Skip to main content

Louis George Bouché Muralist and Artist (March 18, 1896 – August 7, 1969)


The short story on Bouché is compelling. Louis George Bouché was born in NYC, raised in Paris, studied at the Lysée Calneux, Academy Colorossi, and the Grande Chaumiere. He went on to study at the Art Students League of New York in 1915, with Dimitri Romanovsky and Frank Vincent DuMond. In 1920s he curated an art gallery in Wanamaker's department store and then went on to be one of the top artists of his generation.

Whereas, little is known of him today, his work is in about 20 major museums, including: The Los Angeles County Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection, The Walker Art Center and the Whitney Museum. His gallery dealer was Kraushaar Galleries in New York where they had at least 13 one-person exhibits of his work. These exhibits lasted from 1936 to 1970.

Beyond being an artist he worked as an art instructor for both the Art Students’ League and the National Academy of Design. He was a member of the prestigious National Institute of Arts and Letter, serving as Vice President in 1957. He had awards from: The Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Carol Beck Gold Medal), The Metropolitan Museum - “Artists for Victory” prize, so on and so on. Still today, one of Bouché’s paintings, Spring in the Park, engages in international diplomacy by being in the US State Department’s Art in Embassy Collection.

Bouche was an “artist’s artist” whose career spanned almost fifty years. Below we will look at one his major works that is not in a public collection:
“Roadside Gossip”

“Roadside Gossip” was painted near Bouché’s home in Chatham, NY and he used local young people to serve as models without preliminary sketches. This is documented in a letter to Lawrence Fleischman dated November 18, 1959, now at the Archives of American Art. Fleishman purchased the painting from Kraushaar. Fleischman(1925-1997) was a power-house collector and art dealer, known as one of America’s foremost art experts. He was the Chairman and CEO of Kennedy Galleries in Manhattan, as well as he bankrolled numerous projects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and British Museum.

“Roadside Gossip” was a favorite of Bouché’s and was exhibited in two major shows: The 1952 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art and a one-person show at the Albany Institute of History and Art, 1963. The painting was sold by Christie's Auction House in 1994, where it went into the hands of Georgetown arts and antiques dealer in Washington, DC. It was purchased from the DC dealer in 1996.

The painting is oil on canvas, 20 X 26 inches in a thick rustic wooden frame.

Signature Detail


Painting Detail


Another Painting Detail


Exhibit Tag from the Albany Institute of History and Art




©2022. Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art is a research collaborative, working to track artists that got lost and overlooked due to time, changing styles, race, gender and/or sexual orientation. Our frequent blogs highlight artists and art movements that need renewed attention with improved information for the researcher and art collectors. The photos and blog was created by Mr. Waller and all written materials were obtained by the Fair Use Section 107, of The Copyright Act. #waller-yoblonskyblogspot #walleryoblonskyblogspot #louisbouche #louisboucheartist





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MARCEL (Marcella Anderson) Torpedo Factory Artist

Marcella Anderson and/or Marcy Anderson (1946 - 2015) was better known as "MARCEL", a popular serigraph/silkscreen artist, at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in historic Old Town Alexandria, VA. She maintained a gallery and work space at the Torpedo Factory from 1976 to 2015. At the top of the stairs on the 3rd floor was this large light filled studio with a charming blonde woman surrounded by her silkscreens. In the early 80s, her work consisted mostly of water reptiles, fish, birds and environmental scenes. She kept with nature themes during most of her time at the studio. Her obituary stated: "Marcel was known for her bold, yet sensitive, use of color and design. Her images in all media reflected her love of nature. Her glowing color, both intense and delicate, was achieved through the use of transparent layers of color." Marcel was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and studied at the Cornish School of Allied Arts. Before arriving in the DC area, she had
11 comments
Read more

Japanese Wooden Dolls: Kokeshi-Ningyo "こけし－人形"

This article is dedicated to my Japanese (nihongo) Sensei, Atsuko Kuwana, who helped me learn to speak Japanese. Collectors come in all varieties, some plan their collections, others start by chance.  I saw my first kokeshi（こけし） wooden doll in 2005 while participating in a grassroutes exchange program between the U.S. and Japan.  I was staying with a family near Nagoya and the couple’s young daughter had one.  Years later when I was named a Mike Mansfield Fellow from the U.S. government to the Japanese government, and was living in Japan, I would see them frequently at flea markets and souvenir shops next to the natural hot spring resorts in the area known as Tohoku.  Before leaving for Japan, I studied all things Japanese at the George Shultz Foreign Service Institute (FSI), including a professor that covered domestic and family life and some short statements on kokeshi.  After arriving in Japan, the National Personnel Authority ( jinjiin ) was responsible for my continued studies, b
Post a Comment
Read more

Japanese Dolls - Ichimatsu Doll by Kyugetsu

On the top floor of the Matsuya Department Store in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo, was a large exhibit space that rotated shows about every two weeks. It was one of my favorite places to visit, as there were fine artists and craftsmen showing their creations with the assistance of the most attentive staff and sales associates. They always exemplified elegance and class. During a drop-by-visit, there was a Ichimatsu doll exhibit. Dolls are dolls, a play thing, until they become an artform. The exhibit was part educational seminar and part wonderment. These Japanese dolls were not produced on a factory floor with production quotas. Each doll was handmade with painstaking details by an artisan that rendered a doll with personality, charm and beauty. The keeper of all knowledge, Wikipedia, describes Ichimatsu dolls this way: the doll represents little girls or boys, correctly proportioned and usually with flesh-colored skin and glass eyes. The original Ichimatsu were named a
Post a Comment
Read more