Beschreibung:

Maxwell Mays (American 1918-2009) Aldrich Landing Gouache Signed and dated 49 (lower right), further signed and inscribed (verso) 49 x 65cm (19¼ x 25½ in.) An early, but fully-fledged, example of the charming, whimsical, style of Harry Maxwell Mays (1918-2009), very much in the tradition of North American Folk Art epitomised by Grandma Moses Here he presents an idyllic waterside settlement, the title taken from an inscription on the verso, presumably reminiscent of his native Rhode Island. It comprises mostly whitewashed houses clustered around the church, the Hotel Aldrich being one of the larger buildings depicted, with the Landing Yacht Club standing by a jetty just a few yards away. The residential houses are interspersed with gardens and vegetable patches, a couple of orchards visible on the outskirts as the eye is drawn out to rolling hills in the background. Mays was born into a wealthy manufacturing family, in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1918. He graduated from the Rhode Island Institute of Design in 1941, as well as going on the take up a senior role in the family business. After war service, when he applied his graphic talents to map-making, he returned to Providence and began exhibiting his art locally. He went on to enjoy wider acclaim, starting with his first exhibition in New York in 1948, the year before producing this work. On his death, in 2009, he bequeathed a large area of his estate in Coventry, Rhode Island, to the Audubon Society, which maintains it as the Maxwell Mays Wildlife Refuge.