George W. Platt
(1839, Rochester, N.Y. – 1899, Denver, Colorado)
A 19 th Century American Artist
(Trompe l’oeil, survey artist, portrait)
From Virginia to Arizona In the spring of 1973 I accepted a position as assistant professor of 19th Century French Literature at Arizona State University. Later that year, in July to be exact, I completed and duly defended my dissertation at Pennsylvania State University on “La femme et ses paysages d’âme dans l’oeuvre romanesque d’Octave Mirbeau” [Woman and Her Mental Landscapes in the Fiction of Octave Mirbeau]. Mirbeau was then a forgotten French writer who recently has been brought back from oblivion into a new limelight thanks to an ever increasing circle of scholars and the formost Mirbeau scholar from Angers (France), Pierre Michel. Prof. Lois Boe Hyslop, who died in 2004, directed the dissertation. After the defense I drove back to Sweet Briar College in Virginia where I was teaching French. I packed my belongings, filled my VW bug to the brim and drove alone all the way to Arizona, with no air-conditioning in the car. In July, I settled in the Sir Lancelot, still located today at 3524 Miller Road, in the charming town of Scottsdale, Arizona. The owner was a friendly retired army colonel, Russ Krantzfelder who thought that all faculty members at ASU were leaning toward the political left and Marxism. A surprising acquisition Sometime in 1975 or early 1976, the Boy Scouts were holding a rummage sale on the corner of Miller and Osborn, just a few steps away from Sir Lancelot, in a building that no longer exists. Unable to resist browsing through rummage sales, I went to explore and came home with a wooden jewelry box that was donated new by a department store; a second-hand fake fur winter jacket in excellent condition (that I still owe but never wear), a lamp, and a picture with an impressive wooden frame. Without wasting any time, I bought some tools and removed the layer of paint that covered the frame. After restoring the natural beauty of the wood, I wondered what picture it was going to showcase. The old one needed to be thrown away. It must have been gathering dust in someone’s attic for decades. The thick layer of dirt blurred all details and colors making the picture look uniformly beige and grey. Before throwing it away, however, a careful examination revealed that it was not a cheap reproduction but a true oil painting signed in the lower right hand corner by someone named G.W. Platt. The artist had omitted to include the year in which he had created his work. A real oil painting is a sacred object, one to be treated with utmost respect. I was earning at the time a very modest salary. A real oil painting was a dream out of reach. By sheer chance, I had acquired one because its wooden frame had caught my eye and because the asking price was only fifty cents and seemed too good a deal to pass up. The El Paso Fine Arts Shop On the back of the canvas was a label from the Fine Arts Shop located at 114 Mills Street in El Paso ( Texas), right across from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In no time I wrote to El Paso Chamber of Commerce. In a letter dated March 31, 1976, the Chamber of Commerce responded that the Fine Arts Shop was no longer at 114 Mills Street and that the Gunning Casteel Drug Store has been occupying the location for quite some time. Mr. Donald W. Holmberg, the Executive Director suggested I contact the Research Department of the Public Library in El Paso, located at 501, North Oregon, El Paso 79901. When I wrote to the library, Mary A. Sarber, the head of Southwest Reference kindly did some research and responded on May 19, 1976, saying that The Fine Arts Shop was located at 114 Mills from 1919 to 1924. During those years, the picture that I had just acquired was framed. The artist, however, was no longer alive having died in 1899, some 25 years earlier at the age of sixty. Having mixed carefully some very tepid water with a little Woolite and with clean cotton balls, I proceeded to remove, inch by inch, the thick layer of dirt, making sure that during this labor of love none of the oil paint became damaged. Slowly, bright colors came alive, and a mallard duck, hanging from a nail appeared in its full glory. I replaced the beautiful oil painting in its wooden frame. It has occupied a prominent place in my living room and a tender one in my heart for over thirty years. About the artist Not much information is available on G.W. Platt, an American artist almost forgotten today. He came from a family of architects I was once told. As the years went by, I succeeded in discovering a few more details. George W. Platt was born in Rochester, New York in 1839. Cheryl Leibold, an archivist, confirmed in an e-mail [CLeibold@pafa.org] dated April 25, 2005, that Platt had attended in the fall of 1876 a life drawing class at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts [located at 118 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102]. But this was all the information she had available. It is at this Academy that G.W. Platt most likely came in contact with William Harnett and John Peto, two American trompe-l’oeil artists. The French have always shown a great interest in everything American. No wonder then that E. Bénézit’s French Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs proves to be a fine source of information providing additional details on Platt’s activities. He apparently studied at the University of Rochester before he accompanied John Wesley Powell [1834- 1902) in his geological exploration expedition that included the Grand Canyon [land expedition] in the Western United States. Powell was not only a prominent figure in the military, an adventurer and explorer; he was also an artist and took along with him many other fellow artists knowing full well how important their contribution might prove in recording for posterity his exploits in the still unexplored territories. They would capture and immortalize the land and its fauna in art. Photography was first discovered in France around 1829, and came to America in about 1839, but only in black and white. The West, on the other hand, offered the full range of colors of the rainbow that would be best captured by artists. So far, we know little about Platt's contributions to Powell’s exploration, except that he was a draftsman. On October 31, 1871, at the age of thirty-two, Platt registered for an “Antikenklasse” at the Munich Academie der Bildenden Kunste in München. He is supposed to have worked with William Merritt Chase (1849-1911) at the Academy of Munich. Indeed, the records of the Academy indicate that a year later, Merritt Chase had registered on November 1, 1872 at the age of twenty-two at the Munich Academy and attended the same “Antikenklasse” that Platt had attended in 1871. Founded on May 13, 1808, the Munich Academy had acquired a very high reputation and competed with the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris in attracting artists. Upon his return to the United States, Platt settled in Chicago in the 1880s where he pursued his career and apparently had his own studio. Still later he relocated to Denver, Colorado where he died in 1899. While in Colorado, he taught at the University of Denver and supposedly had his own studio as well. In a public sale, held in New York on April 25, 1995, Platt’s Nature morte avec des bananes, des grains de raisin et une chope [30.5 x 25.4 cm] sold for $6,325 [Bénézit Vol. 11, 55]. Could my painting of 30 by 25 inches be worth more? Askart [http://www.askart.com] seems to be the only place online actively interested in G.W. Platt and offers on its home page a biography of Platt some 1,212 characters long. It also provides information about recent auctions and sales of Platt’s works. On Fridays one may access only the biography for free. A mallard duck
Platt’s treatment of the mallard duck seems almost naturalistic. It represents a true nature morte or still life. The bird is hanging from a nail implanted in some neutrally beige colored wall that forms the background. The duck looks almost like a specimen in a science laboratory, with several discreet and almost indistinguishable streaks of blood flowing in narrow streams from some invisible wound. The feet are orange; various shades of green appear in the head; white, grey and brown colors form part of the plumage. The bird projects a shadow against the wall giving the painting a three-dimensional perspective. The lower wing which is mostly white appears almost detached from the canvas. When occasionally children come to visit, they ask why the picture hangs upside down. It is fun to tell them that the bird is hanging from a nail with its feet facing up and its head facing down, the wings spread out, and the belly facing the spectator. The children’s error in perception is possibly due to a technique referred in art as “trompe l’oeil.” The bird seems alive, almost three dimensional; one feels tempted to touch and caress the softness of its plumage. In the upper chest [with the head hanging down] a darker spot marks what seems to be a hole where the hunter’s bullet possibly pierced the bird. The artist has captured the bird’s beauty with finely blended brush strokes that leave the surface of the canvas very smooth, without any major accumulations of paint to form thicker layers to the touch of the fingers. Were it not for the orange colored string that attaches the duck to the nail, one would say that the bird is in flight, diving in the air, its beauty intact and preserved for posterity. How the picture landed in a Fine Art Shop in El Paso, Texas, remained a mystery that recently has been solved. Thanks to the information from the Frick Reference Library, the owners who had the picture so beautifully framed were Mr. & Mrs C.W. Harvey, from El Paso, Texas. They actually owned two pictures, identically framed, each featuring a bird hanging up side down from a nail. One was sold at an auction. I have acquired the other. George W. Platt, an American trompe l'oeil artist must feel some satisfaction at not being entirely forgotten. His painting has contributed joy and pride during some thirty years to its present owner. Copyright by Aleksandra Gruzinska [3/8/06] Bibliographical Sources Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire de peintres sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains specialistes français et étrangers. Nouvelle édition entièrement refondue sous la direction de Jacques Busse. T. 11, Pintoricchio-Tottel. Paris: Gründ, 1999. " Platt, George W. “Mort en 1899. XIXe siècle. Américain. Peintre de natures mortes. ” “Il appartint à l’expédition dans l’ouest de John Wesley Powell avant d’étudier à l’Académie des Beaux-Arts de Pennsylvanie. A la fin des années 1870 il travailla sous la direction de William Merritt Chase à l’Académie de Munich. De retour aux Etats-Unis il s’installa à Chicago dans les années 1880 et poursuivit sa carrière de peintre. Plus tard il s’installa à Denver. ” “Ventes publiques: New York, 25 mai 1995: Nature morte avec des bananes, des grains de raisin et une chope, h/t (30,5 x 25,4): USD 6,325 [Bénézit vol. 11, p. 55] ” Ask/Art. http://www.askart.com The following biography comes from the Archives of AskART: “A survey artist as well as trompe l’oeil and landscape painter, George Platt accompanied John Wesley Powell’s Geological Survey and Exploration expedition that included the Grand Canyon in the early 1870s. His early education was at the University of Rochester and then he accompanied Powell on the expedition.” “Following these western trips, George Platt took classes a the Pennsylvania Academy and there came under the influence of William Harnett and John Peto, Trompe l’oeil painters. Platt later studied in Munich, Germany and Italy and then returned to the United States in the 1880s, going to Chicago and Rockford, Illinois; and Davenport, Iowa.” “In 1881, he opened a studio in Chicago and during the 1890s, he went to Colorado where he was a teacher at the University of Denver. He did trompe l’oeil paintings of western still-life subjects such as a buffalo skull, a saddle, a rifle, etc. One of his trompe l’oeil paintings was of a bowie knife that appeared to be stuck into the canvas.” “George Platt died in Denver Colorado in 1899.” [AskArt provides as Sources: Peggy and Harold Samuels, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West; and Peter Falk, Who Was Who in American Art] http://www.desertusa.com/magnov97/nov_pap/du_jwpowell.html Institutions with an interest in G.W. Platt Colorado Historical Society Cincinnati Art Galeries Denver Art Museum The Frick Museum has in its library the following documents about the artist: “George W. Platt: artist file: study photographs and reproductions of works of art with accompanying documentation 1920-2000 [graphic], call #100 Platt, located in its photoarchives stacks. The records of the Academie der Bildenden Kunste in München give Philadelphia as Platt’s birthplace. Platt registered at the Academie on October 31, 1871. He was then 32 years old. The records show that he took an “Antikenklasse.” “George W. Platt (d. 1899). Still life with Bananas, Grapes and Mug. Signed G.W. Platt, 1.1. oil on canvas; 12 by 10 in. 30.5 by 25.4 cm. [Item 140]. George W. Platt, a follower of William M. Harnett, was a draftman with John Wesley Powell's western expedition before studying at the Pennsylvania Adacemy of the Fine Arts. In the late 1870s, Platt studied under…” “Cat., Sale , David and Jean Strale. Coll., Sotheby's, N.Y., May 25, 1995.” Photocopy of Cat. Sale from the Frick Art Reference Library. See footnote 1. The Frick Art Reference Library, located at 10 E. 71 st Street , New York , N.Y. 10021 , has photographic reproductions of G.W. Platt works: 1) “ One Silver Dollar ,” 6” x 12”; 2) “ Spoiling Apples ,” from the collection of Mr. & Mrs. Robert D. Crompton, Richboro, Bucks County , Pa. A gift of Robert D. Crompton 2/9/72; 3) “ A Melon and Grapes ,” 16 x 21, gift of Mildred Thaler Cohen, The Marbella Galeries Inc, 28 East 72 nd street, New York, N.Y. 13026, 9/9/02; 4) “ Wild West .” Lent by Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Harvey, El Paso , Texas . The photocopy also provides the follwing information: “George W. Platt, who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at the same time as Harnett and Peto (in the middle ‘70's), practiced his profession principally in Chicago and in Denver , where he died. His portraits and still lifes are scattered from the Pacific Coast to Iowa . Wild West was painted in 1894 and seems to be one of a series of Western adaptations of After the Hunt . Platt is known to have done such pictures as early as 1888. Added in pencil is the followin information: Cut. from the Bull[etin] of the Cal. Palace of the Legion of Honor, S. Francisco, vol. 6, nos. 4 & 5 (n.p. or date given).” 5) “ Still Life .” In penn or pencil the following information has been added: “after? Monet, Claude, “A Partridge & a Woodcock,” Mrs. Chas. R. Henschell Coll, N.Y.? (see … letter to Frankenstein 2/14/51). Owner: Mr. & Mrs. C. W. Harvey, El Paso, Texas. “per gift Alfred V. Frankenstein 2/14/51. See his letter 2/2/51, 3/2/51. Still Life represents a bird hanging from a nail implanted in a wall, wings extended, head down. It is the same size and has the same frame as the painting of the mallard duck described above. Both pictures must have been framed at the same time, and were probably meant to hang one next to the other and the Harveys must have owned both pictures in their collection. Reproductions . “Courtesy of James Maroney, Inc., New York , November 10, 1980 (J800303M); “Art in America ,” Summer 1980, v. 68, p.20 (in color); source “b,” n.p. (33). Exhibitions: Collections : (a) Mr. Otto Mull, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Harmon's Bazar, Iowa City, Iowa; Mr. Jonathan P. Maney, Iowa City, Iowa; passed through the hands of James Maroney, Inc., New York. Description: Bibliography from Frick Art Reference Library:
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