Personal Preferences: Paintings from the Jim Craig and Randy Johnson Collection

The Mint Museum of Art

February 10, 2007- June 3, 2007.

Background

The Jim Craig and Randy Johnson Collection is an extensive private collection consisting of over 65 American works from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These works include landscapes, seascapes and portraits in a variety of mediums ranging from oil paintings to collage. Featured artists include: Frank Myers Boggs, William Brigham, Romare Bearden, Hallie Champlin-Hyde, William Merritt Chase and Emma MacRae. Overall this collection exhibits a delightfully personal view of the American art world from the late eighteenth century through the early twentieth century.

William Brigham

Fiducit 1862

Internet Sources for Featured Artists

• Ask Art! is a fee-based site which has basic artist information for free. On Fridays the site is open to everyone and it offers a comprehensive search of artists and gives biographical information in addition to book and magazine references. It also has extensive amounts of the artist's work.

• The Romare Bearden Foundation website is dedicated to the artist and features a biography, past and current exhibitions, and educational resources.

• View a photograph of James Carol Beckwith with the Art Students League taken around 1895 from the Archives of American Art.

Frank Myers Boggs

On the Quay 1919

• See examples of Frank Myers Boggs works along with a biography.

• For a biography and additional information about Hallie Champlin-Hyde, check out her entry at Ask Art.com.

• View John Singer Sargent's portrait of William Merritt Chase along with an account of Chase's life.

• Gordon Coutts' artwork and a short biography can be found on this site.

• William Frerichs was born in Belgium and moved to Greensboro, NC; many of his works are North Carolina landscapes. His paintings along with several other artists from the Personal Preferences exhibition were included in an American landscape show titled Natural Selection.

• The Clark Point Gallery features nineteenth and early twentieth century paintings of Maine and Mount Desert Island. William Gilchrist has a brief biography on this page. For more images of his work, visit this site!

• See Encyclopedia Britannica for a biography of Henry Inman along with several images. In addition many museums and galleries feature his work.

Emma MacRae

Elizabeth

• See more examples of Emma MacRae's paintings.

• Images and a biography of Charles Wesley Jarvis who was taught by Henry Inman can be found at these sites.

• The works of Louis Aston Knight can be found in many galleries and museums.

• Museums where Robert Vonnoh's work can be located are listed here.

Print Resources from the Mint Museum Library

• American Painting 1760-1960. Milwaukee Art Center, March 3rd-April 3rd, 1960. Many genres of American painting are featured in this exhibition catalogue including landscapes, streetscapes, still lifes and portraits. It gives a summary of the techniques used by American artists during this time.

William Merritt Chase

Portrait of William Whitewright Jr

• American Paintings at the High Museum of Art. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1994. The High Museum of Art highlights their collection of nineteenth century American paintings in this catalog, including works by William Merritt Chase and Henry Inman.

• American Painting: The Landon Collection. Charlotte, NC: Mint Museum of Art, 1979. This catalog has a short informative section on William Frerichs' life and an image of one of his snowscapes.

• Curry, David Park. Capturing Beauty: American Impressionist & Realist Paintings from the McGlothlin Collection. Richmond, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2005. This exhibition catalog dedicates several pages to William Merrit Chase who taught Edward Hopper. His impressionistic paintings of musicians and seascapes are prominently featured.

Gordon Coutts

The Prospector

• Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1985. This is a directory of artists which provides short biographical sketches including exhibition information, their professional organization memberships, and educational institutions they attended. Hallie Champlin-Hyde, Gordon Coutts, William Frerichs, William Wallace Gilchrist, Louis Aston Knight, J. Duncan MacGregor, Emma MacRae, William Jackson Rice and Robert William Vonnoh are all present in this volume.

• Fink, Lois Marie. American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. This book is about the Paris Salons during the nineteenth century and the American artists that exhibited in them, including Frank Myers Boggs, James Carroll Beckwith and Robert Vonnoh.

Robert Vonnoh

Albert Sprague Coolidge 1898

• Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville Press Publishing, 1984. This study of American Impressionist painters features Robert Vonnoh and is an excellent resource for this artist.

• Johnston, Sona. American Paintings 1750-1900: from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1989. This catalog of work gives an overview of American art from 1750-1900. Several artists from the Jim Craig and Randy Johnson collection such as William Merritt Chase and Henry Inman are included in this work.

• Petteys, Chris. Dictionary of Women Artists. New York: G.K.Hall & Co, 1985. This biographical dictionary includes an entry for Emma MacRae.

• Schwartzman, Myron. Romare Bearden: His Life & Art. Harry N. Abrams, Inc: New York, 1990. Myron Schwartzman interviewed Romare Bearden for several years before compiling this primary reference on the artist.

• Two Hundred Years of Visual Arts. North Carolina Museum of Art: Raleigh, 1976. This is an exhibition of work by artists whose subject matter focuses on North Carolina. The painting by Frerichs in this catologue depicts part of Cherokee County, NC.

Additional Information!

• The resources do not stop here, feel free to make an appointment and stop by the Mint Museum Library to learn more about these artists!

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Created by Rebecca Walton October 31, 2006.