Guy Pène du Bois

American, 1884 - 1958

(not assigned)New York, New York, USA

SchoolRealism

Biography(b New York, 4 Jan 1884; d Boston, MA, 18 July 1958).
American painter and writer. He studied under William Merritt Chase, James Carroll Beckwith and Kenneth Hayes Miller at Chase's school in New York in 1899. In 1902 Robert Henri joined the school, influencing Pène du Bois with his philosophy of a realism built on simplified forms and bold, thick strokes. In 1905 Pène du Bois travelled abroad with his father. His father's unexpected death, however, forced him to return to New York. There he worked for the New York American, producing courtroom sketches and satirical cartoons; from 1908 to 1912 he wrote art criticism for the newspaper. In 1910 he participated in the Exhibition of Independent Artists organized by Henri. From 1911 he helped to plan the Armory Show (1913), which also included six of his own works. When in 1913 he became editor of Arts and Decoration magazine, he used his position to explain the work of Paul Cézanne and the Cubists, and in 1920 he published a series of articles on modernism by his friend Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.
After Pène du Bois left Arts and Decoration in 1921, he devoted more time to his painting and to teaching at the Art Students League. Between 1922 and 1924 his style matured, and he mastered the subject-matter of urban society, using sleek, simplified forms and a brighter, more intense palette. In works such as Chanticleer (1922; San Diego, CA, Mus. A.), The Beach (1924; Lincoln, U. NE, Sheldon Mem. A.G.) and Mr and Mrs Chester Dale Dining out (1924; New York, Met.), Pène du Bois's emphasis on the majesty of the figure is clear, as well as the psychological isolation of figures in groups and the stiffness of the social scene. Dale eventually owned 25 of the artist's works. Pène du Bois made his second trip to France in 1924, but after the Wall Street Crash (1929) he returned to the USA.
Between 1932 and 1950 Pène du Bois ran a school in Stonington, CT; he also contributed articles to The Arts (1923-31) and was associated with Reality: A Journal of Artists' Opinions in 1953-6. There were no major developments in his painting. He never accepted abstraction, defending instead traditional forms of representation. His teaching influenced artists such as Isabel Bishop, Raphael Soyer, Alexander Calder and Jack Tworkov. (Source: JUDITH A. BARTER, "Guy Pene du Bois," The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (Oxford University Press), , Accessed July 7, 2004)

Person TypeIndividual

Terms