Torvalt Arnt Hoyer American, born Denmark, 1872–1949
About this artwork
In My Backyard, Torvalt Hoyer vibrantly portrayed the urban greenery and parceled lots of his Chicago neighborhood, likely Lakeview. He painted in a deliberately flattened and decorative style, using precise lines and forms alongside stippled brushwork. Hoyer conveyed the perspective of looking out his window onto two low structures in the middle ground and a row of narrow homes with their steeply pitched roofs in the distance.
Born in Copenhagen, Hoyer studied informally for several years at the Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He worked as a professional acrobat, visiting museums and painting as he traveled the world, eventually settling in Chicago. By the 1930s his modern landscapes garnered critical attention. My Backyard was first exhibited at the Art Institute in 1940, the year it was made.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Gift of Mrs. Olga Pegelow in memory of her husband
Reference Number
1973.58
Extended information about this artwork
Art Institute of Chicago, The Fifty-first Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1940), cat. 105.
Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists, Seventeenth Annual Exhibition, exh. cat. (Chicago: Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists, 1941), 11, cat. 43a.
Joshua B. Kind, Naive Art in Illinois, 1830–1976, exh. cat. (Chicago: Illinois Arts Council, 1976), cat. 13 (ill.), as Backyard Scene.
Illinois Arts Council, 200 Years of Illinois Art Biennial Series: Naive Art in Illinois, 1830–1976; traveled to Peoria, IL, Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences,Illinois Landcape Art, 1830-1976, Feb. 29-Mar. 28, 1976; Normal, IL, Center for the Visual Arts Gallery, Illinois Art at 1976, A Bicentennial Invitational, June 6-July 25, 1976; Springfield, Illinois State Museum, The Emergence of Modernism in Illinois, 1914-1904, Sept. 12-Oct. 24, 1976; cat. 13 (ill.), as Backyard Scene.
The artist (died 1949), Chicago; by descent to his daughter, Olga Pegelow-Mazur (born Hoyer), Chicago, from 1949; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1973.
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