Robert Lawson, oil on canvas, 24 by 30 inches. signed RW Larsen lower right, St. Armands, written in ink on stretcher verso.
*Robert Larsen was known for his individualistic vision of the Florida landscape. He created an ephemeral world of hammocks rising like steamy islands from the misty swamp. Larsen was born in Illinois and served in the U.S. Navy as a member of the 7th Beach Battalion and was one of the first to arrive on Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion. He came to Sarasota from the Midwest to attend the Ringling School of Art in 1950. Later he worked for the Ringling Circus, building props. In 1966, he joined the faculty and continued his association with the Ringling School, teaching figure painting and drawing there for twenty-four years.
Robert Lawson, oil on canvas, 23 1/2 by 29 inches, signed RW Larsen lower right.
Art critic Chris Hassold wrote in 1994 in Art Papers: “Larsen presents an existentially intense experience of reality and at the same time makes visible an untouched paradise. Robert Larsen is a painter of epiphanic visions that make an everyday experience fully existential. He elevates the ordinary to a moment of visionary intensity where we see, as if for the first time, the space that surrounds us.” (*Excerpted from Leo Corbino website.) Larsen also taught at the Art League of Manatee County and Longboat Key Art Centers.
Born: 1923, Aurora, Illinois. Died: July 5, 2002, Siesta Key, Sarasota. Education: Kansas City Institute of Art and Design, 1946-1947; Detroit School of the Society of Arts and Crafts, 1947-50; Ringling School of Art, 1950-1952. Membership: Sarasota Art Association; Art League of Manatee County, 1955-56; Florida Artists Group. Exhibits: Sarasota Art Association, National Members Shows, 1st prize, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1964; Florida State Fair, Tampa February 1953, oil; Society of The Four Arts, Contemporary American Painting Exhibition, January 1955; Ft. Lauderdale Foundation of Art, 1st Annual Exhibit, 1955, honorable mention; Art League of Manatee County, 1955, one man show; Society of The Four Arts, University of Miami, Lowe Gallery, Patronato De Bellas Artes Y Museos Nacionales, Palm Beach, Miami, Havana, December 1955, January-February 1956, Procession; Art League of Manatee County, 1955, 1962; Gulf-Caribbean Invitational Exhibition, Houston, Texas, 1956; Ringling Museum, Circus Show, March 1956, Barry Award, Clown with String, 1957, 1st prize; Tampa Art Institute, one man show, 1957; Southeastern Annual, Atlanta, special mention in oils, 1957; Tampa Art Institute, March, 1958; Governor’s All Florida Art Show, Ringling Museum, January 9-February 2, 1960, oil, Palm Trees; Sarasota Art Association Annual, April 1960, Ringling Museum, On the Beach; Florida State Fair, Tampa, 1962, prize, Landscape; St Armands Key Show, 1963, 1st prize; All Florida Art Festival, Lehigh Acres, 1964, 1st prize; Society of The Four Arts, Special Award, 1967; High Museum, Atlanta; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland; Columbia Museum of Art, one man show. Directory: Listed in the Sarasota City Directory, 1957 to 1960 as an artist with studio at 4911 Commonwealth.
Robert Lawson, Myakka River Landscape, oil on Masonite, 8 by 10 inches, signed lower left, titled verso.
