Autumn Landscape by Jonas Lie 1925 antique color print
(Autumn Landscape Art by Jonas Lie Printed London: 1925; f...)
Autumn Landscape Art by Jonas Lie Printed London: 1925; for the Studio Fine original antique offset photo-mechanical color print. This particular type of early-20th century color printing process is now essentially extinct as method of reproducing images, rendering this 90 year old printed leaf an interesting original artifact from a past era. Printed on quality period coated stock paper which may show typical gentle signs of age, perhaps some minor light spotting or foxing, but retains its inherent structural flexibility and soundness. An appealing, uncommon and interesting image. In Very Good or better antiquarian condition, clean overall, light minor age dustiness or small light surface wear, trivial spotting -- please inspect enlargable photo closely, any noteworthy flaws to the printed surface area should be noticable within picture provided. Advertisement on the back. In all, a fine image entirely worthy of ownership and display. note: We grade very conservatively and always seek to disclose any noteworthy flaws. We are doing our best to show & describe this item so you are happy when it arrives. Despite any small age flaws, the printed area remains visually pleasing, and the print is well preserved. Overall a nice impression of an original and interesting antique printed image that any collector, curator or institution would be happy to own or display. Sheet measures c. 11 5/8" W x 8 1/4" H. Printed area measures c. 7 5/8" W x 6" H. 51533
Jonas Lie was born on April 29, 1880 in Moss, Norway, the only son and third of the four children of Sverre and Helen Augusta (Steele) Lie. His father, a civil engineer, was Norwegian, his mother American. When Jonas was twelve years old his father died. His mother, who was visiting New York City at the time with her daughters, remained there, and the boy was sent to Paris to live with his uncle, the celebrated Norwegian novelist Jonas Lauritz Edemil Lie, after whom he had been named. Jonas rejoined the family in New York in 1893.
Education
Jonas attended the Ethical Culture School in New York. Determined to become a painter, he enrolled in evening classes at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students' League and joined several youthful companions in outdoor sketching on Sundays and holidays.
He received the honorary degrees from Lawrence College (Appleton, Wisconsin) and Syracuse University.
Career
On his graduation, in 1897, Lie went to work in a textile concern in Plainfield, New Jersey, where for nine years he designed the decorative patterns to be printed on calico and gingham. In 1900 he submitted his first picture, "The Gray Day, " to the National Academy and was overjoyed when it passed the jury. Within a few years Lie's pictures were appearing regularly in national exhibitions. In 1912 he was elected an Associate of the National Academy and an Academician in 1925. The Academy had in 1906 absorbed the Society of American Artists, a progressive-minded off-shoot dating back to 1877, since the membership and governing bodies of the two institutions had become to a considerable extent identical. Partly as a result of the merger, partly because of a general upsurge in painting, during the next decade the number of works submitted to the Academy's jury of selection for its annual exhibitions greatly increased. This gave rise to a series of controversies between "radicals" and "conservatives" in regard to rejected works and the election of new members. When in 1919 thirteen candidates nominated by the "radicals" were defeated--among them George Luks, Jerome Myers, Maurice Prendergast and John Sloan--Lie and some twenty-seven of his colleagues, including Robert Henri, George Bellows, and Gari Melchers formed a new organization (though without leaving the Academy): the American Painters, Sculptors and Gravers (renamed next year the New Society of Artists). Years later Lie accomplished some of the objectives of this earlier movement when, as president of the National Academy (1934 - 1939), he reorganized the jury of selection, permitting the members to judge works only in their own professional class, and, by means of a special membership committee, liberalized the national representation of new members.
In his own painting Lie was essentially a traditionalist, in contrast to many "avant garde" painters of his day who were primarily concerned with abstract aesthetics. His aim, as he explained it, was not to "symbolize nature, but in portraying nature to impart a sense of what is within and beyond". He painted directly and fluently. His pictorial interest was in industrial structures, harbors, shipping, and coastal towns. This stimulated his sense of design and marked his departure from the traditional conception of landscape. At the time of the construction of the Panama Canal he dramatized the significance of this project in twelve large canvases, ten of which were later presented to West Point by an anonymous donor in memory of Gen. George W. Goethals, builder of the canal.
Lie's work is represented in many of the important museums of America, in the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, and in private collections, including that of Crown Prince Olaf of Norway, to whom Lie's "Herring Cove at Dawn" was presented, as a wedding present, by a group of Norwegian-Americans. Finding the duties and contingent demands of his office drawing heavily on his time and strength, he resigned as president of the National Academy in 1939. He died the following year of pneumonia in New York City, at the age of fifty-nine, and was buried at Hillside Cemetery, Plainfield, New Jersey.
He was member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Personality
Lie's engaging and buoyant personality won him many friends.
Connections
Lie was first married to Charlotte Egede Nissen, from whom he was divorced in 1916. In the same year he married Anga Sontum, a dancer, who died in 1927 during a sojourn in Norway. Their daughter, Sonja, survived him.