn : Morning Mists
- 68 The Weisshorn Massif
- 69 The Mischabelhorner
- 70 The Breithorn
- 71 St. Ives
- 72 Sunlit Rocks
- 73 Gray Weather, Tintagel
- 74 Marine
Watercolors Exhibited at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York, January, 1921
- 50. Rocks at Monterey
- 51. Grand Canyon
- 52. Grey Day, Monterey Coast
- 53. The Palm, Porto Rico
Watercolors Exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, May 15-June 15, 1921
- 294. Sunlight and Waves
- 295. Sunset, Moose's Neck
- 296. Montaubon, Manilla
- 297. Temple Trees, Nikko
- 298. Porto Rican Study
Watercolors Exhibited in Macbeth Gallery Exhibition of Distinguished American Watercolorists, December 8-1925-January 4, 1926
- 14. California Coast, Evening
- 15. Clouds and Hills, Souel
- 16. Evening at Monterey