Dorothy Varian (1895 - 1985)

The Woodshed or Woodshed, Woodstock," 1932, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 19 x 25 inches, exhibited Downtown Gallery, New York, NY, likely as part of the solo exhibition Dorothy Varian: Recent Paintings, October 25 - November 13, 1932 (Downtown Gallery label verso), title, artist's name and "7" inscribed verso, stamped "Nov 2 1932" verso, label verso reads: "Varian, Dorothy - 'Woodshed, Woodstock' / Property of Mrs. Paula Moore", presented in the original restored frame

$4,750

Dorothy Varian was born in New York City on April 26, 1895, to Eugene W. and Helen Estelle Varian. She left high school at fifteen to study art at The Cooper Union, graduating with honors and then continued her training at the Art Students League with John Sloan. During her time at the League, Varian met Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and the two formed a professional relationship. Varian was among the first artists to help form the Whitney Studio Club in the late 1910s. Varian developed her skills as a colorist in Paris, where she studied from 1920 to 1922. While there, she held her first one-woman show at the Durand-Ruel Galleries. Upon her return to the United States, Varian worked in both New York City and Woodstock, New York, maintaining studios in both locales. In Woodstock, she taught at the Woodstock School of Art.

Her artistic practice focused on watercolor and oil painting, producing still lifes, interiors, landscapes, murals, and domestic scenes characterized by clarity, subtle expression, and a gentle focus on everyday depictions of American life. Varian's paintings bear comparison to other women artists working in Woodstock during the interwar period, particularly Georgina Klitgaard and Doris Lee. Varian was part of the Downtown Gallery’s roster as early as 1929 and her work was included in a 1930 group exhibition entitled 33 Moderns together with artists such as Max Weber and Marguerite Zorach. In 1932, the Downtown Gallery honored Varian with a solo exhibition of fourteen paintings where Woodshed was likely exhibited. A newspaper review of the show noted, "Miss Varian shows here diversified interests in the choice of material. From her small intimate sphere in her Woodstock home she has selected familiar motives, the barnyard, the surrounding landscape, interiors, still life . . . ." The Woodshed explores these themes as Varian combines still life elements both inside and outside her home set against the Woodstock landscape and her weathered out building. The small bird house on the side of the woodshed adds a note of whimsy as the flat image seems to mirror the back of the artist's home. A critic reviewing the exhibition, praised Varian for her “luminous values and clarity of line”, while highlighting the “refreshing simplicity” of her brush strokes. Another praised how her paintings “demonstrate her concern with beauty,” and likewise her perfection of “depth, space, and light."

From the late 1920s through the 1950s and beyond, Varian exhibited extensively. She had fifteen solo exhibitions and regularly appeared in group shows, including at the Whitney Museum’s Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting in the 1930s and ’40s,  the Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie Institute, Corcoran Galleries, the Museum of Modern Art, and Yale University. Museums that hold her work include the Whitney Museum of American Art, which owns six paintings including Plants and Artichokes (gifted by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney) and Still Life (another 1932 painting), as well as the Museum of Modern Art, Newark Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Her personal papers are preserved by the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian. Varian’s work continued to be shown posthumously, including inclusion in the 2025 Art Students League 150th Anniversary exhibition. She is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.