Beulah (Elsie Sloan) Stevenson (1890/97 – 1965)

Provincetown Landscape (Ptown Landscape), 1942, oil on canvas board, signed lower left, 20 x 24 inches, titled and dated verso, labels verso read 1) “Provincetown Landscape / oil painting by Buelah Stevenson / 252 Fulton St. / Brkn / price $ [illegible] /” and 2) “New York Society of Women Artists”, perhaps exhibited: 1) Society of Independent Artists, American Society of Fine Arts, New York, NY, 1942 – 1944 under the title “Landscape", 2) 17th Annual Exhibition of the New York Society of Women Artists, New York, NY, February - March, 1942; and/or 3) Beulah Stevenson Paintings, Fifteen Gallery, New York, NY, April 6 -18, 1942

$6250

Provincetown Landscape is a beautiful example of Beulah Stevenson's painting from the 1940s, a time when she honed her mature style which emphasized rhythmic patterns developed in a semi-abstract idiom executed with a bright, saturated palette. Provincetown had long been a source of inspiration for American painters and Stevenson knew it well from her time studying there with Hans Hoffman. In reviewing her solo exhibition of twenty-five works at Fifteen Gallery which included a large section of Provincetown paintings, likely including the present example, New York Times art critic Howard Devree, wrote approvingly, "At the Fifteen, Beulah Stevenson is showing the best work of her career. After a long struggle with abstraction per se, she emerged with a sound abstract basis for her landscapes and still lifes - solid achievement fully orchestrated in color." The Brooklyn Eagle shared this sentiment when it wrote of Stevenson's Provincetown paintings from the 1942 Fifteen exhibition, "Miss Stevenson is in her very best form in this exhibition."

Born in Brooklyn, Beulah Stevenson was a multi-faceted artist, curator, and instructor whose preferred media included painting, lithography, and etching. In addition to her time with Hoffman in Provincetown, Stevenson studied at the Pratt Institute and Art Students League with John Sloan. She was an active arts leader, serving on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Women Artists, President of the New York Society of Woman Artists, and Vice President of the Brooklyn Society of Artists. She was also a member of Philadelphia Print Club, the Provincetown Art Association, Society of American Graphic Artists, Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, and the American Artists Congress (before withdrawing due to concerns about associations with the Communist Party). Stevenson exhibited extensively, having nine solo shows in New York alone. She was included in group exhibitions with her member organizations, as well as the Society of Independent Artists, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Baltimore Museum, Whitney Museum of Modern Art, Riverside Museum Portland Museum of Art and the Museum of New Mexico, among many others. For many years, Stevenson worked as a curator at the Brooklyn Museum and her works are in its collection as well as  at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Bates College Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, and the Library of Congress. She is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and other standard references.