Louis Rowell (NC, 1870-1928), Path Through Dense Forest

Watercolor on paper, 1905, signed and dated at lower right, matted and framed below glass.

Sheet sight 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.; Frame dimensions 10 5/8 x 11 3/4 in.

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

Louis Rowell arrived at the art colony in Tryon, North Carolina at a young age, and spent the majority of his life painting the picturesque scenerey. He came to be praised as “The Blue Ridge Mountains’ most loving interpreter”. His primary mentor at the art colony was Amelia Montague Watson, who inspired him to paint watercolors in the tonalist style. An Asheville newspaper noted, “A characteristic of Mr. Rowell’s [watercolors] is the subtlety of the painting of the mountains, which loom vaguely in the distance, veiled in blue..”

Roswell exhibited regularly at the Lanier Club and the Grove Park Inn. He held his first show in New York in 1926 at Denks Gallery. Unfortunately, his unhealthy relationship with alcohol led to his periodic hospitalization in an Asheville sanatorium, where he eventually died at the age of 58.

Good estate condition, some slight matburn (likely from period framing), not examined outside the frame.