Lot 800: Hugo Ballin O/C California Landscape, Rincon Point c. 1925

Hugo Ballin (American/California, 1879-1956), “Rincon Point,” oil on canvas regionalist scene painting depicting the colorful beachfront California community in about 1925. A farmer stands, resting, lower right foreground as a horse drawn tank drives by on a nearby road, passing several modest cabins in the shade of a grove of trees. Above, storm clouds threaten to block out a brilliant sun, and in the distance is the beach. Signed Hugh Ballin lower left; additionally inscribed with artist’s name and Pacific Palisades address en verso, and titled “Rincin Point Cal”.  Housed in a painted wood frame. Sight: 29 3/8 in H x 39 1/2 in W. Framed: 34 3/8 in H x 44 1/2 in W. Note: “Rincon Point is renowned as the Queen of the Coast, one of the premier surfing spots in the world, but that is only a fragment of its rich history. Before the arrival of Europeans, it was a Chumash village called Shuku. In the 19th century, it was part of Rancho El Rincon, whose owners included a rich but illiterate Californio rancher, an English physician who made house calls by bicycle, and a Chilean pharmacist who dispensed drugs out of an old ship’s cabin. It was the site of a scandalous love-triangle murder in the 1870s, a rickety highway on stilts in the 1910s, and a raunchy honky-tonk in the 1920s. Banditos, nudists, movie stars, long-boarders–they have all shaped Rincon Point, a place immortalized by novelists, poets, painters, photographers, and the Beach Boys.” (Source: the Museum of Ventura County). Hugo Ballin was a New York born painter and muralist who studied at the Art Students League under Mowbray and Blum. He moved to Los Angeles in 1921 where he produced and also designed stage sets, along with painting. Member: American WC Society; ANA (1906); Lotos Club; Nati Inst. of Arts & Letters. Exh: Society of American Artists, 1905, 1906 (prizes); NY Arch. League, 1906, 1907 (medal); NAD, 1907, 1940; Buenos Aires Intl Expo, 1910 (medal); Olympiad (LA), 1932; GGIE, 1939. Source: Edan Hughes, “Artists in California, 1786-1940”. 

PROVENANCE: Acquired from the artist by Lucien Cailliet, a French-American composer, conductor, arranger and clarinetist who worked in the Hollywood film industry, contributing to nearly fifty films as either composer or arranger. This painting has descended in Cailliet’s family to his grandson, the present consignor. 

CONDITION: Painting is in need of restoration. There are 7 tears ranging from 1-7 inches in length (most of which have been stabilized with linen tape) plus a few smaller scattered punctures. Some paint loss along tears and punctures. The varnish layer is aged and darkened. Canvas is brittle and exhibits some tenting and warping (needs restretching). Abrasions and scratches to frame.