Lot 35: Isaac Snowman (British, 1874-1947) Footsteps 44 1/2 x 28in (113 x 71cm)

Isaac Snowman (British, 1874-1947)
Footsteps
signed 'I.Snowman' (lower right)
oil on canvas
44 1/2 x 28in (113 x 71cm)
Footnotes

Provenance
Christopher Wood, London;
Edward G. Robinson, Los Angeles;
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, 18 April 2007, lot 57;
with Kurt E. Schon, Ltd., New Orleans.

Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1901, #30.
Odessa, Texas, Ellen Noel Museum of Art, Where Will You Travel Next?-Destinations in Paintings, November 2012-February 2013; Albany, New York, Albany Museum of Art, January-April 2014; Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown Museum of the Lehigh Valley, June-September 2014; Scranton, Pennsylvania, Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art, February-June 2015; Lakeland, Florida, Polk Museum of Art, July-December 2015.

Literature
The Windsor Magazine, An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, vol. XX, London, June-November 1904, illustrated on the frontispiece.
James Allen Scott, Where Will You Travel Next? Destinations in Paintings, 2011, p. 161, illustrated.

When Footsteps was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1901, young Isaac Snowman had already achieved a great measure of early fame. A year-long study in Paris in the ateliers of William Bouguereau and Benjamin Constant culminated with one of his works being accepted at the 1897 Salon, after which he returned to London to complete his studies at the Royal Academy school. The young artist made a name for himself by painting society portraits and genre paintings that were well received by the public.

That same year, Snowman and friends embarked on a trip to Jerusalem that spurned the artist to create a series of paintings with Jewish subjects. Furthermore, he joined the cause of his fellow Jewish compatriots by being a founding member of the group of the Maccabaens, who sought to promote the interests of Jews and the Zionist movement.

Around the turn of the century, Snowman's most popular paintings were of young mothers and their children, all dressed in the most fashionable outfits. In an article for The Windsor Magazine, Snowman admits to finding his sitters in the wealthy neighborhood of West Hampstead, near his studio, where local schools supplied him with an endless stream of mothers and children. The parents's vanity is evident, as the artist's requests to paint them were never met with objections (op. cit.).

In Footsteps, an elegantly dressed young woman is peering over her shoulder towards the approaching footsteps that visibly interrupt her reading of the letter she is holding in her hand. The comfortable setting in the sun-dappled garden with a beautifully appointed tea table under a large tree acts as an invitation to the viewer to actively engage in the unfolding scene.