Distinguished Artist Series
Frank Coburn
by Bradley J. Delaney
The
term "California plein air painting' is currently used to cover the
variety of styles and influences found in early twentieth-century Los Angeles
painting, principally American Barbizon, Tonalism, impressionism, and post-Impressionism.
This term would appear appropriate to describe Coburn's landscape paintings
and those which are fundamentally landscape, provided that the dominant
element (or elements) in each work is specified. However, whereas Coburn
identified himself as a landscape painter on his business card, he clearly
did so because of the far greater demand for landscape in relation to other
categories of painting. In reality, his interest went beyond landscape to
other subjects seldom shown locally, such as still life, nudes, urban scenes
and ones of seaport industry and commerce, subjects reflecting the ethnic
diversity of the region, and of course the daring Entertainer. He
was particularly celebrated in his day for evening and night scenes of downtown
Los Angeles, sometimes in rainy weather, sometimes illuminated by electric
or even neon lights.
Above Left: Sunpath with Shade, c. 1910-15, oil on cardbaord,
10 x 7 inches
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