{"product_id":"modernist-landscape-portugal-watercolor-painting","title":"Modernist Landscape 'Portugal' Watercolor Painting","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e H: 23.75, W: 30.75 IN\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGenre: Modern Subject: Landscape Medium: watercolor Surface: Paper Country: United States Dimensions w\/Frame: 23.75\" x 30.75\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaurice Freed (1911‑1981), a native of Pottsville, PA and a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art, lived and painted in Philadelphia during most of his life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the age of nineteen, he won a scholarship to the Cape School of Art in Provincetown where he studied with Henry Hensche, Morris Davidson, and Albert Alcalay.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt twenty‑one, he sketched on the beaches of Atlantic City, NJ. At twenty-two, he traveled to Paris to paint and then in 1934, at the age of twenty‑three, his talents were recognized when he was invited to Chicago to become Art Director of Esquire magazine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing his early professional success at Esquire and as a contributor to the New Yorker, Holiday, Stage, Saturday Evening Post, and Fortune magazines, and after fourteen years of operating a successful advertising art service, Freed turned to his real love, the fine arts. He returned to France to paint and from 1960 until his death in 1981, he devoted himself to his painting and to the world of art around him. In addition to the time spent working in his studio and exhibiting, he taught drawing and painting, served as president of the Philadelphia Chapter of Artists Equity Association, and from 1979‑1981 attended seminars at the Barnes Art Foundation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFreed gained international recognition from his year‑long sojourn in France in 1960, being featured in a lead article in Information Artistique (Paris, 1961) and upon his return, in The American Artist (New York, 1962). Extensive travel throughout his life brought to Freed’s work an extraordinary diversity of subject matter and mood. In the 1930’s, he traveled and sketched in Mexico; in the 1950’s he was in Haiti.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe journeyed and painted throughout Europe, first in 1933 and then at regular intervals from 1959‑1979.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe spent considerable periods of time in France: first in 1933, from 1960‑1961, in 1967 and again in 1979.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe painted while in Portugal in 1969, 1970, 1971, in Spain, in Israel in 1974, in England in 1979.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFreed worked most exuberantly in the out of doors where the richness of changing landscapes and the customs and century‑old buildings of his surroundings could find their way onto his canvases.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe European influence of the Old Masters, of the French Impressionists and the early Cubists clearly shows itself in his work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFreed has been described in various ways.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Groth (of Esquire magazine) called him “the millionth oyster ‑‑ the one that has a pearl.” Groth went on to say: “If you’re a fiend for sources, chalk up Degas, Laurencin, and Bellows ‑‑ one part each. The other fourth is thank god mongrel: the portion of unassignable originality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt twenty‑two, that’s a large portion.” Henry Pitz in The American Artist, described his work as follows: “A native color sense has luxuriated in freedom; a command of pigmented textures keeps every surface alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe has absorbed the wiser teachings of modernism and uses them knowingly. …the forms have a tantalizing freshness as they hover between the abstract and the concrete and nudge the mind to recall something half remembered.” Jack Bookbinder stated that Freed’s work “reflects a lifetime of search and experience. He is equally at home with poetic realism, vigorous semi‑abstraction and occasional excursions into experimental assemblages ‑‑ and always with a distinctive sense of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecolor and design.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUsing a variety of approaches, his paintings may be witty, happy, solemn ‑ but never casual; they are sincere expressions of his multifaceted interests.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe work of Maurice Freed is represented in private collections here and abroad.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe exhibited widely in solo and group shows at such places as La Boutique d’Art in Nice, the Newman Contemporary Art Gallery, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Woodmere Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute and Butler Institute.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe was the recipient of many awards and prizes, the last of which was presented in April 1981, from the Woodmere Art Museum (Philadelphia, PA) just four months before his death.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Maurice Freed Memorial Prize (for oil and\/or mixed media) was established in 1981 and is awarded annually at the Woodmere Art Museum Annual Juried Exhibition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePitz, Henry. February 1962. “Maurice Freed, Painter.” American Artist. Pages 42-47, (continued p. 67).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEMPLOYMENT: 1934 – 1935 Art Director: Esquire Magazine 1933 – 1981 Contributor: New Yorker, Fortune, Holiday, Stage, Saturday Morning Post 1948 – 1960 Artist\/ Owner: Freed Studios, Inc. 1965 – 1981 Taught drawing and painting: Graphic Sketch Club (Fleisher Memorial) Cheltenham High Adult School Private\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSOLO EXHIBITIONS: 1947 Cheltenham Art Centre (Phila.,PA) 1957 YMHA Galleries (Phila.,PA) 1961 Galerie la Boutique d’Art (Nice, France) 1962 Newman Galleries (Phila.,PA) 1965 Woodmere Art Gallery (Phila.,PA) 1967 Philadelphia Art Alliance (Phila.,PA) 1971 Woodmere Art Gallery (Phila.,PA) 1976 Newman Galleries (Phila.,PA) 1982 Philadelphia Art Alliance (Retrospective) (Phila.,PA)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGROUP SHOWS: Partial list: (national) Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Phila.,PA) Butler Institute (Youngstown, OH) Chicago Art Institute (Chicago, IL) Philadelphia Museum of Art (Phila.,PA)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAWARDS: Philadelphia Sketch Club Philadelphia Water Color Club Abington Art Center Old York Road Art Guild 28th Anniversary Exhibition Irma Rosenau Prize Painting Woodmere Art Gallery (1981)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCOLLECTIONS: (Public and Private) California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island; London, England; Cannes, Nice, Paris, Vence, France\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51628210028842,"sku":"a_12850642S1","price":1200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0996\/4021\/3802\/files\/mobilejpegupload_C7FDE0CEAAE34727A867CBCFDA844357_master.jpg?v=1780507215","url":"https:\/\/lionsgallery.com\/products\/modernist-landscape-portugal-watercolor-painting","provider":"Lions Gallery","version":"1.0","type":"link"}