Lot 188: Early Charles Krutch East TN Smoky Mtns Landscape Oil

Charles Krutch (Tennessee, 1849-1934) oil on canvas painting, laid to board,  Tennessee Smoky Mountains landscape with trees surrounding a small stream and a distant view of a blue mountain range. Signed “Krutch” lower right in red. Housed in a painted wood frame with gilt sight edge. Sight: 9 3/4 in. H x 7 3/4 in. W. Framed: 12 in. H x 10 1/4 in. W. Note: The signature on this painting differs from Krutch’s later, more stylized signature. Likely, this painting was produced early in the artist’s career, before he developed his better-known signature style. Biography (Courtesy Knoxville Museum of Art): Charles Christian Krutch is regarded as one of East Tennessee”s first painters to specialize in scenes of the Smoky Mountains. He earned the nickname “Corot of the South” for his soft, atmospheric watercolor and oil landscape paintings of the mountain range. Totally untrained as an artist, he often applied thick layers of oil paint with brushes as well as his fingers. Krutch”s goal was to capture the changing “moods” of the mountains and regarded his subjects as “just like people.” He won a regional award for best watercolor at the 1913 National Conservation Exposition in Knoxville. However, it was not until 1933, a year before his death, that the 84 year-old artist received recognition outside Knoxville for his idyllic mountain landscape murals commissioned by the federal government as part of the Public Works Art Project.

PROVENANCE: Private Knoxville Collection.

CONDITION: Overall very good condition, with minor surface grime. Canvas has been laid to board.