Cottage Garden

Watercolor on paper, signed and dated: “Aug.-1908”

Provenance: From the Estate of Virgil McMahan

Painting: 10” x 14.5”
Frame: 21” x 25”

Though born in Canada, painter J.H. Moser studied at the Art Students League in New York before eventually settling in Washington, D.C. In 1886 he married local painter, Martha Scoville. Moser was a freelance illustrator and art critic for the Washington Tribune and the Post and Herald as well. Watercolor, however, seemed to be his métier: Moser taught the technique at the Corcoran School of Art and Columbian (now George Washington ) University and was a founding member of the Washington Water Color Club.

Moser brings both the illustrator’s sharp eye and the watercolorist’s delicate touch in Cottage Garden. While the building is described in clear detail, lively patches of saturated color create a garden of pink, orange and gold flowers. The aging paper gives an overall tonal depth to the work, like the darkening light of an approaching thunderstorm at the end of a Jwatercolorames Henry Moser day.

J.H. Moser is represented in the collections of several prominent District museums including the National Gallery of Art, the White House, the National Museum of American Art and the Corcoran.

Sources:
"Who Was Who in American Art" (Falk, 1999)
"The Artists of Washington D.C." (McMahan, 1996)