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Lot Essay
Leaving behind the chaos of his New York City surrounds, Milton Avery reveled in the summer sojourns with his family away from bustling urban life. "Every year the artist and his family traveled to some rural area for a summer-long vacation that provided him with artistic inspiration for the rest of the year. Like the American Impressionists who preceded him, Avery thrived on the casual summers where art, nature, and life blended into an integrated whole. He painted daily, and filled sketchbooks with ideas for paintings to be completed during the winter." (B.L. Grad, Milton Avery, Royal Oak, Michigan, 1981, p. 13). Fondly recalling their time away, Avery's wife, Sally Michel, remarked, "We always looked forward to the long summers, to the change of environment that acted as a time of renewal for the creative forces." (as quoted in B.L. Grad, Milton Avery, n.p.). Of particular note were the trips that led them away from their usual retreat of Gloucester, Massachusetts, to new destinations such as Vermont. Sally poetically reminisced, "The hills of Vermont beckoned next, and we climbed mountains and painted hilly landscapes." (as quoted in B.L. Grad, Milton Avery, n.p.). It was this destination, which the family visited repeatedly beginning as early as the mid-1930s, that provided the inspiration for Vermont Landscape.
Of these vacations, Barbara Haskell comments that "Avery's access to these fresh visual environments was significant, for at the core of his approach to painting was a single firm rule: never invent imagery...This fidelity to his own visual experience almost proved disastrous the first summer in Vermont. It rained continuously for the first three weeks; when it stopped, everything was the same brilliant green. Avery hated it and wanted to leave because he felt it impossible to paint a landscape that had so little color variation. Fortunately, a few sunny days and shoots of new vegetation sufficed to change his mind and Vermont eventually became an important source of fresh imagery." (Milton Avery, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1982, p. 60) In Vermont Landscape, the lush green flora has given way to a blanket of pink in the foreground and new blossoms peek through the vegetation at lower right. Avery's soft brushwork further enhances the idyllic and tranquil sentiment of the unspoiled view, which surely served as a perfect retreat for the urbanites. Indeed, Vermont Landscape demonstrates Avery's artistic commitment to distill those peaceful memories of the idle hours of summer with his use of harmonious colors and delicate brushwork.
Of these vacations, Barbara Haskell comments that "Avery's access to these fresh visual environments was significant, for at the core of his approach to painting was a single firm rule: never invent imagery...This fidelity to his own visual experience almost proved disastrous the first summer in Vermont. It rained continuously for the first three weeks; when it stopped, everything was the same brilliant green. Avery hated it and wanted to leave because he felt it impossible to paint a landscape that had so little color variation. Fortunately, a few sunny days and shoots of new vegetation sufficed to change his mind and Vermont eventually became an important source of fresh imagery." (Milton Avery, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1982, p. 60) In Vermont Landscape, the lush green flora has given way to a blanket of pink in the foreground and new blossoms peek through the vegetation at lower right. Avery's soft brushwork further enhances the idyllic and tranquil sentiment of the unspoiled view, which surely served as a perfect retreat for the urbanites. Indeed, Vermont Landscape demonstrates Avery's artistic commitment to distill those peaceful memories of the idle hours of summer with his use of harmonious colors and delicate brushwork.