An American Painter in Paris
Frederick Frieseke—shown in this portrait from the Juley collection—was influenced by French Impressionists. His canvas Nude Seated at Her Dressing Table tells us more.Frieseke's curvaceous nude echoes the lines of her elegant glass-top dressing table. Nudes were the artist's favorite subject, which may explain why he spent most of his life in France after studying in Chicago and New York City. "I stay on [in France],'' he wrote, "because I am more free and there are not the Puritanical restrictions which prevail in America." Nonetheless, Frieseke did not consider himself an expatriate like his acquaintance James McNeill Whistler.
Frieseke painted this figure (shown below) in his Paris apartment, emphasizing the privacy of the bedroom scene. We observe the young woman from a slightly elevated perspective; the parts of her face and bosom that seem at first tantalizingly inaccessible to our eyes are reflected in the mirror. The artist's painting style, as well as the choice of a voluptuous woman, reveals his interest in the French impressionist Auguste Renoir. The image crackles with risky, striking colors; Frieseke juxtaposes the reds of the model's abundant mane with the turquoises in the necklace on the table and the woman's ring. Charming and sensual, Frieseke's nude embodies the American fascination with the pleasures of Paris.
Source: Elizabeth Prelinger. American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).
Pictured top: Photograph of Frederick Carl Frieseke, 1874 USA–1939 France. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection.
Pictured bottom: Frederick Carl Frieseke, 1874 USA–1939 France, Nude Seated at Her Dressing Table, 1909, oil, 64 1/4 x 51 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sidney Avery and Diana Avery 1978 Trust.
Frederick Frieseke—shown in this portrait from the Juley collection—was influenced by French Impressionists. His canvas Nude Seated at Her Dressing Table tells us more.Frieseke's curvaceous nude echoes the lines of her elegant glass-top dressing table. Nudes were the artist's favorite subject, which may explain why he spent most of his life in France after studying in Chicago and New York City. "I stay on [in France],'' he wrote, "because I am more free and there are not the Puritanical restrictions which prevail in America." Nonetheless, Frieseke did not consider himself an expatriate like his acquaintance James McNeill Whistler.