Léon Gaspard (American, born Vitebsk, Russian Empire, now Belarus, 1882-1964)
About this artwork
The Russian émigré Léon Gaspard painted in Taos, New Mexico, from 1916 to 1919, finding a chromatic brilliance and folk culture reminiscent of his homeland there. After his return to Chicago, an exhibition of his work at the Art Institute attracted the attention of Julius Rosenwald—president of Sears, Roebuck and Company—and the lawyer Lessing Rosenthal. Together they gathered a group of 20 Jewish professionals to purchase To the Dance for the museum. The group’s support of Gaspard, a Jewish immigrant, signaled their commitment to a modernism based on cross-cultural affinities. They also may have felt a special regard for New Mexico, which was a tolerant home for Jews during the Spanish Inquisition.
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.
Signed recto, lower-right, in grey paint: Leon Gaspard, Taos, 1919.
Dimensions
81.7 × 91.8 cm (32 1/8 × 36 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Friends of the Artist
Reference Number
1920.95
Extended information about this artwork
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide of the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), 137, cat. 356.
Townsfolk 2 (Mar. 1929): frontispiece (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 168.
Judith A. Barter, Window on the West: Chicago and the Art of the New Frontier, 1890–1940, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago; New York and Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2003), 71, cat. 33, fig. 34 (ill.)
Camille Benton, et al., Common Ground: American and Canadian Landscape Painting: United States Embassy Ottawa, ART in Embassies Exhibition, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: Art In Embassies Program, United States Department of State, 2010), 18–19 (ill.).
Nedra Matteucci Galleries, Leon Gaspard: Impressions of Russia and The Faraway. exh. cat. (Santa Fe, NM: Nedra Matteucci Galleries, 2013), 39 (ill.).
Chicago, Henry Reinhardt & Son Gallery, Leon Gaspard, Feb. 24–Mar. 10, 1919, cat. 1.
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Jan.–Mar. 1922.
Illinois, Oak Park–River Forest Art League, Dec. 7–26, 1923.
University of Missouri, Nov–Dec. 1927.
Illinois, Evanston, University Guild, Sept.–Oct. 1928.
Ottawa, Canada, Common Ground: American and Canadian Landscape Painting, ART in Embassies Exhibition, Jan. 13, 2010–Oct. 31, 2012, no cat no.
The artist. Given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1920.
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