GEORGE GARNER SYMONS (1861-1930)
34. Malibu View
Oil on canvas
Signed lower left
12 x 16 inches
18 x 22 framed
Provenance:
Private Collection, Pasadena, California
Symons began his art training at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was there that he met his life long friend and painting companion, William Wendt (1865-1946). Symons continued his studies in Munich, Paris and London and eventually settling in Brooklyn. He made his first trip to California in 1884 and in 1896 accompanied by Wendt, returned and built a studio south of Laguna Beach.
The old Rancho Malibu, one of the original Spanish land grants was purchased by Fredrick Rindge in 1892. One of his first objectives was to commission two professional artists to paint his new home. The two young artists he selected, Gardner Symons and William Wendt eventually painted over seventy views of Malibu in 1897. Travelling from the East, Symons and Wendt must have been elated to abandon the studio setting and paint in the unrestricted open air. Both artists went on to become leaders of the California Impressionist Movement.
Malibu View by Gardner Symons is a glorious historical painting that depicts the pristine environment of the California coastline. Malibu View has a fresh, open feeling that captures the delicate, shifting effects of light upon the natural landscape.
Gardner Symons was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1910. The same year that the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased one of his paintings for the grand sum of ten thousand dollars. He was given full membership in 1911. Rarely is an artist equally revered on either coast of the United States; however Symons is indeed both a prominent figure in Eastern art circles as well as in the California school.
Works held:
Metropolitan Museum, New York; Brooklyn
Institute of Arts and Sciences; Art Institute of Chicago; Cincinnati Museum;
Corcoran Museum; Laguna Art Museum; The Irvine Museum; The Fleischer Collection,
Arizona; Butler Institute, Ohio; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Dallas
Museum; Toledo Museum; Union League Club, Chicago; Forth Worth Museum;
Minneapolis Institute of Art.
The Redfern Gallery
1540 South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 T: (949) 497-3356 F: (949) 497-1324 mail@redferngallery.com
at the Montage Resort and Spa
30801 South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 T: (949) 715-6193