Moonlight Summer

Alternate Title(s):
August Moonlight; Moonlight

1913–15

Oil on canvas

16 x 20 in. (40.64 x 50.8 cm)

Signed lower left: John F. Folinsbee

Private collection

Provenance

Estate of the artist

Private collection, Pennsylvania

Sotheby's 5/23/2007, lot 101 (unsold)

Private collection, 2007

Exhibition History

1915 Louis Katz NY: Recent Paintings by Harry Leith-Ross and John F. Folinsbee, no. 30, as Moonlight Summer

1915 Toledo: Recent Paintings by John F. Folinsbee and Harry Leith-Ross, no. 278, as Moonlight Summer

1916 Mahoning (Butler) II: Midwinter Exhibition of Paintings Loaned by John F. Folinsbee, by Harry Leith-Ross, and by Artists and Citizens of Youngstown, no. 278, as Moonlight

Published References

Bowdoin 1915: "Country Moods in 5th Ave Show of Two Painters"

Jensen 2013: Folinsbee Considered, p. 227, cat entry

Commentary

The plaque on the frame for this painting suggests a date of ca. 1920, and a painting titled August Moonlight was indeed exhibited at McClees Gallery in Philadelphia that year. However, that painting was sold from the show--this particular work remained with the artist until it was sold for estate by Newman Galleries in 1985. Both the palette and style of the painting suggest that it was painted earlier, and is probably a scene in Connecticut rather than New Hope. Additional information suggests that the painting is instead titled Moonlight, Summer, and was exhibited at the Lewis Katz Gallery in October 1915. A review in the New York Evening World describes Moonlight, Summer as "a house in the gloaming. The somber shadows of the night mingle with the deep shadows cast by the overhanging trees, and from two open windows shine out fetching red lights,"--a description which fits this painting precisely.