Della-Volpe Elements and Atmosphere

DEL L A-VOL P E ELEMENTS AND AT M O S P H E R E

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DEL L A-VOL P E ELEMENTS AND AT M O S P H E R E

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“All my paintings are started with observations from nature. The paintings are meant to be expressions of a mood that I feel at the time of that observation and are not meant to be literal detailed descriptions of nature. The emphasis is on color, light, and especially composition; for it is the composition that makes the expression in a work of art, not the subject matter.”

–Ralph Eugene Della-Volpe

Ralph Eugene Della-Volpe, 1923–2017

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B E AC H PA R K I N G L OT

1968 Oil on canvas 72 x 72 inches

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DEL L A-VOL P E E L E M E N T S A N D AT M O S P H E R E

Ralph Eugene Della-Volpe’s more than 70-year career as an artist and educator was as vibrant as his paintings. A semi-abstract painter, his bright colorist works feature the elements of water, sea, sky, beach, garden, and an occasional anonymous portrait.

Radiant color and a sense of atmosphere and emotion characterize his canvases.

Born in New York in 1923, Della-Volpe attended New York City’s prestigious National Academy of Design. His art career was interrupted when he served in the Army during World War II. He saw action on Utah Beach during the European invasion, was wounded twice, and received the Purple Heart. His experiences at war affected his later artistic style. Tom Wolf of Bard College explained that the paintings Della-Volpe produced after his return from service “project feelings of melancholy”, evident in the tense expressions in the figures’ faces or the somber tones in his beach scenes.

The “coloristic exuberance” found in works beginning in the mid 1960’s, with their vibrant fuscias and yellows are a departure from the solemn tone of many of his works at the time.

Della-Volpe studied at the Art Students League in New York City for four years, eventually taking a position at Bennett College in Millbrook, New York as a teacher of drawing and painting and as the institution’s first artist-in-residence. The teaching position allowed him time to create his own studio work where he experimented with an array of styles, from the academic to the abstract. He remained at Bennett for 28 years and was chairman of its Art Department.

Influenced by impressionism’s preoccupation with the treatment of light, Della-Volpe’s works have a “faultless tonal quality, with its sense of failing light— the areas of silvery gray deepening into rosy tans” (Arts Magazine, “In the Galleries”, 1960). The simplified scenes and portraits express the artist’s desire to evoke emotion. As Della-Volpe describes, “All my paintings are started with observations from nature.

The paintings are meant to be expressions of a mood that I feel at the time of that observation and are not meant to be literal detailed descriptions of nature. The emphasis is on color, light, and especially composition; for it is the composition that makes the expression in a work of art, not the subject matter.”

Della-Volpe exhibited widely and was a popular lecturer on art at colleges, universities, and galleries across the country. He participated in numerous group and solo shows over the years, including a golden anniversary one-man show at the Warren Street Gallery in Hudson, New York, in 1994. DellaVolpe’s work is represented in such collections as the National Gallery of Art, New York Cultural Center, the Art Students League, The Slater Museum in Norwich, Connecticut, the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., and the Library of Congress (Pennell Collection).

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LOW TIDE

Oil on canvas 22 x 22 inches

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T W O B O AT S A N D S W I M M E R

1977 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches

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S E A W E E D A N D D I S TA N T B E A C H

1969 Oil on canvas 44 x 18 inches

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W E AT H E R

SHINING BRIGHT

B E AT E N D O C K S

2000 Acrylic on panel 12 x 13 ½ inches

1953–1954 Oil on canvas 18 x 24 inches

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DARK CLOUD

2002 Oil on canvas board 16 x 12 inches

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CLOUDS AND BIRD OVER ROCK FORM

1957 Oil on canvas 26 x 48 inches

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VIOLENT SKY OVER TH E DOCKS

1955 Oil on canvas 30 x 36 inches

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S A I L I N G I N T H E B AY

1999–2000 Oil on board 12 x 9 ½ inches

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S T O R M O V E R T H E B AY

1956 Oil on canvas 21 x 21 inches

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FIGURE IN PURPLE STOCKINGS

1959–1960 Oil on canvas 54 x 50 inches

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THE GARDEN

1968 Oil on canvas 24 x 28 inches

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AFTERNOON REST

1985–1986 Oil on canvas 24 x 28 inches

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E A R LY E V E N I N G

LOW TIDE, PINK SKY

1998 Oil on canvas 20 x 18 inches

Oil on canvas 20 ¾ x 22 ¾ inches

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DOCKS AND CLOUDS

BEACH SUNSET

1954–1955 Oil on canvas 22 x 28 inches

1998 Oil on canvas 16 x 14 inches

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