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Deserted House

Paul Starrett Sample

American Art

Unlike many American Scene painters, Paul Sample was associated with multiple regions (Southern California and New England) and both urban and rural subjects. His pictures were highly regarded for their powerfully direct compositions that, like this barren scene, often struck a note of Depression-era melancholy. As one Art News critic observed in 1934, “[Sample] paints simply and conservatively, omitting startling devices . . . and unusual fabrications of color. There is a frank open quality to his work which is rather winning after much current showmanship and affectation.”
MEDIUM Watercolor with graphite underdrawing and opaque watercolor highlights on white, heavy weight, moderately textured handmade wove paper made from multiple laminated sheets
DATES 1938
DIMENSIONS Sheet: 11 1/4 x 15 3/8 in. (28.6 x 39.1 cm) Frame: 17 7/8 x 23 7/8 x 1 1/2 in. (45.4 x 60.6 x 3.8 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS Blind embossment from paper manufacturer in lower right corner: "VERITABLE PAPIER / FIN / *D'ARCHES*"
SIGNATURE Signed lower left: "Paul Sample"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 40.380
CREDIT LINE Gift of Friends of Southern Vermont Artists, Inc.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Paul Starrett Sample (American, 1896-1974). Deserted House, 1938. Watercolor with graphite underdrawing and opaque watercolor highlights on white, heavy weight, moderately textured handmade wove paper made from multiple laminated sheets, Sheet: 11 1/4 x 15 3/8 in. (28.6 x 39.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Friends of Southern Vermont Artists, Inc., 40.380. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 40.380_PS2.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 40.380_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006
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