Lot of rare, period antique, circa 1907 original artwork (watercolor paintings and drawings) including one w/c inscribed verso of the mountains in North Carolina (Black Mountain / Montreat area, near Asheville, NC) and one signed w/c painting, all by American Arts & Crafts Movement artist Ethel Hope Larter (Am., 1876-1972). All are unframed.
Small size paintings and drawings in this lot. The four (4) watercolors range in size from the smallest being 3 1/2 x 5 inches and the largest being 8 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches. Drawings are 4 x 5" (folded size) and 5 x 6 1/4". At least two or three of the watercolors appear to be southern scenes, done in North Carolina. Asheville, NC is today's home to the National Arts and Crafts Conference. Ms. Larter was from Ohio, the home of Rookwood Pottery plus Weller, Owens, Watt, Roseville, McCoy, Hull, Shawnee and other potteries.
Provenance (of all items in this lot): Estate of Larter’s niece, Ethel “Phoebe” Maud(e) Hall Hagen (Am., 1897-1986) aka Mrs. Edward Gillette (U.S. Marine Colonel) Hagen. The estate included paintings and drawings, mostly by Ethel Hagen, but with a good number by her aunt, Ethel Larter, and also a couple watercolors by the friend and portraitist of President Abraham Lincoln, George Senyard (Am., 1836-1924). All three were Ohio artists and all of them traveled a lot, as artists often do.
Ethel Hope Larter was the younger sister of Anna Louise Larter. They were from Cleveland, OH. Ethel Larter never married but her sister Anna did. Anna was married to William Walker Hall. He was a railroad executive. They ended up living in California (William Hall passed away in Los Angeles). William and Anna were the parents of Ethel “Phoebe” Hall Hagen, the artist-niece of Ethel Hope Larter.
Ethel Larter studied at and graduated from what’s known today as the Cleveland Institute of Art. It was founded by Sarah Kimball and chartered in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women. In 1892, it was renamed the Cleveland School of Art. For 41 years, beginning in 1885, the main teacher there was Frederick C. Gottwald (1858-1941).
Up until at least the 1910’s, Ms. Larter was listing herself as an “illustrator”, but she was in fact a multi talented artist: landscape painter, portrait and genre scene painter, and early American Arts and Crafts Movement decorator / pattern designer of pottery / ceramic / china objects (see photo of one of her bowls pictured in Keramic Studio Magazine, Oct., 1903).
Larter traveled a lot, painting everywhere from Maine to North Carolina. By 1932, she was living in China (the country) along with her artist-niece Ethel Hagen. Besides painting and drawing in a realist / illustration art style, Larter also produced great quality American Impressionist / Arts & Crafts Movement landscapes. She was a follower of Arthur W. Dow and his teachings. By the 1930’s, Larter was also painting Modernist works in a Symbolism style, of which I have several to sell and I believe they're from her China years.
In the May, 1933 Spring Salon at the Peiping Institute Of Fine Arts (Peiping is Beijing), Larter exhibited a crayon drawing entitled "Primitive Method". I think she was an avant garde woman. Larter was part of the art community in China along with other significant artists such as her niece Ethel Hagen, Thomas Handforth, Katharine Jowett, Lucile Swan, Mary Augusta Mullikin and Anna Mary Hotchkis RSA, Wilma C. Fairbank, and others who exhibited at the Peiping Salons.
By the 1940’s, Ms. Larter was back in the States and working out of the Chicago area, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Your bid is for just the artworks in the main (first) picture. I’ve posted pictures of other Hagen estate items for your reference only. Check out my upcoming eBay listings for more great pieces by this artist from the Hagen estate!