Re-framing Thaddeus Welch

Thaddeus Welch (1844-1919) was one of the great historic California landscape painters. This classic bucolic hillside scene by Welch came in recently, the customer looking to free it from a typical period compo frame which he rightly judged to be pretentious and unsuitable to the rustic spirit of the painting.

Before

Here it is in its new quartersawn white oak frame in a dark stain matching the shadows and sympathetic with the forms of the hills, with simple fine beading to pick up the delicate line work in the painting (especially the trees)—and much more suitable to the spirit of nature that so moved Welch.

After

"Als Ik Kan": Hephaestus's Imperfect Frame

A new entry for the quotes on the page, "Re-framing Art":

"Als Ik Kan"

   

William Morris "Si Je Puis" tile from Red House

If the Arts and Crafts Movement can be said to have a motto, it is surely "Als Ik Kan." First assumed by William Morris—more famously in its French form, "Si Je Puis"—it was further popularized by Gustav Stickley through the marks on his furniture and in his magazine The Craftsman. What does the motto mean, where did it originate, and why did these re-framers of art find it so significant?

Jefferson Hayman

A couple of weeks ago an artist and customer, Mallory Lake (more on her another day) forwarded me a link to the website of Jefferson Hayman (www.jeffersonhayman.com), a New York photographer with an exceptional interest in picture frames. We had a nice chat on the phone. Turns out he used to be the director of Eli Wilner and Co. Jefferson and I share a fondness for the old oak frames. (More on those in my article in the current Style:1900.) Peruse Jefferson’s site.