Claude Howell (NC, 1915-1997), Things on a Table

Lot Details & Additional Photographs

Oil on canvas, 1943, signed and dated at lower right, inscribed to the verso by the artist "451 Things on a Table Howell 1943," presented in a later gilt frame with linen liner.

Stretcher size 18 x 30 in.; Frame dimensions 24 x 36 in.

Exhibited:
North Carolina State Art Gallery, One Artist Exhibition, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1944
Travels to Greenville, Charlotte, Greensboro and Decatur, Georgia
Weatherspoon Gallery, UNC - Greensboro, One Artist Exhibition, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1945
The Book Shop, Wilmington, North Carolina, 1951
Perry James, Wilmington, North Carolina, 1952
St. John’s Art Gallery, Claude Howell Retrospective: 1939-1973, 1973

Provenance:
Purchased from the artist by Mrs. Robert S. (Caroline) Milner, Wilmington, North Carolina, former Director of St. John's Art Gallery and friend of the artist
By descent in family
Brunk Auctions, January 28, 2017, Lot 477
Acquired from the above

Among the most famous and highly collected artists from North Carolina, Claude Howell is often referred to as “The Dean of North Carolina Painters.” He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and received his early artistic training from an eccentric British transplant, Elisabeth Chant. He went on to seek further training during his travels throughout the Northeastern United States and Paris, but North Carolina always lured him home to paint what he knew and loved best – life along the North Carolina coast.

Howell’s paintings, drawings, and prints are present in major North Carolina collections and nationally recognized collections, including the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; the Mint Museum, Charlotte; the Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Howell was the first North Carolina artist to show work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1940.

Good estate condition; no evidence of retouch or restoration visible under UV light.