Will Henry Stevens (American, 1881-1949), Untitled (Landscape with Wild Flowers)

Pastel on paper, signed and illegibly dated at lower right, matted in a giltwood frame below glass.

Sheet sight 15 3/4 x 13 1/2 in.; Frame dimensions 28 1/4 x 25 in.

From the Collection of Mr. Jonathan P. Alcott, Raleigh, North Carolina

Will Henry Stevens enrolled in the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1901, studying under Frank Duveneck and Lewis Henry Meakin. In 1904, he won a design competition sponsored by Cincinnati's Rookwood Pottery and was hired as a tile designer. Two years later, Stevens undertook studies at the Art Students League in New York with William Merritt Chase and developed associations with Van Dearing Perrine and Jonas Lie in the city. His first one-man show was held at the New Gallery in 1907. Over the course of his career, Stevens worked in varied media and innovative styles, producing both realist and abstract expressions.

In 1921, Stevens became a faculty member at Sophie Newcomb College in New Orleans, teaching there until his retirement in 1948. He painted landscapes of Louisiana during the school year and traveled to the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee in the summers. Stevens was a popular teacher at several art colonies in the South, including Black Mountain, North Carolina. Throughout his career, he maintained friendships with Robert Henri, George Bellows, and other artists, and closely followed the modernist scene in New York. His work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Morris Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Johnson Collection, Spartanburg. (Adapted from The Johnson Collection.)

Good estate condition, toning to the sheet, not examined outside the frame.