Paul Ludwig Gill, 1894-1938
Paul Ludwig Gill (1896-1938) Artist, illustrator, teacher, Watercolorist
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Paul Ludwig Gill, 1894-1938 |
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Member of:
Philadelphia Water Color Club
Philadelphia Art Alliance
Fellowship - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
New York Water Color Club
American Water Color Society
Salmagundi Club of New York
Faculty, Moore Institute and Philadelphia School of Design for Women, 1925-1938.
Prizes:
1922-1923 Two European Traveling Scholarships, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1926 Silver Medal, Sesqui-Centennial, Philadelphia
1926 Baltimore Water Color Prize
1926 Willian Tuttle Purchase Prize
1927 Philadelphia Water Color Club Prize
1927 New York Water Color Club Prize
1929 William Church Osborne Purchase Prize, American Water Color Society
1932 William Adams Delano Prize, American Water Color Society
1933 First Prize, Argent Gallery Exhibition, New York
Born in Auburn NY. Graduated from Syracuse University, 1916 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1920-24, and independently in Europe, Africa and Mexico.
epresented in many private collections throughout the United States and in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the Brooklyn Museum; LaFrance Institute, Philadelphia; Canajoharie Art Gallery, Canajoharie, NY; Hackley Art Gallery, Muskegon, Michigan; Society of Fine Arts and History, Evansville, IN; Philadelphia Water Color Club; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts; Everhart Museum, Scranton PA; Reading Museum, Reading PA; Brandywine Museum, Chadds Ford, PA ; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown PA; Woodmere Gallery & Museum, Philadelphia PA; Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Cochran Museum, Washington DC.
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Black Sign, Atlantic City (1929) Watercolor on artist's board. 14 x 18 TL# 165 Signed LRC
Ownership: Gill Estate |
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Kinsey's Basin (1934) Watercolor on Artist's Board. 19.5 x 23 signed LRC TL# 221 Ownership: Gill Estate
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By the time of his premature death in 1938, Paul Ludwig Gill had become established as one of America's leading watercolorists.
In 1931 William B. McCormick, art critic for the New York American, praised Gill as "a man apart among watercolorists. He is a true impressionist without imitating or 'following' any impressionist É In the years that have elapsed since Paul Gill made his first marked impression in the local art world &emdash; his many prizes won here and elsewhere show that we are not solitary in our admiration for his work &emdash; his brilliancy has gained in power nd fluency. There is a commanding sweep in his brushwork that is at once fluid and precise."
For his intensive art training &emdash; four years at Syracuse University, four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and two summers of study in Europe &emdash; Paul gill never took a lesson in watercolor. His earliest pieces such as "Golden Light, Chester Springs" (1921), display a natural mastery of the medium. Claiming that "It cannot be taught; watercolor is a personal medium," Gill developed a daring and innovative style through sure brushwork and a sophisticated sense of abstract space. The quick and almost instinctive arrangement of his unpainted areas gives an unexpected luminosity to his work. At the same time, his bold and often unconventional sense of composition is accentuated by his forceful use of black as a color. For example, "The Traymore" (1929) captures that gaudy glitter of Atlantic City by way of haphazard specks of unpainted white twinkling through the black. In "The Chesterfield Sign", painted in the same year, we are struck by an explosion of impressionistic colors contrasting with the sillness of the giant letters in the sign and with the blackness of the silhouettes below. With "In the Breeze at High Point" (1934) it is the white of the paper, swiftly streaked in blue, that lends such a shimmering calm to the water. In 1931 Gill structured his "Smoke in Swedeland" in a dynamic inverted pyramid, a compositional framework that appears again, five years later, in the lyrical "Indian Village."
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Steel Mill, Swedeland (1931) Watercolor on Artist's board. 14 x 18.5 "One of two painted of this scene" TL# 44 Ownership: Gill Estate |
Paul Gill's work of the twenties and thirties give us a lively visual account of an artist's travels outside the urban American scene. Even more important, we feel, are his innovative contributions to the American concept of watercolor. (from the catalogue of an exhibit of Paul Gill works published by the Olympia Galleries, Ltd in Glenside PA in 1974.
Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia. oil on canvas 1937. Signed LRC. 30 x 37
Ownerside: Gill Estate
Studies in the use of photography by Paul Gill:
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Ocean Dories, Harvey Cedars, Long Beach Island NJ.
Photograph by Paul Gill. Ownership: Gill Estate |
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Two power poles and a boat, Harvey Cedars, NJ (1926) watercolor on paper. 15 x 19 signed LRC TL# 239 Ownership: Gill Estate
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Idletime 8 x 10 photograph by Paul Gill. Taken in 1936 in Taxco, Mexico. This became the basis for an oil Paul painted the following fall or winter back in his studio in Wynnewood PA. [See Below]
Ownership: Gill Estate |
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Idletime Oil on Canvas 30 x 36 Based on a scene in Taxco, Mexico 1936. Sold at auction in 2000. Current owner unknown. |
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Different Levels, Manayunk watercolor on artist's board. 14.5 x 18.5 TL# 43 signed LRC Ownership: Gill Estate |
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Rough Weather, Bonita II (1935) Oil on canvas. 30 x 39 signed TL# 20 In private ownership
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The Red Truck, Quarry at Manayunk (1931) watercolor on artist's board. 14.4 x 19 signed LRC TL# 57 Ownership: Gill Estate
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The Red Roof, Chester Springs (1921) watercolor on paper. 7 x 8.25 signed LRC TL# Ownership: Gill Estate |
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Rug Market [North Africa] (1923) watercolor on paper. 11 x 9 signed Ownership: Gill Estate |
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