ERNEST LAWSON (1873-1939)
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Biography • Ernest Lawson (1873-1939)
Ernest Lawson was a leading American Impressionist. He found his style early and believed Impressionism was the most progressive style for modern landscape painting. Lawson’s New York subjects focused on the Harlem River, Washington Heights, and Inwood in northern Manhattan. Later, trips to Cornish, New Hampshire; Kansas City, Missouri; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Florida also provided subjects for Lawson’s brush. Like most successful American Impressionists, Lawson spent time painting in Europe. Moret-sur-Loing in France and Segovia in Spain were locations in which Lawson found inspiration. Lawson was one of the first American Impressionists to paint in thick, smooth impasto applied with a palette knife. His highly personal use of color led one critic to comment that he seemed to paint from “a palette of crushed jewels.” Lawson’s style was consistent, distinctive and easily recognized. Like Monet, Lawson often selected a single subject and painted it in different lights and different weather conditions.
Lawson was born in Nova Scotia in 1873, the son of a doctor. When his father’s practice took him to Kansas City, Missouri, young Lawson was left behind and raised by an aunt in Ontario. At fifteen Lawson joined his parents in Kansas City and enrolled at the Kansas City Art League. In 1889 Lawson’s father took a position as a doctor with a foreign construction firm and Ernest accompanied his father to Mexico where he worked as a draftsman and studied at the San Carlos Art Academy. Focused on becoming an artist, Lawson moved to New York in 1891 to study at the Art Students League and then with Impressionists John Twachtman and J. Alden Weir in Cos Cob, Connecticut.
From New York and the Art Students League, Lawson went on to study at the Académie Julian in 1892-3. Major events during his stay in France were meeting with Alfred Sisley and Claude Monet and exhibiting two of his paintings at the Salon of 1894. It was Sisley who advised him to be more assertive in his brushwork and, for a time, his work wavered between the conflicting influences of Sisley and Twachtman. It was also while in Paris, in 1894, that Lawson shared a studio with Somerset Maugham, who used some of Lawson’s personality in the character Frederick Lawson in his book, Of Human Bondage.
Upon his return to Kansas City, Ernest Lawson married one of his teachers from the Kansas City Art League, Ella Hoffman. After honeymooning in France, they returned to Canada, where they both taught for a while. They also taught art for periods in Asheville, North Carolina and Columbus, Georgia. Finally, the Lawson family, now with two young daughters, came to New York City and settled in Washington Heights at 453 West 155th Street in 1898. Lawson lived in this then-isolated part of northern Manhattan for eight years and during this period, painted some of his most important works featuring the Hudson River and its offshoot the Harlem River, including On the Hudson River, Palisades, c.1898. These subjects made up many of the 22 paintings included in Lawson’s first museum solo exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in March of 1907.
In New York, Lawson met Robert Henri and was invited to participate in the first exhibition of a group that came to be known as “The Eight” with their 1908 exhibition at MacBeth Gallery. As one of “The Eight” Lawson found fellow artists with whom he formed friendship, shared ideas, and frequently exhibited. The Eight included Lawson, Robert Henri, George Luks, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, William Glackens, Maurice Prendergast, and Arthur B. Davies. This group was integral in the planning of The Armory Show of 1913 and the works Lawson exhibited in the Armory Show brought him national recognition.
Lawson exhibited broadly in the Teens and found favor with many important collectors. Critics said that his canvases opened one’s eyes to the beauty of everyday scenes and the charms of familiar places. Marjorie and Duncan Phillips, founders of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D. C., purchased many landscapes by Ernest Lawson. Ferdinand Howald, a famous collector from Columbus, Ohio, bought twelve Lawson paintings from the artist’s dealer, Charles Daniel. William Glackens sold another dozen paintings by Lawson to Albert Barnes in Merion, Pennsylvania.
In 1915 Ernest Lawson and Bryson Burroughs had an exhibition in Paris, a rare event for American artists. Lawson achieved additional successes in 1915, winning a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, as well as the Altman Prize at the National Academy of Design. Also in 1915 Lawson’s dealer, Charles Daniel, had a successful exhibition of the artist’s landscapes, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased one of his paintings. Lawson had four further solo exhibitions at Daniel Gallery between 1917 and 1922. With money from these sales, Lawson took his family to Spain in 1917, renting a house in Segovia. Upon his return to New York, Ernest Lawson was elected to the National Academy and received the Inness Gold Medal. Success continued for Lawson with a solo exhibition at the Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts in 1919 and the museum’s purchase of four paintings.
Lawson and his family spent time in 1919 and 1920 in Cornish, New Hampshire with the family of William Glackens, where Lawson and Glackens painted the mountain scenery. Lawson was invited to teach in Kansas City in 1927 and then in Colorado Springs at the Broadmoor Art Academy from 1927 to 1930. He continued to send paintings to New York where he now was represented by Ferargil Galleries, which held solo exhibitions of Lawson’s work every two years from 1928 to 1940.
Lawson was introduced to Florida by one of his students from Colorado Springs, Katherine Powell. When Katherine and her husband moved to Florida, they invited Ernest Lawson to stay with them regularly. Florida agreed with Lawson and he moved to Coral Gables in 1936, though he continued to show in New York and even create a mural for the Short Hills Post Office in New Jersey as part of the Federal Art Program. Lawson passed away in Florida in 1939.