Biography from Blake Benton Fine Art, Artists S - Z:
| Eugene
Speicher, painter was born on April 5th, 1883 in Buffalo, New York. He
studied at the Albright School with Mary Cox, Lucas Hitchcock, and
Urquhart Wilcox from 1901 to 1906 winning an Albright Scholarship.
Speicher also studied at the Art Students' League with Frank Vincent
DuMond and William Merritt Chase in 1907; and at the Independent School
with Robert Henri in 1908 where fellow students were Bellows, Hopper
and DuBois. Robert Henri, Speicher's most influential teacher, can be clearly
seen in his work, especially his portraiture. Speicher like Henri
conveyed his subjects in a truthful straightforward manner, capturing
the essence of the sitter without idealizing the subject. He limited
his portrait commissions to six a year to spend more time on figure and
landscape painting.
In 1910 after a year of travel and personal
study in Europe, Speicher returned to New York and "from the first,
Eugene Speicher impressed his teachers and friends by the same basic
qualities by which he has attained the great position he has today. As
far as I know, he was successful from the first." (Artist Gifford Beal)
It was a "confused" time when Speicher was building his career (due to
the pull of modern art movements) "but he emerged from this period,
enriched by the experience, and more steadfast than ever. He remained
the same Speicher."
He later summered in, and was associated
with, the Woodstock Art Colony located in Woodstock, New York. Speicher
was described as being endowed with "robust health" and a "rich
personality" that mimicked the "robust" and "rich" development in his
art. One fellow artist wrote: "With robust health he combined the things
of the spirit which so enrich his art." During his day he was
considered a stable "and brillianttower of strength." in the art world.
His work was praised for its breadth of vision, the beauty and richness
of his color, and his ability to create wide and spacious forms. Both
his peers and the public also considered him one of the best portrait
painters of his time. Speicher also painted landscapes, mountains,
harbors, farms, still lifes, flowers and nudes.
Speicher was
elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design, 1912; Full
Academician to the National Academy, 1927. He was also a member of the
National Society of Portrait Painters; National Arts Club; Contemporary
Group; International Society of Painters Sculptors and Gravers; New
Society of Artists; Century Club; Boston Art Club and others. He was
director of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1945.
He won
numerous awards during his career including Proctor prize, National
Academy of Design, 1911; third Hallgarten prize, 1914, NAD; first
Hallgarten prize, 1915, NAD; Isidor portrait prize, Salmagundi Club,
1913; silver medal, Panama Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915;
Beck gold medal, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1920; third class
medal, 1921, Carnegie Institute, second class medal, 1922, Carnegie
Institute; Potter Palmer gold medal ($1000), Art Institute of Chicago,
1926; medal of the first class of the Corcoran Gallery, Washington,
DC,1935 and others. The Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo had a large
retrospective exhibition of his works in 1950, and the Academy of Arts
and Letters had a retrospective in 1963. He taught at the Art Students'
League from 1908 to 1913 and again from 1919 to 1920. He had his first
one-man show at the Montross Gallery in New York in 1918. Eugene
Speicher passed away on May 12th, 1962.
Source:
Blake Benton Fine Art |
Biography from AskART:
| A native of Buffalo, New York, Eugene Speicher earned a prestigious
reputation as an artist, and in 1936 was named "America's most
important living artist" by "Esquire" magazine.
From 1902 to
1906, he studied at the Buffalo Art School and winning an Albright
Scholarship, he studied in New York at the Art Students League with
William Merritt Chase. His main influence was Robert Henri in Henri's
New York Art School where fellow students were George Bellows, Edward
Hopper and Guy Pene DuBois.
After a year of travel in Europe,
he returned to New York to win numerous awards. He limited his portrait
commissions to six a year to spend more time on figure and landscape
painting. He was especially known for figure work of solid structure
and design.
Source: David Zellman, "Three Hundred Years of American Art"
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Eugene Speicher is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Painters of Nudes
San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exhibition 1915
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