Louis Rowell (American, 1870-1928), Mountain Landscape, Tryon, North Carolina

Oil on Masonite, signed at lower right, presented in a period Arts & Crafts gilt frame.

Board 20 x 16 in.; Frame dimensions 24 1/2 x 20 5/8 in.

Private Collection, Saluda, North Carolina
Brunk Auctions, January 16, 2015, Lot 522
Private Collection, Raleigh, North Carolina

Louis Rowell was an American landscape painter, originally from Vineland, New Jersey, who spent the majority of his adult life in Tryon, North Carolina—where he became known as the Blue Ridge Mountains’ “most loving interpreter.” After moving to Tryon in his early twenties following the deaths of his parents, he developed his artistry there with little formal training, guided instead by artists such as Amelia Montague Watson, who became his chief mentor.
Rowell was a mainstay of the Tryon art colony, frequently exhibiting at local venues like the Lanier Club and the Grove Park Inn, as well as in larger Southern cities such as Atlanta and Charleston. In 1926, he held his first solo exhibition in New York at Denks Gallery, which was met with both critical and commercial success. However, despite his increasing reputation, persistent struggles with alcoholism and declining mental health took their toll. Rowell spent his final years in and out of Asheville’s sanatorium, where he died in August 1928 from “exhaustion from mania.”

Minor chipping to frame; otherwise in very good estate condition.