Nocturnes
Curator’s Essay
In 1899, at an exhibition in New York, California artist Charles Rollo Peters (1862-1928) exhibited a series of sixteen moonlit views of California missions. His nocturnal paintings had an enormous impact on East Coast painters such as Frederic Remington (1861-1909), best known for his images of the American West and young emerging talent such as DeWitt Parshall (1864-1956) who would ultimately reside in Santa Barbara.
Charles Rollo Peters, Santa Ynez Mission by Moonlight
Peters’ Monterey ranch became an artist’s hub particularly for those who sought to learn how to master the technical and aesthetic qualities of painting darkness. His lone, ramshackle Spanish adobes became his signature motif and best express the principles of tonal painting that he had learned in Paris. Peters admired the nocturnes of James McNeil Whistler, whose work he felt encapsulated the aesthetic principles and tonal harmonies that he sought. Whistler was inspired to title his nighttime scenes nocturnes after the moody musical compositions by Frédéric Chopin. French composer Claude Debussy, in turn, inspired by Whistler’s paintings, composed his own Nocturnes, a composition in three movements. Entering the twentieth century were musicians and painters who took their cues and inspiration from the nighttime sky.
Many painters of Peters’ generation felt that the widespread use of electrical light would forever change the landscape of the night. Early twentieth century nocturne painters portrayed nostalgic, romantic images of a fleeting world illuminated by firelight, candlelight, or the full moon. But Whistler had also developed nocturnal themes to explore modern painting techniques. Using a limited palette of blues and grays, he dramatically simplified his compositions. These pared down landscapes signal the future direction of abstract painters. What distinguished many West Coast artists such as Peters from their European counterparts was a heightened sense of narrative in their work. Evocative nighttime effects increased the drama of a landscape or a building’s façade. Many artists painted darkened landscapes to express their deep response to nature. The shadowy forms and silhouettes of Peter’s Eucalyptus Nocturne evokes silence and solitude while DeWitt Parshall’s blurred details and smoky veils of paint in “The Darkness He Called Night” reflects the mysterious sensations that come when darkness falls. Each introspective mood is utterly dependent on the contrast and relationship between dark and light.
Many late nineteenth-century artists used nocturnal paintings to represent spiritual transcendence that was a departure from the naturalism and literalism of the Hudson River School painters who relied on sharp details and recognizable locations. In the wake of Charles Darwin’s momentous discoveries, nocturne painter’s ambiguous, unsettling scenes became spiritual substitutes for traditional religious doctrine. The reverie that Charles Rollo Peters evokes in Mission Santa Ines is not tied to the Biblical story of creation or Catholic doctrine. The mission’s moonlit façade is a highly subjective spiritual evocation of discovery and transcendence under the cloak of night.
-Jane Dini
Thomas Van Stein, Moonset West, Old San Marcos Road
Artist‘s Essay:
“The Lure of Darkness: Artists in a Nocturnal World”
Painting nocturnes is one adventurous way for an artist to experience the realm of the unknown: either something never seen before, or a familiar subject seen in an unfamiliar way. It is an inward journey. While searching for comparisons between light and dark, night painting mystifies and intrigues the artist. Delving into the womb-like night, the painter interprets each abstract element in the darkness, courageously embracing the shadows.
The challenge for the artist is to make coherent sense of the vague abstractions, and see light where there is little or none at all. Sometimes it is there, sometimes not. Sometimes he sees with his eyes, other times he must rely on intuition. Like a hunter, the goal is to pursue and capture on canvas the timelessness of night light falling in varying quantities on the landscape. Like a far away spotlight, the moon provides guidance, casting its nearly invisible moonbeams onto the Earth’s surfaces. Like a magnetic lure, the moon attracts the artist’s eye and captivates his imagination. By painting quickly, he can attempt to stop this orb-like nightlight in its tracks-- just long enough to make sense of this world and eventually bring darkness to light.
The night painter paints the moonlit sky with humility, contemplating the antiquity of transcendental moonshine. He is in league with mad men, visionaries, and common folk who have stared into the moonlit sky in wonderment, searching for clues and answers to life’s questions. Nocturne paintings provide clues to the artist‘s experience. Like bread crumbs on a trail, each painting represents a treasure map made in hope that some day, someone will decipher it.
-Thomas Van Stein
Lockwood de Forest, Mission Canyon at Sunset
Collector’s Essay
My first encounter with nocturne paintings came about 1970, when I purchased a moonlit Monterey adobe on wood panel by Charles Rollo Peters. It was offered to me as “John Gamble’s last work”! Since that transaction, I have acquired over a hundred moonlit works and enjoyed a long fruitful friendship with Betty McGlynn, Carmel art historian, who was the expert on Peters.
Peters was surely influenced by Whistler’s nocturnes, probably during his student days in Paris in the mid 1880’s when he shared a room with DeWitt Parshall. I’m sure Peters influenced the elder Parshall’s move to California at the turn of the century. At Peters’ hilltop estate in Monterey, he entertained the bohemian art crowd and many of his colleagues painted moonlight works. For one evening’s entertainment, Peters dug a reflecting pool, which by the time the moon appeared, had turned into a muddy bog as the soil absorbed the water. The guests enjoyed the unanticipated result.
After Peters’ death in 1928, the torch for nocturnal paintings was carried forward by Matthew Barnes, a self-taught Scottish immigrant artist who came to America in 1906. His dramatic, expressive nocturnes usually express the loneliness he felt during his career. He received national recognition for many years but little financial reward. He worked most of his life as a plasterer, at times for muralist Diego Riviera.
Today Thomas Van Stein carries the banner of the moonlight painters. He has made a serious study of the works and techniques of his predecessors, and teaches nocturne painting around the country.
-Gary Breitweiser
William Frederick Ritschel, Nocturne Cypress Monterey
Foreword
“Works of art dealing with evening or night,” nocturnes are subtle and mysterious paintings. Impelled by the same fascination with light which brought about Impressionism, nocturne painters explored “the color of night.” Instead of broad daylight and bright hues, these artists turned to night light and muted tones. Instead of objectivity and specificity, they sought poetic nuance and a heightened romanticism.
James McNeill Whistler, an expatriate American artist living in Paris and London, was the progenitor of this new theme, and it was soon picked up by other American artists studying abroad, some who did occasional nocturnes as a respite from their Impressionist diet; others like Charles Rollo Peters, turned nocturnes into a signature style.
As this exhibition attests, nocturnes demand a lot from the artist who must adjust his colors to describe the subtle differences in light and dark that the eye perceives at night. They also demand much from the viewer who must be willing to accept a certain degree of ambiguity in what he sees . Considered in this way, nocturnes provide a natural bridge between realism and abstraction.
For the realization of this exhibition, the Wildling Art Museum is indebted to three people: Thomas Van Stein, a contemporary nocturne painter who paints at night “en plein air,” for inspiring the idea for the exhibition and providing considerable programming; Gary Breitweiser, an art dealer who has amassed a large collection of historic nocturne paintings, particularly by California artists, and was willing to lend them; and Jane Dini, American art historian who curated the exhibition, for agreeing to take responsibility for its intellectual content and aesthetic presentation. We are also grateful to many donors who responded to our appeal for sponsorship funds, particularly Santa Rita Land and Vine, James Herman and Denise de Bellefeuille, Sandra Lynne, Charles and Lisa Markham, and Scott Newhall.
- Elizabeth P. Knowles
Executive Director
Checklist:
Matthew Rackman Barnes (1880–1951)
Emerald Night, 1942, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Matthew Rackman Barnes (1880–1951)
Lake Merced, 1940, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Matthew Rackman Barnes (1880–1951)
Peace, 1937, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Ferdinand Burgdorff (1881–1975)
Carmel Mission, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Ferdinand Burgdorff (1881–1975)
Monterey Cypress, watercolor
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Marcia Burtt (b. 1941)
Dusk Over Goleta Estuary, 2008,
acrylic on board. Lent by the artist
Roi Clarkson Coleman (1884–1945)
Moonlit Coast, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Lockwood de Forest (1850–1932)
Mission Canyon at Sunset
(in the Vicinity of the Santa Barbara Museum
of Natural History), 1930, oil on canvas
Lent by Oswald Da Ros
Charles John Dickman (1863–1943)
Cypress at Twilight, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Louis Eilshemius (1864–1941)
Mystery, oil on board
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Charles Chapel Judson (1864–1946)
Harvest Moon Rising, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
DeWitt Parshall, N. A. (1864–1956)
The Darkness He Called Night, exhibited 1922,
oil on canvas. Lent by Gary Breitweiser
DeWitt Parshall, N. A. (1864–1956)
Night near the Village, oil on board
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Charles Rollo Peters (1862–1928)
Eucalyptus Nocturne, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Charles Rollo Peters (1862–1928)
Mission Santa Ines, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Charles Rollo Peters (1862–1928)
Monterey Adobe, oil on board
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Charles Rollo Peters (1862–1928)
Monterey Bay Nocturne, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Charles Rollo Peters (1862–1928)
Moonlight, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Charles Rollo Peters (1862–1928)
Nocturne, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
William Frederick Ritschel, N. A. (1864–1949)
Nocturne: Cypress, Monterey, c.1935,
oil on canvas. Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Manuel Valencia (1856–1935)
Portals of the Past, oil on canvas
Lent by Gary Breitweiser
Thomas Van Stein (b. 1961)
Angels Flight, 1999, acrylic on board
Lent by the artist
Thomas Van Stein (b. 1961)
Moonlit Path of Light, 2004, acrylic on board
Lent by the artist
Thomas Van Stein (b. 1961)
Moonrise Over the Turkey Tree, 2007,
oil on board. Lent by the artist
Thomas Van Stein (b. 1961)
Moonset West, from Old San Marcos Road, 2001,
oil on board. Lent by the artist
