Anthony Thieme (American, 1888-1954) , "Charleston Doorway", oil on canvas, signed lower right, "Paillard Artist's Oil Colors" ad featuring Thieme attached en verso, inscribed on stretcher, 16 in. x 12 in., framed Provenance: Estates of Joyce and Donald Laidlaw, Bluffton, SC. Note: Anthony Thieme was born in Rotterdam in 1888. He immigrated to the United States in 1917 and initially worked as a set designer and book illustrator first in New York and later in Boston. By the late 1920s, Thieme had moved from Boston to Cape Ann in Rockport, Massachusetts, an emerging art colony. Influenced by Impressionism throughout his career, Thieme favored painting en plein air, as it allowed him to better capture the atmosphere’s fleeting effects. His paintings were often met with critical acclaim and were displayed at galleries in New York, London and Paris, earning him the title “Master of Light and Shadow.” He established the Thieme School of Art at Cape Ann in 1929 and taught classes from his studio until 1943. Tragedy struck in 1946 when his studio burned to the ground, destroying much of the work he had produced over thirty years. Devastated by this loss, Thieme left Massachusetts in search of new adventures and ideas. He journeyed south to Charleston, where he spent two months inspired by the revelation of light, tropical foliage and color far more intense than that to which he had become accustomed. The canvases from this brief period in his important career, such as the one offered here, reflect not only the skill of a prestigious American artist, but also the lure and beauty of the great southern city. Ref.: "Thieme, Anthony (1888-1954)." The Johnson Collection. www.thejohnsoncollection.org. Accessed Oct. 12, 2020