Le Foret | Stanley Cosgrove
Le Foret (Forest)
Oil on canvas
Size: 24 x 20 inches
Price: SOLD
Signed lower left. Titled on label on verso.
Framed measurements: approximately 29 X 25 inches.
Provenance: Private Collection, Nova Scotia.
Condition: Excellent.
Additional Information and Photos Available Upon Request
Nude Sketch | Stanley Cosgrove
Charcoal Sketch on Paper
Size: 16" x 12"
Price: SOLD
Details: Signed and dated 1962 middle right.
Provenance: Private Collection
Stanley Cosgrove had a long and expressive career, equally at home painting portraits, still lifes and landscapes
Biography
Born in Montreal, Stanley Morel Cosgrove studied art under Charles Millard, Henri Charpentier, Maurice Félix, and Joseph Saint-Charles at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and later with Edwin Holgate.
Stanley Cosgrove enjoyed the rare honour of being invited to exhibit at the Provincial Museum of Quebec while still a student (1939).
About this time, Stanley Cosgrove was following the work of French painters such as Georges Braque and Georges Rouault. He received a Quebec Provincial scholarship to study in France for four years but WW II forced a change in his plans and he chose New York City to study instead.
After a brief stop in New York, Stanley Cosgrove moved to Mexico City, where he assisted the great Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco work on a fresco.
Studied din Mexico
During his four years in Mexico, Stanley Cosgrove also did still lifes, landscapes, street and market scenes.
On his return to Canada in 1944, Stanley Cosgrove concentrated for a time on still lifes, using colours, sometimes with distorted forms and sometimes more representational, showing traces of Braque.
Some of Stanley Cosgrove’s portraits had the characteristic outlines, particularly in the face, of work by Rouault, proving highly effective.
In 1953, Stanley Cosgrove was awarded a Government fellowship to study in France. Also in 1953 he was active in the field of textile designing, working with a group of artists, which included Robert Lapalme, Paul-Emile Borduas, Maurice Raymond and F.C.A. Sullivan.
Portraits of Women
Stanley Cosgrove had also worked for wider interest in modern fresco painting in Canada, particularly in churches, and he conducted classes in this medium at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Stanley Cosgrove’s still lifes are known for their unpretentious quality. His stunningly simplistic portraits of women’s faces, showing demure eyes are reminiscent of Amedeo Modigliani. Meanwhile, Stanley Cosgrove’s forests simplify the sharp edges often found in similar scenes by Canadian traditional landscape painters.
Stanley Cosgrove is represented in major collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Museum of Modern Art in New York
Source: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker. National Gallery of Canada, Artists in Canada database.
