Golden Afternoon in Old Lyme by Frank Vincent DuMond (1865-1951), oil on canvas, 26″ x 36″, signed lower right, two serious canvas breaks, unframed.
In the later part of his life, DuMond resided in Old Lyme Connecticut, becoming a member of and teaching at the Old Lyme Art Colony. In Connecticut, DuMond continued to produce striking luminist landscapes that echoed his previous work in the French countryside and employed his aforementioned Prismatic Palette, like that seen in Golden Afternoon in Old Lyme. The viewer can observe that the warm hues flow from yellow to red to violet, while the cold hues move from yellow to green-blue to violet. As quoted in the Ridgewood Art Institute’s 2004 Catalogue, one student of DuMond fondly recalls DuMond’s teachings on color: “Silently glowing over this whole landscape is a rainbow. You must learn to see it.” Golden Afternoon in Old Lyme communicates this effortlessly.
Medium: Oil on canvas
American Impressionist scholar William H. Gerdts wrote of Frank DuMond, “As one might speak of Velazquez's blacks, one must speak of DuMond’s greens”.
Interested in art from a young age, DuMond started his career as an illustrator in his home town of Rochester, New York. At 23, DuMond left home and enrolled in the Arts Students League of New York, where he trained for four years alongside Jane Peterson (see Venice Scene). DuMond went on to study at the Academie Julian, moving to Paris with his younger brother and fellow artist Frederick Melville DuMond. He began to cultivate a following after his piece Holy Family was exhibited at the Paris Salon and received a medal.
Though he had a successful career as a painter, earning various awards from an array of institutions, DuMond spent over fifty years of his life as an educator, returning to the Arts Students League of New York– this time as a teacher. Here, DuMond mentored notable artists like Georgia O’Keefe and Norman Rockwell, disseminating his developed Prismatic Palette, variations of which are still taught at art schools across the country.
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