Object number1985.11.1
Clinton Square, Newburgh
Date1917
Artist
Clarence Kerr Chatterton
(American, 1880-1973)
CultureAmerican
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 27 1/2 x 35 1/4 in. (69.85 x 89.54 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Leila Cook Barber
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
SignedSigned (LR): C. K. Chatterton
InscribedNot inscribed
BibliographyMundy, James, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: Vassar College The History and Collection (New York: Prestel Publishing, 2007), p. 100 repr.; Promised Gifts '77 (Poughkeepsie: FLLAC, 1977) p 17 repr. Vassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryPoughkeepsie, NY, FLLAC, Vassar College, "Promised Gifts '77," April 20 - May 22, 1977.Poughkeepsie, New York, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, "Mastering Light: From the Natural to the Artificial," April 11 - June 29, 2014
Poughkeepsie, New York, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, "American Stories 1800 - 1950," January 29 - April 17, 2016
DescriptionSince Vassar College opened in 1865, there has been a total of only four pro- fessors of painting during a continuous history of one hundred and forty years. C. K. Chatterton was the second in this impressive succession, serving from 1915 to 1948. He was born in Newburgh, New York, on the west bank of the Hudson River, and studied at the New York School of Art, founded by William Merritt Chase. It was a school for illustrators and his teachers were Howard Chandler Christy, Walter Appleton Clark, and, later, Robert Henri. It was there that he forged lasting friendships with Rockwell Kent, Gifford Beal, and, most importantly, Edward Hopper, with whom he made regular trips to sketch and paint the Maine coast. Two years after being hired by Vassar College, Chatterton painted Clinton Square, Newburgh as seen from his office in the Highland Bank building that he rented for the summer of 1917. This painting, imbued with the bustling impressions of life in a thriv- ing downtown, extends the principles of Henri’s teaching of Realism and observations of daily life. The painting is also suffused in the light and atmosphere of a summer’s day, where strong shadows are cast by the solid structures that line the street. Chatterton would go on to exhibit at the Wildenstein, Macbeth, and Chappellier galleries, and live to see his work collected by such institutions as the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums.
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