Description:

FREDERICK OAKES SYLVESTER (AMERICAN, 1869-1915)
Oil on board, signed. Serene summer landscape, green hillside with fence. Wooden frame.

About the Artist: Determined from youth to pursue the arts, Sylvester began his studies at the renowned Massachusetts Normal Art School in Boston out of high school, graduating with honors in only three years of schooling. After teaching painting and drawing at Newcomb College at Tulane University in New Orleans for a year, in 1892, he and his wife moved to St. Louis when he was hired as art director at the new Central High School - where he would continue teaching until 1913. In 1902, he moved his growing, young family to Elsah, Illinois, into a warm-weather cottage on the bluffs of the Mississippi. This move is regarded as a turning point in Sylvester's work, marking a transformation in both subject and tone, from the often harsh, industrial scenes drawn from the budding St. Louis Riverfront and Eads Bridge to rural, often serene Elsah landscapes. Sylvester had taken on an after-school second job a year prior, as art director of The Principia, a three-year-old private school in St. Louis, where he continued teaching for the rest of his life.

Despite the momentary nature of Sylvester's career (his death in 1915 was only at the age of 45), his artistic spirit left a lasting impact on his students still present today. Principia College’s campus still includes the site of Sylvester’s Elsah cottage, a warm remnant of the director's frequent invitations to his students up to the same cottage for idyllic days of sketching and painting. Sight: 12" height, 5.75" width; frame: 12.75" height, 6.3" width

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December 11, 2021 10:00 AM CST
St. Louis, MO, US

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