GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Born in New York in 1884, Guy Pène Du Bois was of aristocratic ancestry. He studied painting with Robert Henri, but it was as a student in Paris that he achieved the style he used so effectively as a weapon with which to puncture complacency of mediocre people, the vulgar, rich, and foolish. Du Bois, along with John Sloan, George Bellows, and Edward Hopper, is often considered an upholder of a renovated and simplified realism in American art. Chester Dale, the donor of this and another Du Bois painting in the Dallas Museum of Art collection, was a key supporter of the artist's career.
Adapted from
DMA Acquisition proposal (Chester Dale Gifts), 1963.
NOTES
Added geographies to the artist record- see 1945.11
Add exhibition:
"New York Realists," Whitney Museum of American Art, February 9-March 5, 1937
Added probable acquisition proposal to TMS record as text entry (because I do not have editing privileges to the Registration module).
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Guy Pène Du Bois
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
oil
panel
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
performers
figures
realism
theater
costumes
sitting
standing
backstage
clown
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
By 1937- d.1962: Chester Dale (d.1962), New York, NY [1]
1962-1963: Chester Dale Estate
1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, bequest from the above [2]
[1] This owner appears on the documentation from "New York Realists" exhibition at the Whitney Museum, February 9-March 5, 1937.
[2] The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
Other label copy, Erin Pinon, June 2016:
Guy Pène du Bois began his career as an illustrator and critic, celebrating modernism in both writing and practice. As student of William Merritt Chase, Kenneth Hayes Miller and Robert Henri, he remained active in the New York art scene throughout the early 20th century, during which he would become a celebrated satirist.
A true observationalist, du Bois painted scenes and people from his daily life, choosing the events and goings-on of New York’s elite as his primary subject. His keen examination and study of the social elite were pointed and ironic, and can often be read as a contemporary social commentary. du Bois’ painting adhered to the Ashcan School’s style of loose, gestural brushstrokes as see here in Costume Dance. The scene painted here is emblematic du Bois’ subject treatment. Three figures dressed in ornamental performance costumes and powdered with makeup intimately gather center stage. A seated performer fixes their gaze on the audience, deepening the eerie despondence of this melancholic theatre scene.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Guy Pène Du Bois: The Twenties at Home and Abroad~Betsy's Fahlman's essay for a 1994 exhibition at the Westmoreland Museum of Art (Greenburg, PA) summarizes Du Bois' career and offers additional insight on his depictions of couples.
- Guy Pène Du Bois: The 1920s~Check out Richard Armstrong's essay in the Whitney Museum of American Art's exhibition catalogue available through the Internet Archive.
- Life (June 20, 1949)~Look through this 1949 Life magazine feature on Guy Pène Du Bois.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1963.171
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General Description
Born in New York in 1884, Guy Pène Du Bois was of aristocratic ancestry. He studied painting with Robert Henri, but it was as a student in Paris that he achieved the style he used so effectively as a weapon with which to puncture complacency of mediocre people, the vulgar, rich, and foolish. Du Bois, along with John Sloan, George Bellows, and Edward Hopper, is often considered an upholder of a renovated and simplified realism in American art. Chester Dale, the donor of this and another Du Bois painting in the Dallas Museum of Art collection, was a key supporter of the artist's career.
Adapted from
DMA Acquisition proposal (Chester Dale Gifts), 1963.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Guy Pène Du Bois: The Twenties at Home and Abroad~Betsy's Fahlman's essay for a 1994 exhibition at the Westmoreland Museum of Art (Greenburg, PA) summarizes Du Bois' career and offers additional insight on his depictions of couples.
- Guy Pène Du Bois: The 1920s~Check out Richard Armstrong's essay in the Whitney Museum of American Art's exhibition catalogue available through the Internet Archive.
- Life (June 20, 1949)~Look through this 1949 Life magazine feature on Guy Pène Du Bois.
Notes
Added geographies to the artist record- see 1945.11
Add exhibition:
"New York Realists," Whitney Museum of American Art, February 9-March 5, 1937
Added probable acquisition proposal to TMS record as text entry (because I do not have editing privileges to the Registration module).
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Guy Pène Du Bois
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
oil
panel
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
performers
figures
realism
theater
costumes
sitting
standing
backstage
clown
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
By 1937- d.1962: Chester Dale (d.1962), New York, NY [1]
1962-1963: Chester Dale Estate
1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, bequest from the above [2]
[1] This owner appears on the documentation from "New York Realists" exhibition at the Whitney Museum, February 9-March 5, 1937.
[2] The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
Other label copy, Erin Pinon, June 2016:
Guy Pène du Bois began his career as an illustrator and critic, celebrating modernism in both writing and practice. As student of William Merritt Chase, Kenneth Hayes Miller and Robert Henri, he remained active in the New York art scene throughout the early 20th century, during which he would become a celebrated satirist.
A true observationalist, du Bois painted scenes and people from his daily life, choosing the events and goings-on of New York’s elite as his primary subject. His keen examination and study of the social elite were pointed and ironic, and can often be read as a contemporary social commentary. du Bois’ painting adhered to the Ashcan School’s style of loose, gestural brushstrokes as see here in Costume Dance. The scene painted here is emblematic du Bois’ subject treatment. Three figures dressed in ornamental performance costumes and powdered with makeup intimately gather center stage. A seated performer fixes their gaze on the audience, deepening the eerie despondence of this melancholic theatre scene.
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