Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

[Bramblefind]

Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Any ideas as to the location or what sort of buildings are shown in this painting? Also trying to find out if there is any information on this artist. I searched and found a Harry Leon Engle around that time but the signature etc.. does not seem to match his.

Thanks for any help

 

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[DialM]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Thanks for all the great comments! I didn't notice the blue being water before but now looking at it - I can see it. Very interesting! I'm going to keep looking for the area this painting represents and might even end up contacting a northern CA art or historical society. Regarding the signature and date ---I thought I would pull the picture over here of the signature and date from the other painting at the auction site that appears to have been painted by the same artist and put it with mine-

That is a fairly drastic change in signature within the same year. Look at the last "e" and the "2" in the date. Possibly a young artist or relatively unproductive.

 

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[ipsilateral]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

They look basically identical!

 

[ipsilateral]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

As for the internment camp discussion, I am not aware of internment camps like this in this year. There were some German internment camps established at Fort Douglas in 1918 as German hatred fomented. These officially closed Dec 8, 1920, five years before this was painted. As far as I can tell, this was the only internment camp operated in the American West close to the execution time of this painting. The camp did look similar, as you mentioned, but featured a large ten foot double fence and had enclosed guard towers. So, while it's possible this is the Ft. Douglas internment camp, it seems unlikely for the above reasons to me. Additionally, pipe like lines leading from the "water tower" structure towards the buildings make me think they are greenhouses. Lastly, the fence looks like a split rail fence, not one meant to hold prisoners like the Germans who notoriously attempted escapes.

 

[bradyboy]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Here's my thought, after reading all your posts
the blue is the artists creative repreresetatiuon of flowing water- considering the motion of the work found thru out the pc
if it was a interment camp, why only one tower, a camp would have many, at all corners
I agree, the tower may be a water tower or a water tower for a wind mill, hence - the water
the water seems like it flows from the tower
is the water coming from the tower?
I was guessing a chicken farm, maybe a hog farm, of a flower farm?
I also don't think we have the signature right, just my opinion, but i don't have an answer at this time
green houses ?
BradyBoy

 

[Ramitt]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

You guys are right, there is no reason to think anyone would paint a picture of an internment camp. It is much more likely to paint a picture of a chicken ranch. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi


Even if it were an internment camp, one would never use such drab colors, since those places were such nice places to be and such a wonderful part of our american history.

Please tell me, what other structures could that "guard tower" be? And please don't say a water tower, since no chicken rancher in his right mind would put a water tower at the bottom of a hill and have to run a pump to get it back to the top to water his chickens.

As far as the bluegrass goes, I guess there is bluegrass, orangegrass, greengrass, purplegrass, and graygrass all in kentucky... and they can even grow bluegrass on their tents! those lucky sob's, I wish I had grass at all at my place! All I get is rocks and trees....Maybe a wildflower here and there....

One more question... If a man speaks in the woods with no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?

I will be very interested to see what the OP comes up with.

the fence is in no way the type an internment camp would be likely to have

 

[bradyboy]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

not sure we are dead on with the signature.
Brady

 

[Oilfield Diver]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Farming/Agricultural Scenery. Blue represents "shadowing". Not to take anything away from the actual art in of itself - the artist used deception of sex to sell - at least this painting. What is now well known and promulgated throughout the advertisement media of using sex to sell by subliminal messages that at first glance only registers with the subconcious part of the brain. We are all manipulated daily from a bombardment of loaded advertisements. Plenty of examples out on the web. This one was fairly obvious. The "X" in the fence and the lines of perpective drawing ones eyes to the word. If a piece of media or advertisement draws your interest you can't quite nail down, look between the lines to see what is attracting you. Once the manipulation tool is revealed and is deemed a false stimulus, your concience can make a more sober informed decision on a product.

 

[bradyboy]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

I don't understand the last post
Sex?
I cant comprehend your interpretation of this nice pc of art
I consider this disrespect to the artist, in my opinion
is this a joke?
Bradyboy

 

[bradyboy]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Whats also interesting on this pc is
the water tower - it has a flood of blue under and before the tower
I'm guessing it might say that theres is a dam or body of water
Brady

 

[NGE]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Looks like rows of greenhouses to me........NGE

 

[Oilfield Diver]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Bradyboy, disrespecting the artist?? How about the artist purposely disrespecting an unwitting public? The artist is using subliminal cues to increase "attraction" to this particular work. This technique is proliferant in today's advertisements. Liquor ads are among the most common advertisers using this type of "enhancement." There also was no intent to disrespect the poster of this string who should have no qualms about owning this piece of art. In that respect I certainly meant no harm, and regret the post if it was taken wrong. The human body is a beautiful work of art - God made it. There is redeeming techniques in this artwork, I just happened to choose a negative one as I don't think artwork (especially a pastoral type of artwork) needs to use such sublimality to "sell" the work. It should stand on its own merit without such cues. I apologize if I trashed the string Bramblefind, I meant no harm.

 

[snorton750]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Ok guess I gotta put in my 2 cents. How about Petaluma, Ca. circa 1920s. The egg basket of the world. They sure look like chicken coops to me. I think the painting is of a chicken ranch without the chickens. Strange. Most times I have seen pictures like this the chickens were pronounced. Oh well maybe only 2 yen. HH Stan...

 

[Dano Sverige]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

I don't understand the last post
Sex?
I cant comprehend your interpretation of this nice pc of art
I consider this disrespect to the artist, in my opinion
is this a joke?
Bradyboy

Lol...Diver meant no harm with his post. It's sort of like a psychologists view of a serial murderers abusive childhood as an explanation for his actions.
Not sure i agree, but can see what he's getting at.

 

[NGE]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Could also be painted entirely from his childhood memory banks, or pure imagination.......NGE

 

[Bramblefind]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Thanks everyone for all the comments

I did post this painting on a very helpful art message board a few days ago. A poster there thought possibly it could be the work of an artist named Amos W. Engle. While this artist did have some success in his day - including exhibiting at the famous Armory show of 1913

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armory_Show

there are apparently none of his works known today. That is per the biography (Painting place: the life and work of David B. Milne - Silcox 1996) of the important painter David B. Milne - Amos Engle was a good friend, business partner and artistic influence of his.

Amos Engle died in 1926 and around that time he was supposedly working at the "Lucky Jim Silver Mine" in the Sierra Nevada Mtns.

Wasn't it Dano who said something about a mining operation?

I've also be able to establish some provenance on how this painting came to me and connect it to Amos W. Engle - through an estate sale handled by my mother at the home of his wife's sister and brother in law - which is very cool

 

[DCMatt]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

This is/was a very cool thread. I think you have a strong case for Amos W. Engles as the artist. I found a reference to Milne lamenting that Engles had gone off to the west coast to become a prospector. I also found references to Engles exhibiting in and living in San Francisco.

Given the two pieces of signed art - one of San Francisco and one of a mining camp - I believe Amos is your artist.

DCMatt

 

[Bramblefind]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Thanks Matt I'm very happy to have all this info about the artist. I've put out a few emails to the art world so that maybe at least these works can now be attached to Amos Engle and maybe he will get some appreciation. Because I really do like this painting and I also think the World's Fair painting is fantastic.

 

[Breezie]

Re: Help with painting subject and Artist Info. Watercolor signed "Engle 1925"

Good work Bramble, and a super nice watercolor! Breezie