Will Sparks (1862-1937 San Francisco, CA), Colonnade, Palace of Fine Arts
Pan-Pacific International Exhibition, San Francisco, CA, 24''x20'', est:$30,000/40,000
1915, signed lower right: Will Sparks, oil on canvas, 24'' x 20''. Exhibited: Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, and Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA, ''Twilight and Reverie: California Tonalist Painting 1890-1930'', February-October 1995, no. 59. Literature: H. Jones, ''Twilight and Reverie: California Tonalist Painting 1890-1930'', Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, 1995, p. 63, no. 59, illustrated. Note: Together with the book ''Twilight and Reverie: California Tonalist Painting 1890-1930'' and twelve original postcards from the Crocker Printing Company. ''Colonnade, Palace of Fine Arts'' is an important example from the artist's series of works produced during the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco and showcases the artist's ability to capture dramatic lighting in a nocturnal setting. ''Sparks's paintings reveal his particular fascination with twilight scenes that combine the effects of both natural and artificial sources of light'' (H. Jones, ''Twilight and Reverie'', Oakland Museum, 1995, p. 10). ''Shortly prior to the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, Will Sparks was chosen as Secretary of an organization known as 'The Artists of California.' During the Exposition Sparks reproduced in oils many of the artistic structures which housed the world's treasures. His work was considered of such excellence that the Crocker Printing Company of San Francisco reproduced them on post-cards which carried his work in miniature to every part of the world'' (G. Hailey, ed., Abstract from the California Art Research W.P.A. project, no. 2874, chapter: 'Panama-Pacific International Exposition Art Work', Vol. XI). The present painting is the only known example from Spark's PPIE series that was not made into a postcard or owned by the Crocker Printing Company. The other dozen paintings remain together in the permanent collection of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Provenance: Trotter Galleries, Carmel, CA; acquired by the present owner from the above. Condition: Visual: Stable paint shrinkage and very fine craquelure throughout, particularly on the building and in the foreground. Blacklight: No evidence of restoration under blacklight.