“Sailboats off Cape Ann”

Original oil on canvas painting by the well known American painter, Cullen Yates. Signed lower right and dated 1909.
A similar painted by Yates done in the same year titled “Rockbound” of Cape Ann is held by the Smithsonian Museum.
Overall in original gold leaf over gesso frame 29.5 by 36.5 inches. Frame has original R.H. Macy & Co. paper label.

Yates, a successful artist in his day, was part of the New York art scene. Born in Ohio in 1866, he studied in Paris, had studios in New York and was a resident of artist colonies in Old Lyme, Conn., and Ogonquit and Monhegan Island, Maine. He knew Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargeant, Frederick Church, Marsden Hartley and the painters of the Ash Can School. He studied with William Merritt Chase, Howard Chandler Christy and Howard Pyle.

Yates is labeled an American Impressionist, but unlike Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam and other more popularly known American Impressionists, he remained relatively immune to the more dramatic innovative influences of the French School. His paintings lack the dazzling presence of light and shimmering colors of the French.

Says Sarah LeCount, Kemerer Museum curator: "The American Impressionists never got the same feelings of space. They never broke up their colors as much as did the French. It was as if Yates, like the others would say, 'That's nice, but I don't want to be so radical.' To me, Yates is especially masterful in his use of heavy impasto.
"I think what makes Yates important is that he created a link between this area and the New York art circles. What is fascinating to me is that despite what was going on in New York, his flowers and landscapes were still so popular at that time ... especially in Stroudsburg.