May Day in Normandy ca. 1900

.

for picture description see below.

JQAW# G_1900_100
Oil on wood 35 x 27 cm
Signature: John Q. Ɑdams
unknown private collection (likely Austria)

Two young ladies are walking with a young man. He wears a black robe, on his head a black beret. The young woman to his left wears a white dress with blue trimmed shoulders and end-sleeves, and on her head a straw hat with long red ribbons hanging down the back. In front of her chest she wears a small bouquet of flowers, and at her side a rosary. The young woman on the right wears a dark blue dress, under it a white blouse as well as light blue stockings and on her head a semi-transparent white hood. In her left hand she holds a bouquet of flowers. The background is formed by blooming rose bushes with butterflies and a sparse forest, in the left background of the picture there is a round temple with an onion dome visible.

The title, subject and execution of this genre painting refer to an early work by the artist, possibly created during his student days in Paris (1898/1899) or around 1900 at the latest. Both the small format and the lovely depiction were probably chosen to suit the taste of the end of the 19th century period. Only the depiction of the trees and the forest point to influences of Viennese mood impressionism and are harbingers of his later mastery. Until its auction at the Dorotheum Graz in 2010, the painting was unknown in the Adams literature and catalogs of works.
.

Cross-references

Exhibited

Literature

Provenance

Unknown.
Auction Dorotheum Graz,
2.12.2010 Lot 82.
Unknown private collection (likely Austria).