OPENING RECEPTION: 1st Thursday, April 3rd | From 5:00-8:00pm
Sullivan Goss plans to turn the first space of its three room gallery in downtown Santa Barbara into a warm living room for the months of April and May to be filled with cherished works by COLIN CAMPBELL COOPER (1856-1937), LEON DABO (1864-1960), and LOCKWOOD DE FOREST (1850-1932). Curator Susan Bush looks forward to inviting patrons and new guests to spend time with three treasured old friends. All three became signatory members of the National Academy after studying art abroad, making their names in New York, and traveling the world. Eventually, they found their way into the gallery’s stable in Santa Barbara, and from there, into the homes and hearts of its patrons.
The oldest piece in the show is a landscape from 1876 painted by a young Lockwood De Forest on the deck of dahabiya as it sailed up the Nile. The most recent piece is by Leon Dabo from 1952, after he went back to the Provençal region in his home country of France for the very last time. The paintings by Colin Campbell Cooper date in between, focusing first on his penchant for architecture and then landscape as he painted marvels like the Chartres Cathedral and the Taj Mahal before retiring to explore the and paint hills around Santa Barbara.
Sullivan Goss has represented the estates of Cooper and De Forest for more than twenty years. The Dabo Estate came to the gallery over ten years ago as a result of Sullivan Goss’ superlative efforts to document and promote the first two. With their outsized East Coast reputations and their international perspective, these three great artists helped build the gallery’s program to one of national stature. Along the way, the gallery and its audience got to know and love them.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
COLIN CAMPBELL COOPER (1856-1937) was born in Philadelphia. After studying under masters like THOMAS EAKINS (1844-1916) at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Cooper left for Europe where he studied at the Academies Julian, Decluse and Viti. There, he fell in love with Impressionist technique, which he then applied to the new skyscrapers of New York and then the architectural wonders of Europe, Asia, and India. In 1915, he came to California to participate in the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and then the California Panama Exposition in San Diego the following year. In 1921, Cooper moved to Santa Barbara, where he became an important teacher at the Santa Barbara School of the Arts. Before he died in 1937, Cooper helped convince the civic powers to take over a post office building and turn it into the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. His work is held in 18 public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
LEON DABO (1864-1960) was born in Dabo Nouvelle in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, but his family emigrated to the US when he was four. Early on, he learned to draw and paint from his father who was both an art professor and a successful ecclesiastical artist. When his father died, Dabo was forced to take a job painting churches in New York. Subsequent study with Whistler in London and at the Écoles des Art Decoratifs and des Beaux Art in Paris yielded a very impressive career. Celebrated early on for moody, mystical marine paintings we now call Tonalist and later for pastels, florals, and French landscapes, Dabo died with work in 55 public collections, including the Met.
LOCKWOOD DE FOREST (1850-1932) was born in New York to a prominent and prosperous family. On his second Grand Tour of Europe at age nineteen, he met up with FREDERIC CHURCH (1826-1900) to explore the architectural and artistic treasures of Rome and to paint the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. He subsequently moved to Olana, Church’s home in the Catskills, where he studied landscape painting and Orientalist design. He began showing at the National Academy of Design soon after. After marrying and honeymooning in India, de Forest became an importer / exporter and designer of East Indian arts & crafts and got into business with Louis Comfort Tiffany. He later joined the firm Associated Artists with Tiffany to provide America’s wealthiest families with high design interiors. Like Tiffany, he also painted and exhibited. In 1902, de Forest began wintering in Santa Barbara. Eventually, he sold his stock and share of the business to his partners and built a home on the upper east side of Santa Barbara. His work is held in over 30 public collections, including the Met.
