Charles Hawthorne: Portraiture in a new way in 1917

Exhibitions Featuring Twilight: 
Macbeth Galleries, New York 1917
National Academy of Design, 1917
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1918

Hawthorne was one of America’s great teachers of art, along with William M. Chase and Hans Hofmann. Both of these artists had relationships with Hawthorne, and while they differed in some of their techniques and ideas, all three were important to the evolution and understanding of American art. Hawthorne established his school of painting in Provincetown. He taught classes both outdoors and indoors and was a beloved professor as well as a highly individual thinker and painter.

Twilight is an iconic and compelling portrait of Julia Morrow, who was a pupil of Hawthorne. She later married and became Mrs. Cornelius DeForest. Many art critics and collectors feel that portraiture was where he excelled. A significant note about Hawthorne is the admiration he held for the portraits of Frans Hals. For 1917, this work stands among the strongest figurative works being produced at the time.