Spring, 1930
Artist
Francis Speight
American, 1896–1989
Date1930
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions39 5/8 x 50 5/16 in. (100.6 x 127.8 cm)
Frame: 45 5/16 x 53 7/8 in. (115.1 x 136.8 cm)
Frame: 45 5/16 x 53 7/8 in. (115.1 x 136.8 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Warner L. Atkins
Object numberG.81.12.1
On View
Not on viewNorth Carolina native and long-time teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Francis Speight painted this landscape shortly after joining the faculty there. Done with the lively freedom of a sketch, the composition is nonetheless carefully designed. But what most interests Speight are the transient qualities of light. He keeps up a dialogue between light and shadow that enlivens shapes and colors all across the surface of the painting. Speight gracefully blends a concern for the fleeting effects of atmosphere with a bedrock sense of place. He achieves this poetic unity in all his landscapes, whether painting the industrial hillsides of suburban Philadelphia or the flat countryside of northeastern North Carolina. With an assured informality, Speight makes manifest on canvas his love of his subject matter.ProvenanceCreated Philadelphia, 1930; collection of the artist. Mr. and Mrs. Warner L. Atkins; given to NCMA, 1981.Published ReferencesEdgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collection (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 288.
"Francis Speight," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Summer 1985), 13.
"The Nomination of Francis Speight for the Oliver Max Gardner Award," East Carolina University, Greenville, 1975 (unpublished manuscript in library artist file).
Exhibition HistoryPittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Institute, "Thirtieth Annual International Exhibition of Paintings," October 15-December 6, 1931, cat. no. 1
University Park, PA, The Pennsylvania State Museum of Art, "Manayunk and Other Places: Paintings and Drawings by Francis Speight," September 8-October 27, 1974, cat. no. 14.
Greenville, NC, Gray Art Gallery, "Francis Speight: Selections from His Works," 1984, cat.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "A Tribute to Francis Speight," April 18-June 30, 1985.
Wilmington, NC, St. John's Museum of Art, "Inventing the American Landscape: A Dialogue with the Visual World," April 25-June 28, 1998; Hickory, NC, The Hickory Museum of Art, September 12-November 8, 1998; Fayetteville, NC, Fayetteville Museum of Art,November 22, 1998-January 17, 1999; Greenville, NC, Greenville Museum of Art, March 10-April 30, 1999, brochure (Outreach exhibition).
Wilmington, NC, Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum, to be displayed with the permanent collection as part of the inaugural exhibition, April 21, 2002-March 30, 2003
Object Rights Statement
The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) makes images of its collection available online to support research and scholarship and to inform and educate the public. Certain works of art, as well as the photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by the NCMA. The responsibility for ascertaining whether any such rights exist and for obtaining all other necessary permissions remains with the applicant. To request images and/or permissions from the NCMA, please complete our online request form.
