Quiet Stream, Small-Scale Mid Century California Landscape, 1937 by Dalzell Hatfield

Description

Quiet Stream, Small-Scale Mid Century California Landscape, 1937

Plein air painting of a California landscape, quiet stream and hills, 1937. … more Quiet Stream, Small-Scale Mid Century California Landscape, 1937

Plein air painting of a California landscape, quiet stream and hills, 1937. Attributed to California artist, art collector and gallery owner Dalzell Hatfield (American, 1893-1963). Oil paint on canvas laid down on foam board. Signed and dated "Hatfield '37" lower right. Unframed. Image size: 7.13"H x 8.63"W.

Born in Pittsburgh, PA on Aug. 23, 1893. Hatfield grew up and was educated in his native city and in St Louis, but as an artist he remained self taught. His fascination with art began at an early age. When he was 13, Dalzell earned his allowance by taking books back to Carnegie Library in his hometown of Pittsburgh. On his way, he would browse through the art gallery, captivated with what he saw. A few years later, he helped galleries organize traveling art exhibits for such artists as Winslow Homer and George Bellows. During his travels, he stopped in Los Angeles and realized that the rapidly expanding city would serve as the best place to sell art outside of New York. At age 18 he became an apprentice in a Chicago art firm, and in 1919 established his own art business there. Dalzell initially opened up a small gallery in Chicago; however, the emerging gallerist was forced to put everything on hold when he provided service to the Navy during World War I. During the early 1920s he lectured, sold art, and exhibited across the U.S.

He went into business with Earl Stendahl in 1925, joining together as the short-lived Stendahl-Hatfield Galleries located in the Ambassador Hotel. Later that year, he opened his gallery in Los Angeles on Seventh Avenue near MacArthur Park, and one year later he married Ruth, who became an integral part of their growing business. After nine successful years, the gallery closed in 1934, but Dalzell, an expert on modern art and design, traveled the country as a guest curator and lecturer for major galleries and museums, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the National Academy of Design in New York. The couple also took numerous extended trips to Europe to acquire the latest works in European art. They reopened the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in 1939 at the Ambassador Hotel, establishing itself as one of the most prosperous galleries in Los Angeles. In the 1950s, Dalzell also operated the Barbizon-Plaza Galleries at the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel at 101 W. 58th Street in New York.

From the late 1920s until the early 1980s, the Hatfields (Dalzell and wife Ruth) introduced Los Angeles to some of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. From the late 1920s to the early 70s, the Hatfields dedicated their lives to exhibiting and selling modern art, in the process educating Angelinos about cutting edge works of genius coming from Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Dalzell was active in the art world for nearly 40 years. Not only was he instrumental in setting up the first major American exhibitions of Renoir, Gauguin, and other post-Impressionist European artists, but he also exposed and encouraged regional California artists, his most noted discovery being Millard Sheets. Over the course of 24 years at the Ambassador, the gallery held more than 250 exhibitions. Dalzell passed away in 1963, yet the gallery maintained a steady output of modern exhibitions for another twenty years until Ruth’s death in 1984. Ruth and Dalzell left behind a vast collection of art, in addition to a legacy of helping to establish Los Angeles as a modern art sanctuary.

Member: LA Businessmens' Club; Calif. Art Club. Exh: Ebell Club (LA), 1932. In: Orange Co. (CA) Museum. less