No Title (Figure on a Beach with Still Life of Fruit) by George Daniell (1911-2002)
Still life of fruit on a blue platter with a figure strolling on the beach in the background.
Watercolor and pencil on paper
13" x 11"
Signed Daniell
The paper appears to have been cut down to a smaller size by the artist then re-signed. The top of the first signature is visible in the bottom right hand corner with the new signature above.
Unframed, no mat
About the Artist
George Daniell was born in Yonkers, New York in 1911. The artist trained as a painter at Yale, but pursued freelance commercial photography to support his family. Daniell lived a double life as a photographer shooting advertisements and documenting art collections during the day, and spending time at the bathhouses and gay bars in the city at night.
Daniell took his camera with him on trips across the country and around the world. The artist photographed famous celebrities including Audrey Hepburn and Georgia O'Keefe. Daniell was in a forty-year relationship with the artist Stephen Dorland, until his death in 1983, after which his companion was Roy Oxley.
Daniell is quoted in an interview saying, "When I take pictures, I am the camera." His photographs were published in Time and Life from the 1930's through the 1960's, and many were used on greeting cards.
Following a stroke soon after his first partner's death, Daniell could no longer travel as a commercial photographer. He returned to painting, but unlike his early oils (which explored a dark palette and intense portraiture) he chose a more lively, abstract style. Much of his work shows a "tender, muscular celebration of the angular male figure." This is portrayed in his watercolors of nudes on a beach in our available collection.
Resources:
Anstead, Alicia. (2001, July 29) "ART/ARCHITECHTURE; At 90, Still In Pursuit of Beauty." New York Times. Retrieved 31 August 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/29/arts/art-architecture-at-90-still-in-pursuit-of-beauty.html