Alice Karle Appraisal
Fine & Decorative Art
Granville Redmond
Granville Redmond
20 x 24 inches
Appraisal followed by Auction
Sold for Record $517,000
Granville Redmond (1871-1935) oil painting by the American Impressionist. It shows poppies and lupines in brilliant colors of orange yellows and purple, cascading down a mountain meadow. Sold for the recording-setting price of $517,500 including premium. This relatively small painting still holds the record price per square inch, being exceeded in sale price only by a work containing over twice the area. The subject matter of poppies and lupines in the impressionist style is the most coveted of Redmond’s paintings.
The painting also has a heavy impasto that catches the light creating a three dimensional effect, when viewed in person. The wooden stretcher has the original purchase price of a few hundred dollars. It was purchased by the client’s grandmother in the early twentieth century. Redmond was a close friend of Charlie Chaplin. In the Chaplin film City Lights, Granville Redmond is the artist portrayed at his easel.
Deaf from early childhood as a result of scarlet fever, Granville Redmond attended the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, from 1879-1890. Redmond showed early talent and was enrolled at the California School of Design in San Francisco. He trained under Amedee Joullion, and Arthur Matthews – the California muralist, painter, and Arts & Crafts furniture designer.
Receiving an endowment he was able to study further at Academie Julian in Paris under Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. His early work was in the Tonalist style, that was in favor in the early 20th century. Later he painted in a more explicitly impressionist manner, in a strong and bright palette, with a heavy impasto. Granville Redmond had a great love of the California landscape, painting many coastal scenes between Laguna Beach and Monterey, the island of Catalina, the oaks of Monterey, and hillsides of lupines and poppies in Southern California.