Jonas Lie | The Chapel, Kamp Kill Kare

Provenance

The Family of Francis P. Garvan, owner of Kamp Kare

Private collection, by descent

Exhibited

The Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain, New York, “Adirondack Winter–1930: Paintings by Jonas Lie,” June 15–September 20, 1971

Spanierman Gallery, New York, “Jonas Lie (1880–1940),” January 12–February 25, 2006

Literature

Anthony N. B. Garvan, Adirondack Winter–1930: Paintings by Jonas Lie, exh. cat. (Blue Mountain, N.Y.: Adirondack Museum, 1971), p. 13 (as “Chapel”).

William H. Gerdts and Carol Lowrey, Jonas Lie (1880–1940), exh. cat. (New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006), p. 96, no. 29.

Jonas Lie grew up in Norway yet considered himself an American artist and convinced his contemporaries to do the same. Writing for Arts & Decoration in 1935, fellow painter Wayman Adams asserted, “Although his origin and the quiet exploring quality of his mind are traceable to his Norse descent, his spirit and his career are American.”^[1] Adirondack scenes such as The Chapel, Kamp Kill Kare nonetheless reveal Lie’s Nordic roots; his skilled and knowledgeable depiction of snow seems to harness an innate understanding of winter weather.^[2]

Lie immigrated to New York in 1892. Subsequent trips to Europe exposed the young artist to Claude Monet and Frits Thaulow, whose Impressionist techniques he internalized.^[3] Back in the United States, Lie’s style and focus evolved. As he moved away from manicured scenery, his brushstrokes became more robust, his color palette more saturated and interpretive, and his perception of light more acute.^[4] Purchasing a cottage in the Adirondacks, Lie delved into woodland landscapes. Second only to ships, forests—in particular, birch groves—came to dominate his oeuvre.^[5] Although Lie abandoned the Adirondacks after his wife died of tuberculosis, he returned to the region and subject matter in 1930, when Francis P. Garvan commissioned a series of his property, Kamp Kill Kare.

Kamp Kill Kare was a Great Camp. These luxurious summer homes sprouted in the Adirondacks during the Gilded Age, as “rustic” charm lured wealthy urbanites upstate. Lieutenant Governor Timothy Woodruff acquired a tract of the original Kill Kare preserve from owner William West Durant in 1898. Woodruff sold the camp to Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who passed it on to Garvan in 1914. Although Kamp Kill Kare served as Garvan’s summer residence, Lie, seeking the shadows and shimmers of winter light, visited in February.^[6]

During the month he compiled enough sketches and notes to complete The Chapel, Kamp Kill Kare along with nine complementary paintings of the buildings and property. The serial nature of these Adirondack scenes and their subject matter stand alone in Lie’s oeuvre.^[7]

CJR:jw

Although never fully matriculated, Jonas Lie attended classes at the National Academy of Design and Cooper Union Art School. Once an established artist, he exhibited at the Armory Show, National Academy of Design, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago. Elected an academician in 1925 and a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1929, the celebrated landscape painter served as president of the National Academy of Design from 1934 to 1939. His work appears in numerous collections, including the Detroit Institute of Art; Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.