Adolf Dehn (American, 1895-1968), Autumn in the Rockies

Watercolor on paper, 1946, signed and dated at lower right, inscribed verso paper with title and number "10206," matted and framed below glass.

Sight Size 19 1/4 x 27 3/4 in.; Frame dimensions 31 3/4 x 39 3/4 in.

Private Collection, North Carolina

Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Carolina, July 22, 2017, Lot 951

Adolf Dehn was an American lithographer and watercolorist known for his technical innovations and contributions to American Scene painting. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, he attended the Minneapolis School of Art before studying at the Art Students League in New York. From 1921 to 1929, Dehn lived in Europe, contributing satirical caricatures to magazines such as Vanity Fair. He started executing watercolors in late 1936, and earned a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1939, which allowed him to travel to the western United States and Mexico. During the summers of 1940 to 1942 he taught at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, where he reshaped his art from European-inspired social satire into landscape art of the new American Scene style.

For his Colorado paintings, Dehn developed mastery in casein and watercolor. He worked from outdoor sketches made in ten minutes to two hours, recording data with soft pencil or lithographic crayon, then completed paintings in the studio where he could carefully consider color and lighting. His printmaking background taught him to achieve rich tonalities and textures that enhanced his landscape paintings. By 1941, Life magazine featured his work, and he rose to the top tier of American watercolorists. His work is held in major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Light toning to the sheet, foxing to the mat, not examined outside the frame.