Old Houses, Berthier by William Henry Clapp
William H. Clapp
Old Houses, Berthier
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1912 lower right
20 x 24 ins ( 50.8 x 61 cms )
Auction Estimate: $6,000.00 - $8,000.00
Price Realized $7,200.00
Sale date: June 8th 2023
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal
A.K. Prakash & Associates, Inc., Toronto
D & E Lake Ltd., Toronto
Acquired by the present Private Collection, December 1998
“30th Spring Exhibition, Art Association of Montreal”, 26 March‒19 April 1913, no. 64
Possibly “Paintings by W.H. Clapp, A.R.C.A.”, Arts Club, Montreal from 7 February and Johnson Art Galleries, Montreal, 27 February‒28 March 1914, no. 98 as “The Waterfront at Berthier”
Albert Laberge, ‘Ouverture de l’exposition de peintures à la galerie des arts’, “La Presse” (Montreal), 26 March 1913
Evelyn R. McMann, “Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, formerly Art Association of Montreal Spring Exhibitions 1880-1970”, Toronto, 1988, page 69 as “Old house, Berthier”
A.K. Prakash, “Impressionism in Canada: A Journey of Rediscovery”, Stuttgart, 2015, reproduced page 531 as “Berthier, Quebec”
In the catalogue of the 1909 Ontario Society of Artists exhibition Clapp’s address was given as 255 Bleury Street, a building owned by the sculptor G.W. Hill and where Edmond Dyonnet also lived. Clapp quickly moved into the milieu of the leading senior Montreal artists, painting at Philipsburg, where Maurice Cullen held the landscape classes of the Art Association of Montreal’s school, and at Saint Eustache, where William Brymner and Cullen had constructed a studio in 1905. His painting “The New Church” (National Gallery of Canada), shown in the 1910 Spring Exhibition, depicts the church of Saint Eustache.
In 1912 both Edmond Dyonnet and Clapp painted at Berthier (now Berthierville) on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence, between Trois-Rivières and Montreal. Dyonnet exhibited “Early Morning, Berthier” at the Royal Canadian Academy in November 1912 and “Country Road, Berthier” in the 1913 Spring Exhibition. The latter (sold Pinney’s, Montreal, 6 December 1988, lot X176) was illustrated in “The Yearbook of Canadian Art 1913” published by Toronto’s Arts and Letters Club. Clapp’s submissions to the same exhibition included the painting presented here, “Old Houses, Berthier” and it attracted the attention of Albert Laberge, sports and arts writer for the newspaper “La Presse” and the most sympathetic critic to the new generation.“The works by the so-called colorists‒Alex Jackson, Randolph Hewton, Albert H. Robinson, Arthur D. Rosaire, W.H. Clapp, Clarence Gagnon, among the youths, and Maurice Cullen, Suzor-Côté and a few others among the veterans, are the most remarkable and form the highlight of this year’s Salon. ... The old houses of Berthier, a painting in a grey note ... are a beautiful piece of painting, enough to tempt the connoisseurs.”
Laberge’s characterization of the painting as a being in a tone of grey is very apt. However it ignores the subtle play of blues, mauves, yellows, whites and greens and the animated brushwork used to depict the wooden balcony of the frame house with its metal chimney projecting upper right, the boards supporting the dock, the ladder and boat and foliage at right and left. It’s as if a mist veiled this delicate vision of a summer day in the village of Berthier.
Following a common practice among artists, Clapp recycled the original frame from Old Houses, Berthier, installing it on another canvas of the same dimensions, “Rio Nuevas, Cuba”, that was purchased by the National Gallery in 1915. An old label inscribed, “Old Houses, Berthier, W.H. Clapp, 255 Bleury St., Montreal,” can be found of the back of the frame on “Rio Nuevas, Cuba”.
Clapp’s career had taken off with remarkable rapidity. He had been elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in November 1911, a member of the Canadian Art Club in 1912 and a member of Montreal’s Pen and Pencil Club in March 1913. His works were included in the exhibition of Canadian art at New York’s McDowell Club in March 1913 together with paintings by J.W. Beatty, William Brymner, Maurice Cullen, Clarence Gagnon, Wyly Grier, Lawren Harris, C.W. Jefferys and J.E.H. MacDonald, and from 27 February to 28 March 1914 he had a solo exhibition at the Arts Club of Montreal and subsequently at Johnson’s Art Galleries in Montreal. That exhibition included subjects from Spain, France, Phillipsburg and Berthier and this painting might have been included under the title “The Waterfront at Berthier” at $125, the same price he had asked in the 1913 Spring Exhibition.
Canada rallied to Britain’s side and declared war against Germany in September 1914. Male artists had to confront the decision to enlist or not, but as an American citizen Clapp was not under the same obligation, and by the spring of 1915 he had moved to Cuba, where he would remain for two years. Nancy Boas, author of “The Society of Six California Colorists” (San Francisco, 1988, page 50), in which Clapp figures prominently, writes that the catalyst for the move was the purchase by the artist’s father of a pineapple plantation at Isle of Pines in Cuba, rather than the war. By 1917 Clapp had moved back to California, becoming curator of the art gallery in Oakland the following year. In the 1930s he would exhibit in Montreal once again, at Watson Art Galleries.
We extend our thanks to Charles Hill, Canadian art historian, former Curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada and author of “The Group of Seven‒Art for a Nation”, for his assistance in researching this artwork and for contributing the preceding essay.
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William Henry Clapp
(1879 - 1954) ARCA
William Clapp was born in Montreal to American parents. He was raised in California, but returned to Montréal to study at the Art Association of Montreal, under William Brymner. He continued his art training at the Académie Julian in Paris, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and at the Académie Colarossi (1904-1908). In Paris, he adopted an impressionistic pointilist style, much like that of Camille Pissarro. He was interested in the effects of strong sunlight which he strove to capture in his work. He painted in France, Spain, Cuba and the United States, E. F. B. Johnston wrote in 1914, “William H. Clapp, is a good figure painter. His productions indicate sincerity and sound knowledge and show marked growth. Although somewhat of an impressionist he is very orthodox in his colour schemes, and there is a fine quality of the decorative in his work.”
Upon his return to Montréal, he began teaching, and continued to paint and exhibit his work. The art critics in Montréal were not accepting of Clapp's advanced impressionistic style. He persevered, however, becoming a member of the Canadian Art Club, the Pen and Pencil Club and ARCA.
In 1915, Clapp traveled to Cuba to paint. He remained there for two years, and then moved to Oakland California. In Oakland, he became curator and later director of the Oakland Art Gallery. In California, 1917, he became a founding member of the Society of Six, a group of plein air painters, known for their fresh and direct approach. He never returned to Canada, and died in Oakland in 1954. His work is represented in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.
Ref:
A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Vol.1, by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks, Ottawa, Revised and expanded, 1997
