2 Winter Landscapes 1934

TWO TALL NARROW WINTER LANDSCAPES - AN ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING SIGNED TURMAN AND DATED 1934 IN AN ORNATE GESSO FRAME, AND A FRAMED WINTER LANE SCENE SIGNED GEO. HOWELL GAY A matched-feeling pair of tall, narrow winter landscape pictures out of this estate, both in the panel or "long panel" proportion that was popular for hanging beside a doorway, on a stair wall, or flanking a mantel. The first is an original oil painting signed TURMAN and dated 1934 in the lower right corner, a snow scene with a bare tree against a pale yellow sunset, a small cottage with lit windows tucked into the hillside, a rough plank footbridge crossing a snow-banked creek, and dry grasses in the foreground, set in a heavy ornate molded gesso frame with dark green and gilt finish and a scrolled leaf pattern. The second is a winter lane scene with a large bare tree at the left, a snow-covered wagon track running back to a yellow farmhouse, split rail fencing, and evergreens against a gold and lavender sunset, signed Geo. Howell Gay in the lower left, in a simple gold cove-profile frame. George Howell Gay was an American landscape and marine artist who worked mainly in watercolor, and the close photographs of this second piece show a regular dot pattern in the sky and snow, which indicates a printed reproduction rather than an original watercolor. Hung together they make a nice pair of winter panels for a hallway, cabin, or seasonal display. Bidders should note both pieces show age: the oil is dirty and shows craquelure and small paint losses, its frame has chips and losses to the gesso, and the backing paper on the Gay picture is torn and cracked open. Sold as a lot of 2 framed pictures. Description Winter creek and cottage, oil, signed TURMAN 1934 - original painting, apparently oil on canvas or artist board, in a vertical panel format. Composition shows a bare-branched tree rising the full height of the picture against a pale blue and yellow sunset sky, a snow-covered cottage with two glowing yellow windows at mid-left, a rough plank and pole footbridge crossing a partly frozen creek, snow-covered banks and stones, and clumps of dry grass in the foreground. Signed in black in the lower right corner, reading TURMAN over the date 1934. Housed in an ornate composition or gesso-over-wood frame with a repeating scrolled leaf and bead pattern, finished in gilt over a dark green and black ground, with the gilt rubbed to show the dark ground beneath. Measures approximately 19 inches tall by roughly 6 inches wide overall per the tape-measure photographs. In the height photograph the tape hook rests on top of the frame rather than hooked over the edge, and the tape is laid at a slight angle, so these are close estimates. The back is a plain brown backing board held by bent nails, with a twisted wire hanger strung between two screw eyes and several white paint spatters across the lower back. Winter lane and farmhouse, signed Geo. Howell Gay - vertical panel-format picture on paper, showing a snow-covered two-track lane curving back through a field toward a yellow farmhouse with a red roof, a large bare tree at the left, split rail fence sections along the right side of the lane, small evergreens, and a distant tree line under a gold, peach, and lavender sunset sky. Signed in the lower left in small script reading Geo. Howell Gay. Housed in a plain gold-finished wood frame with a simple rounded cove profile, glazed. Measures approximately 16-1/2 inches tall by roughly 6-1/2 inches wide overall per the tape-measure photographs. The tape hook rests on top of the frame in these photographs as well, so these figures are close estimates. The back is finished with a brown kraft paper dust cover. No date, edition number, publisher line, plate mark, gallery label, or inscription is visible on either picture beyond the two signatures described above, and no back of either picture is photographed with any label. Bidders should verify all dimensions and details from the photographs. Attribution note The signature on the oil reads TURMAN with the date 1934. No further information about that artist is offered, no biography is claimed, and the name is read from the photograph only. On the second picture, George Howell Gay was an American artist, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1858 and died in 1931, who studied in Chicago under the marine painter Paul Brown and the landscapist Henry Elkins before settling in Bronxville, New York in 1889, and who exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Boston Art Club, according to Vose Galleries and Meibohm Fine Arts. He is best known for watercolor landscapes and New England coastal and marine subjects, and Meibohm Fine Arts notes that he also painted snow scenes, though those are scarcer, and that original oils by him are unusual. The picture in this lot is almost certainly a printed reproduction after a Gay watercolor rather than an original work by his hand, based on the regular halftone dot pattern visi