Lot 167: Agnes Anne Abbot (American, 1897-1992)

Hillside Landscape, from the 1926 Woodbury Series Unsigned, identified on the reverse. Oil on board, 8 x 10 1/4 in. (20.3 x 26 cm), unframed. Condition: Tack holes to corners. Provenance: Through the artist's estate. N.B. Agnes Anne Abbot was born in Potsdam, Germany to American parents. As a child, Abbot and her family would summer on Cape Cod and around the turn of the century, they moved back to the States permanently to continue the children's schooling. By 1920, Abbot had become a member of the Wellesley College Art History Department faculty, a position she would hold until 1963. In her essay, Agnes Anne Abbot: Her Life, Ursula Schonbeck notes, "A private person, Miss Abbot was not concerned with art trends, her independent spirit, instead, allowed her to follow 'the beat of her own drummer.' She loved her home town of Harvard (Massachusetts) and was content to draw her inspiration from the nature that surrounded her." Of her own technique, Abbot stated, "The visual world is made up of such a fascinating variety of form, color and texture that I find no more joyful excitement than attempting to deal with it in paint". Abbot's work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Wellesley College Art Museum and the Fogg Museum at Harvard University.