American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists

Provenance:

The Patricia Weiner Gallery, Montgomery, Ohio.

Private Collection, Connecticut.

Freeman's, Sale of June 4, 2017, Lot 63.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Private Collection, Pennsylvania.

Exhibited:

Cincinnati, The University Club, "Annual Art Exhibition," 1937.

Literature:

Les and Sue Fox, Fern Isabel Coppedge, 1883-1951: One Woman's Struggle for Equality in the Art World, Midland Park, 2021, no. CGF-1.

Lot Note:

Pigeon Cove depicts a harbor in Rockport, Massachusetts, a recurring source of inspiration for Fern Coppedge, who summered there on numerous occasions. The work displays many of the hallmarks of Coppedge’s style, including a bold, colorful palette and soft draftsmanship, converging to yield a picturesque rendering of a familiar setting. Shown at sunset and at a high angle perspective, the painting offers a definite sense of depth, dramatizing an otherwise uneventful scene. Yet, it also suggests intimacy, the quaintness of the view transcending the implied vastness of the body of water and landscape on the horizon. Following the path of the sailboat making its way back, soon to anchor for the evening, the eye quickly travels from the distant shore to the marina to finally close in on details such as the shack on stilts or the gulls circling above—details that we notice precisely because of the local color and sense of authenticity they provide. Coppedge indeed excelled at capturing atmospheres emanating from expansive vistas and her rendering of locales is rooted in what makes them homelike.