Autumn Symphony

at History Center, January 2023

at History Center, January 2023

Name/Title

Autumn Symphony

Entry/Object ID

2023.03.02

Description

Oil-on-canvas landscape painting in a wooden, gilt frame. The painting depicts bright, sandy dunes as seen from a shaded viewpoint with pine trees and grasses in the foreground. A note penciled on the frame of "Sept 24" may indicate the painting was created on September 24.

Type of Painting

Easel

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil

Context

This painting hung in the Saugatuck Fruit Growers bank (and it many later iterations) for more than 90 years. According to an article in the November 8, 1929 Commercial Record newspaper, the work was painted "near the end of the Skylin Drive on the Felt estate with the glistening dune near Gibson rising to the North. One of the picturesque old pines nearby is introduced in the foreground with its somber green contrast to the vivid coloration of advanced autumn." The landscape captured by Hoerman still exists today in the Saugatuck Dunes State Park and the Shore Acres Township Park in Laketown Township.

Collection

Artworks

Cataloged By

Winthers, Sally

Acquisition

Accession

2023.03

Source or Donor

Mize Rose Garden north side/Fruit Growers State Bank/Clapp's Grocery/Flint's Shoes/Walz Meat Market/Griffin/Tanner

Acquisition Method

Donation, unconditional

Made/Created

Artist

Hoerman, Carl 1885-1955

Date made

1929

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Signature

Location

lower right corner

Dimensions

Height

29 in

Width

27 in

Location

Room

2nd floor gallery/conference room

Research Notes

Notes

The painting appears on page 24 of the 1997 SDHC publication "Painting the Town" as "Big Pavilion from the Douglas Shore," 1949, with the following description on page 33: "In Michigan and Chicago he [Hoerman] is best known for his landscapes and dune scenes, with dramatic foliage outlined against a sky of swirling clouds. In a large painting of Kalamazoo Lake the viewer looks over the south bank of the lake, past fall-tinted foliage to the village of Saugatuck on the north bank where the Big Pavilion looks pink in the brightness of a morning sun. The sandy top of Mount Baldhead gleams in the distance."

Create Date

January 10, 2023

Update Date

August 21, 2024