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| Mountains, c. 1930's |
Charles Reiffel, 1862-1942, is called an American Post-Impressionist and a leading California plein-air painter. As I look over the images printed in American Art Review, I'm struck with the Reiffel's stylistic fluidity. I think I see references to other painters. Back Country, San Diego looks like a softened version of Charles Burchfield's ecstatic turbulent landscapes. "...Expressionist landscapes of remarkable verve and complexity...neither a simple pastoral scene nor a vision of spiritual uplift common to conventional American landscape paintings...[the]...contrast [of]calm stability for/and the manic exuberance unfurling inside the frame...pathos...a poignant sense of precarious human existence in a roiling world of natural beauty both delirious and dangerous..." Quote from LA Times review by Christopher Knight (1-19-2013)
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| Harbor Night Oil on Upson Board, 1936-7 Inscribed on reverse of board: “Old National City, 1936” 36 x 47 7/8 inches |
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| Chaim Soutine, La Place du Village, Céret, ca. 1920 |
Knight thinks that Chaim Soutine is the major influence and comparison for Reiffel. The Céret landscapes are madness, the images of a delirious vision.
I don't hear a whiff of disapproval of Reiffel from Knight, though.
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| San Diego Back Country Oil on Board, mid 1930s 30 x 36 inches |
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