The Wedding Cake
Artist
George Benjamin Luks
(American, 1867-1933)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1910
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (95.3 x 82.6 x 6.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (95.3 x 82.6 x 6.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.678
Not on view
Label TextGeorge Benjamin Luks
American, 1867–1933
The Wedding Cake, ca. 1910–15
Oil on canvas
A white wedding cake glows within its domed glass stand, enticing the two young girls outside this shop. Urban consumer culture and the everyday amusements among New York’s lower classes fascinated the artist George Luks. “A child of the slums will make a better painting than a drawing-room lady gone over by a beauty shop,” he told students. Luks often painted in broad, gestural strokes, seen here in the countertop reflections, to reinforce the crude, yet delightfully unpretentious, character of such scenes.
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.678
ProvenanceMrs. William Keighley; M. Knoedler and Co., New York, N. Y., 1957; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 1971.
Exhibition History"'The Eight'(of 1908) Thirty Years After," Macbeth Gallery, New York, NY, January 4th-17th, 1938.
"Provincetown Past and Present," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., September 27 - December 7, 1958.
"The World of Art in 1910," The Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, La., November 15 - December 31, 1960.
"The Controversial Century, 1850-1950, Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Provincetown, Mass., June 16 - September 3, 1962; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, September 28 - November 4, 1962.
"George Luks (1867-1933) Retrospective Exhibition," ACA Heritage Gallery, New York, N. Y., November 17 - December 23, 1967.
"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976.
"American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013.
"American Appetite: Selections from the Chrysler Museum of Art," Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA, February 6 - June 6, 2021.Published References_The World of Art in 1910_, exh.cat., The Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, La., 1960.
_"The Eight" (of 1908) Thirty Years After_, exh.cat., Macbeth Gallery, New York, NY, 1938.
Charles F. Comfort and William S.A. Dale, _The Controversial Century: 1850-1950_, exh. cat., Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Provincetown, Mass., 1962, not paged.
_George Luks, 1867-1933, Retrospective Exhibition_, exh. cat., ACA Heritage Gallery, New York, N. Y., 1967, no. 21.
Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975.
_The Chrysler Museum: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Norfolk, Virginia_ (Norfolk: Chrysler Museum, 1982).
Joyce M. Szabo, "American Art - 1875-1913" _Gallery Guide_ (Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum, 1986), 5, no. 10.
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), 149, no. 92. I
Cynthia Amnéus, _Wedded Perfection: Two Centuries of Wedding Gowns_, exhib. cat., Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, 2010, 49, fig. 15.
Don Harrison, "Art Unveiled," _Coastal Virginia Magazine,_ April 2014, 49.
Pauly et Cie
