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The colorful patterns and glowing sunshine are signature elements of Frieseke's work.

Frieseke's paintings of female figures made him one of America's most popular Impressionists.

The artist spent his summers painting at Giverny, France near the home of French Impressionist Claude Monet.

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Frederick Carl Frieseke

Afternoon–Yellow Room, 1910

oil on canvas

32 x 32 in.

James E. Roberts Fund

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Frieseke was born in Michigan but spent most of his time in France. He studied in more conservative Parisian academies before turning to the Impressionist idiom and devoting his summers to painting at Giverny, France. His garden villa at Giverny is the setting for most of his work. Frieseke was the leader of the Giverny Group, which included American Impressionists who painted near the home of the great French Impressionist Claude Monet. For many years Frieseke painted intimate scenes of women seated in gardens or sun rooms with contrasting light. The figures are not portraits but were regarded as decorative incidents of color compositions. According to Frieseke’s own statement, he did not make sketches before painting, but took the inspiration for his canvas straight from nature.

Afternoon–Yellow Room is one of two versions of the same subject painted at Giverny in 1910. With a true Impressionist attention to the varying effects of sunlight, Frieseke distinguished this scene of afternoon light from its morning counterpart, a painting now in the Cincinnati Art Museum. The colorful patterns applied to the chair and curtain and the glowing sunshine that invades the well-appointed room are signature elements of Frieseke’s work.

Reference  

Nicholas Kilmer, David Sellin, Barbara H. Weinberg, Virginia M. Mecklenberg. Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. ISBN-13: 978-0691089225