Ernest Lawson, oil on canvas. Signed lower left.
Ernest Lawson, one of America’s great impressionist artists and a member of Robert Henri’s New York Eight, began visiting Florida in 1931. Lawson was a member of the Florida Federation of Art and at the December 1936 annual exhibit served as chairman of the jury of awards; The Miami Herald interviewed him on January 3, 1937. Lawson described his art. “Color is my specialty in art….Color affects me like music affects some persons…emotionally. That’s my special technique experimenting with color. I did it from the beginning. I like to play with colors…like a composer playing with counterpoint in music. It’s sort of a rhythmic proposition. You try one color scheme in a sort of a contrapuntal fashion, and you get one effect. And you try something else and you get another effect. You don’t actually copy nature in art. Nature merely suggests something to us to which we add our own ideas. Impressions from nature are merely jumping off points for artistic creations.” Lawson was living in Miami under difficult circumstances, a divorce, alcoholism, and poverty took its toll. During the height of the Great Depression and unable to afford paint and canvas with which to paint, he wrote his New York dealer, Frederic Price, “Do send me some money…I have less than $5 and can’t pay for canvas and paints…I have never needed money as I do now.” In December of 1939 he walked into the surf on Miami Beach. His clothed body was found later.
Ernest Lawson, Tropical Moss, oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left, E. Lawson, 1934.
The Florida Federation of Art published the following In Memoriam, “Ernest Lawson studied art under those great American teachers, Alden Weir and John Twachtman, and later became one of ‘The Eight’, a courageous group of painters who threw off European dominance and proudly asserted American Art. Comprised of Arthur B. Davies, William J. Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn and John Sloan, ‘The Eight’ produced and championed American Art as second to none in the world. With his uniquely rich and jewel-like paint quality, Lawson was a strong figure among those giants of American Art. His paintings won seventeen major prizes in national exhibitions, and he is represented in more than a dozen important museums and in many private collections. Attracted to Florida by its extraordinary luminosity and clear color, Lawson produced many fine canvases here, during the latter years of his life. The Florida Federation of Art is honored to have had Ernest Lawson as a member. His passing was a bitter loss to Florida and America, but the appreciation for American Art which was claimed by ‘The Eight’ grows and grows and constitutes a living memorial to one of America’s great painters.” The Miami Herald of June 5, 1949, “The Ernest Lawson paintings are done with the “crushed jewel” technique as critics have described his particular and peculiar method of laying on the paint. Larson’s work is now included in most of the large art collections of this country…One of his pictures in one year won prizes totaling, $3,500, and then was sold for $4,500. Two books on his life and works have been published, one by Guy Pene DuBois published by the Whitney Museum and the other published by Feragil Galleries. He was a resident of Coral Gables at the time of his death in 1939.”
Born: 1873, Canada. Died: 1939, Miami Beach. Education: Art Students League, NYC; with John Twachtman; Alden Weir; Cos Cob in Connecticut. In Paris, where he roomed with Somerset Maugham, who wrote Lawson into his novel Of Human Bondage. Membership: Blue Dome Fellowship, 1937 (director); Miami Art League, 1936-37; Florida Federation of Art. Exhibits: Art Institute of Miami, 2nd Annual, at Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, March 1934; Blue Dome Fellowship, Annual Exhibition, Miami Beach Library and Art Center, January 1937; Miami Woman’s Club annual at Miami Federal Galleries, old post office, February 1937; Florida Federation of Art Annual, St. Petersburg Federal Gallery, February 1937, Royal Gorge; Miami Woman’s Club, 10th annual, North Bayshore drive, February 1938, Phantasy Moonlight; North Star cruise ship to Caribbean Islands, March 1938; Sarasota Art Association, Annual, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, March 1938, judge and exhibitor; Florida Federation of Art, All Florida Exhibit, Society of The Four Arts, April 1938, Dawn; Metropolitan Museum of Art, purchase, Miami Beach; Miami Beach Public Library and Art Center, February, 1939; Miami Art League, at Miami Beach Public Library, December 1939, three recent oils, Mangrove, Cypress and Spring; University of Miami, Administration Building, two weeks in April 1940, arranged by the Coral Gables Federal Art Center, from paintings loaned from private collections of residents of the Miami area; Norton Gallery and School of Art, July 1943; Eve Tucker Galleries, Alton Road, Miami Beach, October 1950; Art Guild of Boca Raton, 2nd Annual, March 1951. Directory: Listed in the Miami City Directory in 1938 as an artist with studio at 1137 Obispo Avenue, Coral Gables.
