Oil on board painting by Euphemia Charlton Fortune, 1885 to 1969, an American Impressionist artist based in California who is known for her landscapes and later liturgical work. The artwork represents a still life with a candlestick, Japanese vase and kenzan with flowers. Signed by the artist in the lower left. Golden frame. Collectible Fine Art, Female Artists.
E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) Fishing from the Rocks unsigned and inscribed indistinctly and dated '1920' (on the stretcher bar) oil on canvas 26 x 28 in. framed 32 x 34 in.
E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) Jamie signed 'E. Charlton Fortune' (upper left) and signed again and titled (on the reverse) oil on Masonite 12 x 9 in. framed 15 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.
E. Charlton Fortune California, New York / United Kingdom, Scotland, (1885 - 1969) Coastal Waves oil on board Euphemia Charlton Fortune chose to hide her gender in order to be taken more seriously as a painter. Being into a wealthy family and with a cleft palate made her choose a career in art (and travel) and to never marry for fear of passing on the mouth deformity to a child. She lived for years in Monterey, California, and she traveled to her father's homeland, Scotland, and then spent years abroad in Europe. She was a devout Catholic who founded the Monterey Guild, dedicated to ecclesiastical art and furnishings. Under the auspices of the guild she decorated over 30 churches across the country. Unusual for a woman of her times, she also loved to ride her bicycle along the coast and paint semi-impressionistic landscape scenes en plain air at select locations across the Monterey peninsula. Created with bold brush strokes and a thick use of paint, this seascape scene appears to have been made on a beautiful windy day somewhere along that peninsula. Although she worked live from nature, she was able to mix a wide variety of nuanced colors on her travelling palette including many shades of blues, greens, pinks, purples, yellows, tans and browns—as seen here in her bold creation of "Coastal Waves." Her work is part of the permanent collections of major museums across California. signed lower right, gilt-framed.
Technik: Öl auf Künstlerkarton, mit Karton hinterklebt, Signatur: unten rechts signiert 'Fortune', Maße: 25 x 35 cm, Zustand: gut, Karton gewölbt, Randläsuren und Montagerückstande, leicht fleckig, Fortune war eine amerikanische (Post-) Impressionistin. Sie lernte Malerei in New York, San Francisco und Schottland und stellte später auch in Paris aus. 1922 war sie Mitgleid der 'Socetiey of Scottish Artists'. 1924 erhielt sie eine silberne Medaille für ihr Gemälde des Hafens von Saint Ives im Pariser Salon. Hauptsächlich beschäftigte sie sich mit der Landschaftsmalerei und stellte überwiegend kalifornische und europäische Ansichten dar. Doch auch Portraitmalerei gehörte zu ihrem OEuvre, sowie in späteren Jahren, das Anfertigen von Designkonzepten für die christliche Liturgie. Durch die Kürzung ihrer Signatur auf (E.) Charlton Fortune, verbarg sie ihr Geschlecht und konnte so vor einem größeren Publikum ausgestellt werden. Das gezeigte Bild könnte eine Landschaft in Schottland oder Kalifornien zeigen und besticht durch das Fortunes Wechselspiel zwischen harmonisch abgestimmten Farben, + Technique: oil on artist cardboard, backed with cardboard, Signature: signed lower right 'Fortune', Dimensions: 25 x 35 cm, Condition: good, cardboard curved, marginal tears and mounting residues, slightly stained, Commentary:Fortune was an American (Post-) impressionist. She learned painting in New York, San Francisco and Scotland and later exhibited in Paris. In 1922 she was a member of the 'Socetiey of Scottish Artists'. In 1924 she received a silver medal for her painting of the harbor of Saint Ives at the Paris Salon. She was mainly engaged in landscape painting, predominantly Californian and European views. But portrait painting was also part of her oeuvre, as well as in later years, making design concepts for the Christian liturgy. By shortening her signature to '(E.) Charlton Fortune', she concealed her gender and was thus able to exhibit to a wider audience. The painting shown could depict a landscape in Scotland or California, and is captivating because of Fortune's interplay of harmoniously coordinated colors.
Euphemia Charlton Fortune, American, 1885 to 1969, oil painting on board depicting a European cityscape view. Signed lower right. Framed. Euphemia Charlton Fortune is known for Landscape, interior, figure and mural painting. A pioneer female artist in a world basically reserved for men, she was an independent, dedicated professional woman in early 20th century California. Euphemia Carlton Fortune was a notable early California who is most recognized for her paintings in and around the picturesque Monterey Peninsula, especially the harbors and coastal villages of Carmel and Monterey. As a professional artist, she lived and worked in Europe during three periods from 1897 to 1927. One of a kind artwork.
Euphemia Charlton Fortune, American, 1885 to 1969, oil painting on board depicting a European cityscape view. Signed lower right. Framed. Euphemia Charlton Fortune is known for Landscape, interior, figure and mural painting. A pioneer female artist in a world basically reserved for men, she was an independent, dedicated professional woman in early 20th century California. Euphemia Carlton Fortune was a notable early California who is most recognized for her paintings in and around the picturesque Monterey Peninsula, especially the harbors and coastal villages of Carmel and Monterey. As a professional artist, she lived and worked in Europe during three periods from 1897 to 1927. One of a kind artwork.
Technik: Öl auf Künstlerkarton, mit Karton hinterklebt, Signatur: unten rechts signiert 'Fortune', Maße: 25 x 35 cm, Zustand: gut, Karton gewölbt, Randläsuren und Montagerückstande, leicht fleckig, Fortune war eine amerikanische (Post-) Impressionistin. Sie lernte Malerei in New York, San Francisco und Schottland und stellte später auch in Paris aus. 1922 war sie Mitgleid der 'Socetiey of Scottish Artists'. 1924 erhielt sie eine silberne Medaille für ihr Gemälde des Hafens von Saint Ives im Pariser Salon. Hauptsächlich beschäftigte sie sich mit der Landschaftsmalerei und stellte überwiegend kalifornische und europäische Ansichten dar. Doch auch Portraitmalerei gehörte zu ihrem OEuvre, sowie in späteren Jahren, das Anfertigen von Designkonzepten für die christliche Liturgie. Durch die Kürzung ihrer Signatur auf (E.) Charlton Fortune, verbarg sie ihr Geschlecht und konnte so vor einem größeren Publikum ausgestellt werden. Das gezeigte Bild könnte eine Landschaft in Schottland oder Kalifornien zeigen und besticht durch das Fortunes Wechselspiel zwischen harmonisch abgestimmten Farben, + Technique: oil on artist cardboard, backed with cardboard, Signature: signed lower right 'Fortune', Dimensions: 25 x 35 cm, Condition: good, cardboard curved, marginal tears and mounting residues, slightly stained, Commentary:Fortune was an American (Post-) impressionist. She learned painting in New York, San Francisco and Scotland and later exhibited in Paris. In 1922 she was a member of the 'Socetiey of Scottish Artists'. In 1924 she received a silver medal for her painting of the harbor of Saint Ives at the Paris Salon. She was mainly engaged in landscape painting, predominantly Californian and European views. But portrait painting was also part of her oeuvre, as well as in later years, making design concepts for the Christian liturgy. By shortening her signature to '(E.) Charlton Fortune', she concealed her gender and was thus able to exhibit to a wider audience. The painting shown could depict a landscape in Scotland or California, and is captivating because of Fortune's interplay of harmoniously coordinated colors.
E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) Jamie signed 'E. Charlton Fortune' (upper left) and signed again and titled (on the reverse) oil on Masonite 12 x 9 in. framed 15 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.
E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) Wedding Alter, San Francisco signed 'E.C. Fortune' (lower right) oil on canvas 16 1/4 x 12 1/4 in. framed 23 1/4 x 19 in.
Country Farm with Hay Bales in the Field, oil on board, 12 x 24 in (30.5 x 61 cm) , framed 17 1/2 x 29 1/2 in ( 44.5 x 74.9 cm), signed lower right, PROVENANCE: Private collection Mamaroneck, NY
E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) The Harbour Light, St. Ives signed 'E C Fortune' (lower left), signed again, titled and dated on an exhibition label (affixed to a backing board) oil on canvas 12 x 16in framed 17 3/4 x 21 3/4in Painted in 1923. For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Euphemia Charlton Fortune (American, 1885-1969) The Calling of Saint Peter and The Denial of Christ (double-sided) (Two Works), c. 1944-1947 Oil on canvas laid on panel; oil on panel 11-1/2 x 8 inches (29.2 x 20.3 cm) ( The Calling of Saint Peter) 9 x 8 inches (22.8 x 20.3 cm) ( The Denial of Christ) PROVENANCE: Monsignor Robert E. Brennan, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California; Bonhams, San Francisco, California, August 7, 2006, lot 1177; Collection of Steve and Nancy Hauk, Hauk Fine Arts, California; Private collection, Northern California. EXHIBITED: Pasadena Museum of Art, Pasadena, California, and elsewhere, "E. Charlton Fortune: The Colorful Spirit." August 20, 2017-August 27, 2018. LITERATURE: S. Shields, E. Charlton Fortune; The Colorful Spirit, exhibition catalogue, Pasadena, California, 2017, pp. 170, 172-73, illustrated. By 1928, California native E. Charlton Fortune's work became much more spiritual, as she turned her focus to liturgical painting for the Catholic Church. The Calling of Saint Peter and The Denial of Christ are two works of eight that were created for the Reredos of the Sanctuary of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri that was designed by the architect Julian Whittlesey. This work is located in Heritage Auction's San Francisco Gallery. The buyer will be responsible for pick-up or shipment from this location. We would be delighted to assist with these arrangements. HID01801242017
California street Landscape painting Signed Fortune, after E Charlton Fortune. E Charlton Fortune (1885 - 1969) E. Charlton Fortune was active/lived in California, New York / United Kingdom, Scotland. E Fortune is known for landscape, interior, figure and mural painting. Frame 15 1/4" x 19".
E CHARLTON FORTUNE (American 1885-1969) Scottish family connection 'Monteray Harbour' ,California, faint signature, and dated 1934 lower left, oil on panel depicting a fishing boat and crew, again in Monterey Harbour. Important note is the pier in her painting that bears a resemblance to the same pier in her painting 'Late Afternoon Monterey' 18cm x 23cm NB the original frames are also available with this picture. Condition Report: Prior to bidding, please consult the additional photos provided and ask all pertinent questions
E CHARLTON FORTUNE (American 1885-1969) Scottish family connection 'Monteray Harbour' ,California, showing a panoramic view of Monteray Harbour. Faint signature 'For' and 'tun' are clearly visible, the first name 'Effie' which she was often known by, especially to family and friends, and dated 1934 lower left, oil on panel/canvas laid on board. 18cm x 23cm. Additional info Provenance, both paintings within this sale were a gift from the artist to her cousing Ernest Fortune, who lived in Glasgow, Scotland 1934. then onto his widow, the late Dorothy Fortune, who, after her death in 2016, both paintings bought and are in a private Edinburgh collection Condition Report: Prior to bidding, please consult the additional photos provided and ask all pertinent questions
E CHARLTON FORTUNE (American 1885-1969) Scottish family connection 'Monteray Harbour' ,California, faint signature, and dated 1934 lower left, oil on panel depicting a fishing boat and crew, again in Monterey Harbour. Important note is the pier in her painting that bears a resemblance to the same pier in her painting 'Late Afternoon Monterey' 18cm x 23cm NB the original frames are also available with this picture. Condition Report: Prior to bidding, please consult the additional photos provided and ask all pertinent questions
E CHARLTON FORTUNE (American 1885-1969) Scottish family connection 'Monteray Harbour' ,California, showing a panoramic view of Monteray Harbour. Faint signature 'For' and 'tun' are clearly visible, the first name 'Effie' which she was often known by, especially to family and friends, and dated 1934 lower left, oil on panel/canvas laid on board. 18cm x 23cm. Additional info Provenance, both paintings within this sale were a gift from the artist to her cousing Ernest Fortune, who lived in Glasgow, Scotland 1934. then onto his widow, the late Dorothy Fortune, who, after her death in 2016, both paintings bought and are in a private Edinburgh collection Condition Report: Prior to bidding, please consult the additional photos provided and ask all pertinent questions
E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) Portrait of Orville C. Pratt IV signed and dated 'E. Charlton Fortune 1917' (lower right) pencil and colored pencil on paper 24 x 20 1/2in Drawn in 1917. For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) Drying Sails I signed 'Fortune' (lower right), signed again, inscribed and titled 'Charlton Fortune / Monterey / Drying Sails' (on the reverse) oil on canvasboard 12 1/2 x 16in For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
E. Charlton Fortune (American, 1885-1969), Santa Barbara Mission, 1928, oil on board, signed and dated lower right, study sketch verso by Walter Martin, board: 8.5"h x 10"w, overall (with frame): 14"h x 15.5"w
E. Charlton Fortune (American, 1885-1969), Untitled (Bishop's Blessing), watercolor and gouache on cardboard, signed verso, board (unframed): 6"h x 11.5"w
Manner of E. Charleton Fortune (American, 1885-1969), Coastal Scene, oil on canvas, signed indistinctly "E. C. F and dated lower right, overall (with frame): 13.5"h x 21.5"w
E. Charlton Fortune Californian Landscape (The Hatton Ranch, Carmel Valley) signed 'Charlton Fortune' (lower left), titled (on the stretcher bar), inscribed 'No. 5' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 20 x 24in overall: 26 1/4 x 30 3/8in Footnotes Provenance Gertrude (née Eels) Babcock Lawson, Ross, California, and London, England. Thence by family descent to the present owners. In 1906, after studying with Arthur Mathews and others at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art in San Francisco, Euphemia Charlton Fortune—"Effie"—began to train privately with artist Eugen Neuhaus and at the Partington School of Magazine and Newspaper Illustration, both located at 424 Pine Street in San Francisco. This training ended abruptly on April 18, 1906, when the great earthquake and resulting fires destroyed the Pine Street building, along with much of the rest of the city. Though the event was traumatic for Fortune and her family, as they lost their Hyde Street home, the calamity offered the young artist an opportunity. She had long hoped to study at the Art Students League of New York City, but considered the pursuit an "impossible dream." Now, with nothing to hold her back, and with the support of her mother and brother, she enrolled. Her primary instructors were Albert Sterner, Frank Vincent DuMond, and F. Luis Mora. She studied there until 1910. Before returning to California, Fortune traveled abroad to pursue a mural commission for St. Margaret's Convent in Edinburgh, Scotland, where in her teens she had been a boarding student. On this same trip, she visited Paris, seeing the work of the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and Futurists firsthand. At the end of spring, 1912, she came back to San Francisco, but soon set off for the Monterey Peninsula, where she painted local landscapes and produced portraits on paper into the fall. From this point on, until she returned to Europe in the spring of 1921, she divided her time between the Monterey Peninsula and San Francisco, generally spending summers in Monterey making art and often teaching, and then finishing her paintings in San Francisco over the winter. Fortune believed in painting outdoors as much as possible, especially when making studies or working on small canvases that she could finish in a short period of time. She typically painted larger works in her studio, drawing from memory and using her own oil sketches as a reference. She did not aim to transcribe nature exactly; the purpose of her art was to interpret, not photograph, and thus she only started with the scene at hand and then personalized it. Fortune spent increasing time in Monterey as the decade progressed. She was one of the area's foremost painters, her best-known works depicting sweeping scenes of Monterey Bay and the buildings and activities that surrounded it. On December 19, 1920, art reviewer Laura Bride Powers of the Oakland Tribune wrote, "Miss Fortune paints Monterey—Monterey in sunshine, Monterey in fog, Monterey hillsides, Monterey waters that are betimes the bluest in the world. Lover of all that is wrapt round Monterey of physical beauty, there she is at the highest pitch of her imagination and creative power. No wonder she lives there most of the year." Many of Fortune's Monterey Peninsula paintings focus on landscapes with buildings, both along the coast and inland. Here she depicts the buildings of Hatton Ranch, a dairy farm set at the mouth of Carmel Valley. The site inspired her large painting El Rancho del Carmelo (also called Hatton Ranch), a canvas now in the collection of the Monterey Museum of Art. It was the impetus for at least one other work as well: The Ranch—Morning. The latter is perhaps an alternative title for this work, which on the back is identified on an old label as "Californian Landscape" and on the stretcher bar as "The Hatton Ranch, Carmel Valley." The painting depicts multiple buildings of the Hatton Ranch in the midst of the region's quintessential hills. Filled with light and color, it is rendered with an immediacy that suggests Fortune painted it in plein air. Orange and gold roofs top a white-washed house and dairy buildings grounded by blue-purple shadows; a flurry of gold and green brushwork suggests the agricultural terrain. The background hills are composed of browns, blues, and oranges, the color growing quieter as the hills recede into the distance. Fortune used similar hues in her larger El Rancho del Carmelo, which is taken from a different vantage point. The tonalities of El Rancho del Carmelo are darker overall, however, which along with this painting's more tightly rendered brushwork, suggest that Fortune completed it in her studio, the canvas too large to complete outdoors. Fortune contributed El Rancho del Carmelo and The Ranch—Morning to her January 1921 exhibition of twenty-seven works at Helgesen Galleries in San Francisco. The show was held in part as a farewell, since Fortune would soon be going abroad for an indefinite period. Nothing in the show was painted earlier than 1916, meaning that the gallery was ablaze with light and color. Both paintings of Hatton Ranch, along with most of the other works shown at Helgesens, next appeared in July 1921 at the Gieves Gallery in London, Fortune herself having arrived in England that May. That December, Fortune submitted a work called Californian Ranch to the Twenty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Scottish Artists, held at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. This title, listed in the exhibition's checklist, matches the one on the back of the present work. Because Fortune often changed or altered her titles based on the venue where the work would be shown, The Ranch—Morning and Californian Ranch could well be the same painting. For Fortune, it was never the specifics of the scene or the titles she applied that were important, but brushwork, color, and, as Fortune herself explained, being true to herself to her "uttermost, darndest limit."
E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) Still life with narcissus and anemone signed 'Charlton Fortune' (lower left) oil on canvas 30 x 25in overall: 38 1/2 x 33 1/2in Footnotes Provenance The artist. Gertrude (née Eels) Babcock Lawson, Ross, California, and London, England. Thence by family descent to the present owners, England. E. Charlton Fortune (1885–1969) came of age during a time when women began to redefine their societal roles by pushing the boundaries of what was expected of them and challenging the status quo. Unmarried and of independent spirit, Fortune often rode her bicycle around California's Monterey Peninsula to find the perfect setting to paint in plein air. The resulting landscapes were not delicate, soft, or feminine but bold and vigorous—and often thought to have been painted by a man. Fortune, who went by Effie, was born in Sausalito, across the Golden Gate north of San Francisco. She studied at San Francisco's Mark Hopkins Institute of Art and then continued her training at the Art Students League in New York. She spent many of her active years painting in and around Monterey, where she maintained a home. In the 1920s, she lived and painted for extended periods in St. Ives, England, and Saint-Tropez, France. Upon her return to California in the late 1920s, she founded the Monterey Guild, directing her guild members to create art and furnishings for Catholic churches. Working first in Monterey and then Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and Kansas City, Missouri, she ultimately helped transform more than seventy church interiors in sixteen states. In Monterey, Fortune became best known for views of the town and its wharf, which featured architecture, people, and other elements of modern life. She was drawn to similar scenes abroad. One of her most important contributions lay in her ability to combine multiple subjects—landscape, architecture, people, boats—while many other California artists prioritized land, coast, and sea for their own sakes. Occasionally, she rendered other subjects, including figures and still lifes. Though her still lifes are rare, they too manifested her strong personality and progressive spirit. Even when painting flowers, Fortune did her best to avoid what she considered the sentimental or gratuitously pretty. Just as she was more apt to render a vegetable garden than a flower garden, when on the few occasions she depicted cut flowers in a traditional still-life format, she favored the understatement and simplicity of flowers like phlox, anemones, and daffodils, rather than the overt and voluptuous beauty of roses. Though Fortune's paintings are frequently labeled Impressionist, she moved beyond the style in many of them, a fact recognized even in her own time. She was careful to paint things and places that lent themselves to her aesthetic approach, her primary focus being on color and paint handling, the true subjects of her work. Her paintings were rarely quiet and subdued but instead strong in hue, frequently exploiting primary or complementary colors, and rugged in gestural execution—her paint applied with a "flying brush."υ1 By contrast, many other California artists of the era (and before) were reluctant to abandon either their hard-won academic skills or their adherence to topography, therefore giving clear priority to subject matter over style. Never one to be "cramped by too much attention to rigid plan," Fortune handled her medium with a fluidity that suggested ease; she was always striving for a sense of spontaneity.υ2 Because Fortune's paintings were vigorous and bold, many reviewers called them masculine, attributing their success to a perceived virility—then one of the most highly regarded qualities in art, especially in California. Commentators in the West were happiest when they could bestow adjectives like powerful, vigorous, forceful, direct, and virile—especially on paintings by men, but also on those made by women. They found these qualities in strong color, boldly developed structure and composition, and confident, assured brushstrokes. Female attributes, by contrast, were delicate, soft, subtle, refined, and light of touch. The latter adjectives were almost never used in describing Fortune's work. Fortune garnered more male-gendered accolades than any other female artist in California. Plus, many who did not know her naturally assumed she was a man because of the way she signed her paintings, using her first initial, middle name, and last name: E. Charlton Fortune, along with shorter variations. She did so both because she disliked her first name, Euphemia, and because the lack of gender specificity helped level the playing field with those male colleagues and picture buyers reluctant to recognize or reward the work of a woman. Even in Fortune's floral still lifes, a genre often associated with women, feminine adjectives hardly apply. In this painting, Fortune not only uses the primaries of red, yellow, and blue, she incorporates a preponderance of black, a departure from her normal convention, as the darkest shade in most of her paintings is purple. Being able to paint black effectively was a skill she worked consciously to achieve. When living and working in Saint-Tropez, she set out specifically to investigate how to paint black in such a sun-drenched environment, where she found it became alive, vibrant, and full of subtleties "like the low notes of a cello."υ3 In this painting, Fortune animates these "low notes" with lively brushwork and rich variations of tone, simultaneously keeping the focus on her flowers while imparting the overall dynamic surface that is such a signature component of her art. υ1 Florence Wieben Lehre, "Artists and Their Work," Oakland Tribune, November 20, 1927. υ2 Marjorie C. Driscoll, "Artists and Their Work," San Francisco Chronicle, January 30, 1921. υ3 E. Charlton Fortune, "E. Charlton Fortune," handwritten document from scrapbook, facsimile in the Archives of the Oakland Museum of California, 8–9.
E. Charlton Fortune (American, 1885-1969), View of Monterey, oil on board (double-sided), signed lower left, board: 14"h x 18"w, overall (with frame): 22"h x 25.75"w
Wharf, Monterey, circa 1915 signed 'Charlton Fortune' (lower left) oil on canvas 24 x 22 1/4in overall: 30 7/8 x 28 7/8in Footnotes Provenance Mr. and Mrs. W.F. Ott and Edith (née Cory) Ott, Fresno, California and Casper, Wyoming. Private collection, Oklahoma, by descent. Literature Scott A. Shields, Julianne Burton-Carvajal, E. Charlton Fortune: The Colorful Spirit, Portland, Pomegranate Press, 2017. Having recently returned from six-and-a-half years living abroad, nineteen-year-old Euphemia Charlton Fortune enrolled at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art in San Francisco for the 19041905 academic year, studying there under Dean Arthur Mathews and other instructors. In spring 1905, she continued her training privately in the studio of the German-born artist Eugen Neuhaus, as well as at the Partington School of Magazine and Newspaper Illustration, both in the same building at 424 Pine Street, San Francisco, not far from her home. Fortune's tenure with Neuhaus and at the Partington School ended abruptly on April 18, 1906, when the great earthquake and resulting fires destroyed much of San Francisco, including the building at 424 Pine. Euphemia and her mother were fortunate to have escaped with their lives and they quickly left for Stockton to stay with family. Shortly thereafter, they set up camp in Carmel-by-the-Sea, living for several weeks as refugees in a tent. The Fortunes returned to San Francisco by July but had already determined that they would move East, as Fortune was keen to study at the Art Students League of New York. Now, with the encouragement and support of her mother, there was nothing to hold her back, and in October she enrolled. She studied at the Art Students League until 1910, her primary teachers being Albert Sterner, Frank Vincent DuMond, and Francis Luis Mora. Following this training, instead of returning to California as planned, Fortune sailed from New York to Glasgow. When she finally came back to San Francisco in late spring 1912, she moved in with her mother and took possession of a studio at 1321 Sutter Street. She had not worked in the city for long before setting off for Carmel-by-the-Sea to sketch and paint. That summer and fall, she rendered portraits on paper and painted Monterey Peninsula locales. From this point forward, until moving to Europe in March 1921, Fortune divided her time between the Monterey Peninsula and San Francisco. She generally spent summers in the Monterey region, sketching outside and often teaching, and then wintered in San Francisco, where she completed her paintings, exhibited them, and produced portraits. In June 1913, she returned to the Monterey Peninsula, renting an apartment in Pacific Grove with her mother and art student friends. As the summer progressed, she became increasingly involved in local activities and began to identify herself as part of the art scene. Fortune returned to the Monterey Peninsula in 1914, exhibiting with the Society of Monterey Artists in a show juried by visiting artist William Merritt Chase, who awarded Fortune first prize and fifty dollars for her painting The San Gabriel Vine. Chase had come to the Peninsula that summer to teach a class under the auspices of the Carmel Club of Arts and Crafts. Though Chase was a teacher at the Art Students League of New York when Fortune was a student there, he was not one of her professors, though Fortune did attend his lectures in Carmel. Conducting classes on the beach, Chase stressed originality and taught his students to vary their paint handling, to work outdoors in natural light, and to work quickly. Fortune took this training to heart. The summer of 1914 was a busy one, as Fortune had an important exhibition scheduled at Schussler Brothers galleries in San Francisco that fall. The show included fifteen landscapes, mostly Monterey Peninsula coastals, including several either depicting, or taken from, Monterey Wharf. The paintings were well received. Reviewer Michael Williams of the San Francisco Examiner wrote on November 25, 1914, "You have of course seen heaps of Monterey bay pictures, and pier pictures galorebut you've rarely seen such fresh, strong, simple interpretations of the romantic charm and deep color of Monterey bay as these." Such positive press would encourage Fortune's explorations in this direction and she continued to paint Monterey Bay views and wharf subjects until moving abroad. Some manifested the rich, Tonalist example of Mathews; others were more truly Impressionist, following the example of DuMond in New York and Chase in Carmel, along with other artists whose work she had seen abroad. Initially, Fortune moved back and forth between the two styles, as Williams wrote for the Examiner on November 23, 1914, "It is so much easier to classify an artist who sticks to one style. But you'll never be able to take the safe and easy way in judging E. Charlton Fortune. A surprising variety of moods with a virile and confident changing of style marks her work." Fortune ultimately emerged on the side of Impressionism with a richly colorful approach all her own. One such painting, The Pier, a more distanced view than this recently discovered wharf scene, earned her a silver medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Similar subjectsand possibly this paintingappeared in subsequent Fortune exhibitions, such as when a painting titled The Wharf was shown at Helgesen Galleries in December 1918, and when Wharf at Monterey appeared at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art in November 1919. These same works, or related ones (The Wharf and Wharves at Monterey) also made their way abroad to the Gieves Gallery in London in the summer of 1921 and then to other English venues that Fall. By this time, Fortune herself had moved to Europe and was based first in St. Ives, England, and then Saint-Tropez, France. She returned to Monterey in the spring of 1927, after which she began a new chapter of her career making art and designing furnishings for the Catholic Church.
E. CHARLTON FORTUNE (1885-1969) Untitled (Monterey) signed ‘Charlton Fortune’ (lower left) oil on canvas 26 x 34in overall: 33 1/2 x 41 1/2in Painted circa late 1920s
E. CHARLTON FORTUNE (California/New York/Scotland/United Kingdom, 1885-1969). IMPRESSIONISTIC VIEW OF BACKYARD GARDEN WITH FLOWERS, signed on verso. Oil on canvas Click here to view supplemental information for this lot. - Framed, 24 in. x 24 in.
Drying sails I, 1926 signed 'Fortune' (lower right) and signed and titled 'Charlton Fortune / Drying Sails' (on the reverse) oil on canvas board 12 1/2 x 16in overall: 20 1/2 x 24in
The Pool, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco (Court of the Four Seasons), circa 1915 signed 'E. Charlton Fortune' (lower left) oil on canvas 16 1/4 x 20in overall: 24 1/4 x 28 1/4in
Scavengers, St. Ives, 1922 signed 'E.C. Fortune' (upper right) and titled and dated 'Scavengers / St. Ives 1922' (on the stretcher bar) oil on canvas board 12 x 16in overall: 17 1/2 x 21 1/2in
ATTRIBUTED TO E. CHARLTON FORTUNE (California, 1885-1969), oil/canvas, impressionistic landscape with buildings, 7.25 x 11.75 inches, signed E FORTUNE lower right. Condition Report...
ATTRIBUTED TO E. CHARLTON FORTUNE (California, 1885-1969), oil/canvas, impressionistic landscape with buildings, 7.25 x 11.75 inches, signed E FORTUNE lower right.
