Featured Stories

Women of inspiration have existed throughout all time periods, and behind each one is a story that continues to impress today. Their lives, choices, and proactiveness often leave behind institutions and legacies that endure.

Sarah Todd Bulkley and her husband, Jonathan, were involved in many philanthropic and social endeavors. He was president of the East Side House Settlement, one of New York’s oldest organizations helping the poor, which still exists today. Sarah was vice president of the New York Y.W.C.A. and active in the Girls Service League in New York.

 

One of the homes of Jonathan and Sarah Todd Buckley, a mansion at 600 Park Avenue in Manhattan.

 

She served as president of the Garden Club of America from 1932 to 1935, traveling throughout the United States and Asia to promote the club’s aims. In the 1930s, Japanese Prince Fumimaro Konoye visited Mrs. Bulkley at her home, Rippowam, in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Later, she traveled to Japan on behalf of the Garden Club, where the Prince entertained her. Konoye went on to become Prime Minister of Japan but resigned shortly before Pearl Harbor. In 1945, he was closely involved in efforts to stop the war.

In the suburbs, Sarah Bulkley was also a charter member of the Ridgefield Garden Club, serving as its president in the 1920s. She inspired her daughter, Sarah Bulkley Randolph, to become one of the founders of the Ridgefield Boys’ Club. Jonathan O. Bulkley was a wealthy paper merchant and owner of Bulkley Dunton Co., today the largest paper distribution company in North America.

The Bulkleys set about doing justice to their Ridgefield, Connecticut property by giving serious attention to the creation of gardens designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman, a pioneering woman landscape architect. She designed both public and private gardens throughout the East, including those for Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s wife, as well as the acclaimed Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University.

This is where Edward McCartan enters the story.

Diana, the goddess of the hunt, first appeared as a subject in McCartan’s sculpture in 1923. The earliest rendition, titled Diana (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), depicts the goddess controlling a leashed hound. Diana of 1924, at Brookgreen Gardens in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, produced the following year, portrays the goddess in a more passive state, with her hand resting on the head of a fawn. This work was a direct precursor to our Garden Figure. This marble was designed to overlook the elaborate pool and garden, serving as the focal point for sculpture on the property.

Edward McCartan, Garden Figure, 1930, 1930, marble, 106 inches

 

The sculpture graced the cover of Country Life in March 1934.

Jonathan and Sarah also built a mansion at 600 Park Avenue in Manhattan, now considered one of the city’s architectural treasures. The house was designed by James Gamble Rogers, whose many major projects included a dozen buildings at Yale and others at universities, as well as hospitals such as Presbyterian and Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York.

The number of monumental marbles produced during the Deco era is small, making Garden Figure a significant work from the golden age for sculpture in America.

A muse and source of inspiration, Dr. Necia Harkless became a longtime friend of Sam Gilliam; they met during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They also shared a common background, having lived, studied, and worked at various times in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Harkness’s academic focus on music history and theory, as well as African-Nubian history, found fertile ground in Gilliam’s work.

The inscription on Symphony at the Apollo: Harlem #1, “thanks for the inspiration,” written some 33 years after the March on Washington, speaks to their decades-long exchange and relationship. It also sheds light on the artwork as a gift from the artist to her many years later.

Sam Gilliam, Symphony at the Apollo, Harlem #2, 1984, oil on canvas, 82.25 x 27.5 inches

 

Detail image of Sam Gilliam, Symphony at the Apollo, Harlem #2, 1984, oil on canvas, 82.25 x 27.5 inches

 

Symphony at the Apollo, Harlem #1 & #2 by Sam Gilliam emerges from a pivotal moment in both American history and the artist’s own practice, belonging to one of the most innovative bodies of work in postwar American art: his groundbreaking drape paintings.

Created from unstretched, painted canvas, these works move beyond the flat plane of the wall, instead suspended, looped, or anchored in sculptural configurations that shift with each installation.

A central figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement that coursed through New York City in the 1950s, Perle Fine was an independent-minded and exceptionally talented artist who committed her life to the pursuit of abstraction.

In situ image of Perle Fine, Untitled, 1960, oil on canvas, 33 x 41 3/4 inches

 

She exhibited extensively, participating in numerous major solo and group shows at iconic venues such as the Art of This Century Gallery, Nierendorf Gallery, the famed Betty Parsons Gallery, and the Tanager Gallery, among others.

Full image of Perle Fine,  Untitled, 1960, oil on canvas, 33 x 41 3/4 inches

 

Fine was one of the few women invited to join The Club, an intellectual group at the center of the art world at the time, whose members included Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning.

She is particularly remembered for her ability to create compelling visual rhythms using seemingly unlikely elements such as geometric forms, simple lines, and restrained compositions.

In 1886, Puigaudeau made his first visit to the quiet seaside village of Pont-Aven. There he booked a room at Gloanec’s, a popular hotel for artists on a budget. It so happened that Paul Gauguin was also making his first visit and staying at the same hotel. Puigaudeau, along with a small number of aspiring artists, was in a wholly unique position of observing and working collectively to create a new movement in a remote area of France. Inspired by their contact with Gauguin, a number of these artists developed a radical direction in painting.

  Detail image of Ferdinand du Puigaudeau, Barques de Peche au Soleil Couchant, oil on canvas, 44 1/2 x 56 1/6 inches

 

Puigaudeau had a passion for the subtleties of light in all its forms and a particular affinity for moonlit landscapes, while his sunlit seascapes radiate a suffusion of light. In a letter to his cousin, Alphonse de Châteaubriant, he described this approach as “renewing the identity” of the subject matter.

Ferdinand du Puigaudeau, Vagues dans la Nuit, oil on canvas, 33 1/4 x 38 1/4 inches

 

Ferdinand du Puigaudeau, Berger et ses Moutons au Soleil Couchant, circa 1918, oil on canvas, 33 x 42 1/2 inches

 

Sadly, while Puigaudeau perhaps more than any other artist explored ideas connected to mysticism and Symbolism, he has not been given sufficient credit for his contribution to this period and his focused exploration of these ideas. A major work like this would restore and widen the perspective of this important painter’s contribution. Gauguin, Degas, Rysselberghe, Ensor, and Bernard all figure within this broader context. Degas affectionately referred to Puigaudeau as the “Hermit of Kervaudu,” yet he is rarely seen alongside his contemporaries.

Exhibitions: Musee du Prieure, 1981
Musee du Pont-Aven June 30 - October 2001

Provenance: Collection Oscar Ghez (Musee du Petit Palais), Geneva Switzerland Greenwich Gallery, CT; Private collection, New Caanan CT.

Literature: Le Paul, Judy "Gauguin and the Impressionists at Pont Aven".  Abbeville Press, New York, 1987, illus. page 37

Gustave Loiseau was one such French painter drawn to the atmosphere of the quaint village of Pont-Aven, arriving there for the first time on May 11, 1890. Here, his style and reputation as one of the foremost Impressionists of the time flourished, as he befriended and was influenced by such great painters as Paul Gauguin and Maxime Maufra. Throughout his life, he traveled extensively but would always return to Pont-Aven. During the 1920s, Loiseau created a series of paintings of the village of Pont-Aven, with The Hôtel Julia, Pont-Aven being the most significant of these works.

Full image of Gustave Loiseau, Villa Julia, Pont Aven, 1928, oil on canvas, 30 1/4 x 34 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches

 

Detail image of Gustave Loiseau, Villa Julia, Pont Aven, 1928, oil on canvas, 30 1/4 x 34 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches

 

These paintings are characterized by Divisionist brushwork and a palette of cool blues and creams, tempered with dabs of orange. This work brings to life of the village, where the Hôtel des Voyageurs was the heart of Pont-Aven. It is an excellent example of his experimental brushwork and a historic record of where these artists gathered, spoke, and painted during this important period.

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.

Charles Webster Hawthorne, Twilight, 1917, oil on board, 48 1/2 x 48 1/2 inches

 

In situ image of Charles Webster Hawthorne,  Twilight, 1917, oil on board, 48 1/2 x 48 1/2 inches

 

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.

Powers portrays the young William Austin Wadsworth aged 15 in a military vest. The Wadsworth Family enjoyed a history of esteemed and decorated service in the Revolutionary War as well as in the War of 1812.

Originally commissioned by his father William Wolcott Wadsworth (1810-1852), no one at the time could have foreseen the father’s untimely death in 1852, a mere eight years after inheriting the family seat in 1844 and six short years after marrying Emmeline Austin.

Hiram Powers, William Austin Wadsworth, 1862, marble, 24 x 17 x 11 inches

 

The success of his realistic bust of Andrew Jackson in 1835 brought Powers numerous commissions from such well-known figures as John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, John Marshall, John Calhoun and in our example William Austin Wadsworth. His father, William Wolcott Wadsworth, was a descendent of the largest and wealthiest landowners in the pioneering community of the Genesee Valley in Western New York State.

Wadsworth would not live to see the bust he commissioned of his young son. The bust can be dated to 1862 by means of a letter that the widow Emmeline Austin Wadsworth sent to Powers in which she asked that the marble replica of her son be completed as quickly as possible.

Detail image of Hiram Powers,  William Austin Wadsworth, 1862, marble, 24 x 17 x 11 inches

 

William Wolcott Wadsworth (1810-1852) was the second son of James Wadsworth and heir to “The Homestead”, the seat of the family estate in Geneseo, New York from 
where our marble bust originated. His father James and Uncle William settled in Geneseo, New York in 1790. The two brothers were the nephews and agents for the landowner and Revolutionary War Commissionaire Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth in Connecticut. 

The two brothers had a significant impact on Geneseo, holding elected positions, and establishing a community that employed soil conservation, stock breeding, and advanced agricultural methods and public education. William Austin Wadsworth, now the young heir apparent, would go on to study chemistry at the University of Berlin after having graduated from Harvard University. He would then serve as a major in the Quartermaster Corps during the Spanish-American War. In 1901 he married Elizabeth Greene Perkins and returned to the large estate in Geneseo, New York which he inherited from his father.

Maureen Chatfield (b. 1948) is a contemporary American artist whose work fuses the energy of New York Abstract Expressionism with the lyricism of Bay Area Figurative painting. Her process is intuitive and spontaneous, allowing shapes, lines, and color harmonies to emerge organically rather than from preplanned compositions.

 

 

View our virtual catalogue here.

 

Each painting is a direct response to the emotional and experiential forces shaping her life, translating memories, feelings, and lived experiences into color and form.

Isle of Palm, circa 2025, mixed media on canvas, 40 x 40 inches

 

Her work evolves through layered experimentation, with traces of previous layers, pentimento, revealing depth and complexity. Chatfield’s non-objective works arise from introspection, while her abstracted landscapes draw inspiration from nature, filtered through her singular internal lens.

Influences such as Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Richard Diebenkorn, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Nicolas de Staël guided her evolution into abstraction.

Romeo and Juliet, circa 2022-25, mixed media on canvas, 24 x 30 inches

 

Chatfield studied at the Art Students League, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Fashion Institute of Technology, and Hunter College. Painting since childhood, she began with oils and now primarily works in acrylics on large canvases, enabling rapid layering and vibrant color effects.

In situ of Both Ways, mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48 inches

 

For Chatfield, painting is a dynamic process of discovery, unplanned, invigorating, and continually transforming. Her work demonstrates a dialogue between emotional resonance, formal experimentation, and the ongoing evolution of color and composition, positioning her within a lineage of American abstract and figurative innovation.

Cotton Club, circa 2022-25, mixed media on canvas, 30 x 40 inches