Description

A very fine portrait by the American artist Frank Desch, signed lower left. The attractive young sitter, positively glowing with happiness, proudly displays her engagement and marriage rings. There is little doubt this portrait was commissioned to commemorate her wedding.
Desch was strongly influenced by the French Impressionists, and indeed, the background is typical of the work of Matisse.
The portrait was painted in Paris and is the French great grandmother of the lady from whom I bought this painting. It is in superb condition, in its original French plaster frame; the canvas has never been lined, and now the old discoloured varnish has been removed, and the original surface revealed, the painting can be seen as vibrant as the day it was created.
FRANK DESCH (1873-1934) was a painter born in 1873 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts and later in New York City, and studied under William Merritt Chase and Charles Hawthorne, and Louis Francois Biloul in Paris. Later he worked for the Saturday Evening Post. He often worked in oil, watercolour and pastels, and frequently depicted genre, figurative and floral subjects.
Member: Allied Artists of America; Provincetown Art Association.
Exhibited: Art Institute of Chicago, 1914, 1921, 1923, 1925; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art 1923; Salmagundi Club, 1924 (prize); Corcoran Gallery, 1919, 1921; Florida Federation of Art, Miami, 1930 (prize).
SIZE: 39 x 34 x 3.25 inches including the frame.
PROVENANCE: by direct descent through the family.
Internal Ref: 9215

Dimensions

Height = 99 cm (39")
Width = 86.5 cm (34")
Depth = 8 cm (3")