Sun Bath
Artist
Philip Leslie Hale
(American, 1865 - 1931)
CultureAmerican
Date1914
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions36 1/8 x 30 1/8 in. (91.8 x 76.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 40 3/4 × 35 1/8 × 2 7/8 in. (103.5 × 89.2 × 7.3 cm)
Overall, Frame: 40 3/4 × 35 1/8 × 2 7/8 in. (103.5 × 89.2 × 7.3 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated upper left: PHILIP L. HALE;
DEDHAM, 1914;
Signed lower right: P.L. HALE;
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.864
Not on view
DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting showing two female figures in flowing white garments in full sunlight against an exterior wall of a house. There is a window in the upper left, a trellis on the right, and a red hollyhock growing between them. One woman stands at left and the other reclines with her head and torso in the lower right corner. On the trellis, a wisteria vine grows.Label TextPhilip Leslie Hale American, 1865–1931 Sun Bath, 1914 Oil on canvas Drenched in light, the pale dresses of these two young women erupt with rainbows of yellow, orange, purple, and blue. Despite their casual poses, the surrounding flower garden suggests that their feminine beauty is carefully nurtured—the product of a sophisticated education. Philip Leslie Hale and his Boston patrons believed that the pursuit of knowledge and beauty were moral duties for both sexes. Hale’s wife, Lillian Westcott Hale, and his sister, Ellen Day Hale, were also painters, while his cousin Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent writer and feminist. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.864 ProvenanceThe artist;...; Wickersham Gallery, New York, 1966; Edward Pawlin, New York; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1969; Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to The Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition History"Panama Pacific International Exhibition," San Francisco, Calif., February 20 - December 4, 1915. (Exh. cat. no. 3778) "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. “The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887- 1920,” Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, February 12 – May 24, 2015; Chrysler Museum of Art, June 16 – September 6, 2015; Reynolda House Museum of American Art, October 1, 2015 – January 3, 2016.Published ReferencesGallery advertisement in _Art Journal_, Summer 1966, 387 (titled Sun Bathers). Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 158. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 140, no. 87. Anna O. Marley, ed., _The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement_ (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015) 151.
Painting/Frame
