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LAURA WHEELER WARING (1887 - 1948)
Waterfront, Semur, France
.
Oil on linen canvas, circa 1925. 330x420 mm; 13x16
1
/
2
inches. Inscribed “Waterfront, Semur, France,
Laura Wheeler Waring” in pencil, on a label attached to the painting back. Inscribed “Part of the
Walter E.Waring Collection” in pencil across the verso.
Provenance:Walter E.Waring, Philadelphia; private collection, Maryland.Walter E.Waring (1895-
1973) was Laura’s husband.
LauraWheelerWaring’s distinguished career included two periods of study in Paris. Her first sojourn
was interrupted by the beginning of WorldWar I, and she eventually returned to Paris in June 1924.
This second period is widely regarded as a turning point in her style as well as her career.Waring
painted portraits until October when she enrolled for a year of painting study at the Académie de
la Grande Chaumière. There she studied with Boutet de Monvel, met Henry Ossawa Tanner and
Gwendolyn Bennett - enjoying her “only period of uninterrupted life as an artist with an
environment and associates that were a constant stimulus and inspiration. My savings, however,
would not allow me to continue this life indefinitely.” At the end of her French trip, she traveled
south stopping in Semur- a hilly and very scenic medieval town in Burgundy that was a favorite of
landscape artists. Historians cite a landscape from this trip entitled,
The Houses at Semur
, 1925, as a
breakthrough work that was exhibited on both sides of Atlantic. Sharpley-Whiting pp. 86-87.
[5,000/7,000]