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Audley Dean Nicols

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Audley Dean Nicols
Born1875
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
Died1941 (aged 65–66)
El Paso, Texas, US
Resting place
Alma materArt Students League of New York
Known forDesert landscape painting
Spouse(s)Mary Nicols née Mahoney

Audley Dean Nicols (1875–1941) was an American artist, illustrator and muralist. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; he studied in New York and Europe, and worked as an illustrator for various national magazines in the United States. For health reasons he moved to El Paso, Texas in the 1920s, where he painted desert landscapes of the American Southwest. Nicols achieved national recognition during his lifetime; his style and choice of subjects gathering followers who became known as the "Purple Mountain Painters".

Life and career[]

Alice Clyde Nicols (1902), El Paso Museum of Art

Born in 1875, Audley Dean Nicols was the son of Parshall D. Nicols, an iron broker, and Elizabeth Agnes McLaughlin, an art teacher. He had a sister, Alice Clyde Nicols, and a brother, Lowell W. Nicols, who was an art critic and an optical glass research chemist.[1] Born and raised in Pittsburgh, he received his first art lessons from his mother, and later studied in New York under Harry Siddons Mowbray, Edwin Blashfield, and Kenyon Cox, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Students League of New York.[2][3] After further studies in Europe, Nicols started a career as a magazine illustrator, working for several publications including Collier's, McClure's, Cosmopolitan, Harper's, Scribner's, and The Burr McIntosh Monthly.[3][4][5] He then moved into oil painting, working from a studio in Sewickley, Pennsylvania.[6] Some of his work from this earlier period includes murals in Pittsburgh public buildings and portraits.[7] He painted Civil War General Alexander Hays in a portrait[8] and in a now lost painting where he is shown dragging the Confederate flag from his horse.[9]

Nicols began visiting Texas and exhibiting there from around 1919, permanently moving with his family to El Paso in 1922,[10] due to problems with a tubercular hip.[3][11] He lived in a house in Fort Boulevard at the foothills of the Franklin mountains, and began going on long desert expeditions for plein air painting.[12]

Nicols painted desert panoramas of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, and large canvas on Old West subjects, such as the 6-by-7-foot (1.8 by 2.1 m) Cave creek canyon (1907), located in the lobby of the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas, Arizona.[13] His 1927 depiction of Tokay, a former coal-mining settlement in Socorro County, New Mexico, is considered a valuable historical record of what is now a ghost town.[14] Also in 1927, a lithograph reproduction of Nicols' painting of Texas' El Capitan peak was distributed in a publicity campaign for the Texas and Pacific Railway.[15] The original painting of the mountain was later placed in Abilene's Research Center for the Southwest, at the Hardin-Simmons University library.[16]

Nicols was characterized as eccentric and mysterious but he had a circle of close friends including General Robert L. Howze.[17][12] He was married to Mary Nicols née Mahoney and had two children, Audley Dean Jr and Mary Beth.[18] In 1932 he was hospitalized for several weeks due to a brain hemorrhage but eventually recovered.[19] He died almost ten years later in November 1941,[20] just a few months after celebrating his daughter's 10th birthday.[21] The artist was buried in in El Paso, with writer and muralist Tom Lea, who was also Mary Beth's godfather, acting as one of the pallbearers.[22][20]

Style and legacy[]

Audley Dean Nicols' style of clean, detailed landscape painting was inspired by the clarity, sharp lines and strong contrasts of the desert, and he applied color techniques to hint at the vast expanses while maintaining details.[23][24] Critics have recognized his depiction of the distinctive nature of desert light as one of the best.[10] Nicols' compositions are often organized in three horizontal sections; the desert ground and vegetation below, mountains in the middle and the sky above. He depicted vibrant nature scenes with only small traces of humans, if any, using warm light and vivid colors such as bluish purple for the distant mountains.[25] The style and subjects of his work achieved significant popularity and were followed by other West Texas artists, who collectively became known as the "Purple Mountain Painters".[25][23] Nicols was a friend of other local El Paso artists such as and , and encouraged to start painting.[26]

View of El Paso at sunset (c. 1922–1925), El Paso Museum of Art

Nicols is considered an important early Texas artist who is especially known for his large-scale portrayals of desert scenes,[27] although he also depicted other subjects in his earlier work and participated in the San Antonio wild flower competition.[28] Nicols' work View of El Paso at sunset was included in the 2019 major exhibition "The Art of Texas: 250 Years" at the Witte Museum, San Antonio.[17][29] This 22-foot (6.7 m) painting was commissioned by an El Paso bank in 1925; when the bank closed in 1933, a local resident purchased it and donated it to El Paso High School.[22] The painting remained on display at the school library until 1972, when it was taken down for restoration. During renovations of the school in 2000,[22] the painting was discovered in a janitor's closet.[30]

Nicols achieved national recognition during his lifetime, his paintings helping to romanticize the Southwest and forming part of several private and public collections, including that of the White House during the Warren G. Harding administration (1921–1923).[10] Records show that 14-by-22-inch (36 by 56 cm) paintings by Nicols sold at between $250 and $500 by the end of the 1920s, which were considerable sums at the time.[12] Results from Heritage Auctions for sales done between 2005 and 2019 show prices ranging from $4,000 to $22,500.[31] In a 2017 Bonhams auction, Desert at dusk (1928) with dimensions of 16-by-24-inch (41 by 61 cm) sold for $35,000.[32] As of 2021, works by Nicols are part of the permanent collections of museums such as the Phoenix Art Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, and El Paso Museum of Art.[33][34]

Paintings[]

  • Sunland landscape (1923), El Paso Museum of Art

  • Arizona landscape (1920s), Phoenix Art Museum

  • Cave creek canyon (1907), Gadsden Hotel, Douglas, Arizona

References[]

  1. ^ "Obituary: Lowell W. Nicols". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. August 2, 1940. p. 5. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  2. ^ Grauer, Paula L.; Grauer, Michael R. (1999). Dictionary of Texas artists, 1800-1945. College Station: Texas A&M University. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-89096-861-1.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ a b c "Audley Dean Nicols Biography". Taos and Santa Fe Painters. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  4. ^ Burr McIntosh Monthly 1903-07, December 14, 2018, retrieved December 2, 2020
  5. ^ Halff, Harry (2017). "Audley Dean Nicols". Harry Halff Fine Art. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  6. ^ "Correspondence". Smithsonian Institution. Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  7. ^ Samuels, Peggy; Samuels, Harold (1985). Samuels' encyclopedia of artists of the American West. Secaucus, N.J. : Castle. p. 348. ISBN 978-1-55521-014-4.
  8. ^ Gorczyca, Robert (2003). "The Civil War letters of Brigadier General Alexander Hays". Western Pennsylvania History. 86 (1): 10–24.
  9. ^ Butko, Brian (2003). "The famous, missing painting". Western Pennsylvania History. 86 (1): 25.
  10. ^ a b c "El Paso High School to restore historic painting of the area". El Paso Times. January 9, 1972. p. 94. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  11. ^ "Audley Dean Nicols Paintings". Charles Morin's Vintage Texas Gallery. 2020. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  12. ^ a b c "Audley Dean Nicols". Fine Arts of Texas Inc. 2020. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  13. ^ "History". The Gadsden. March 3, 2017. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  14. ^ Hook, Stephen C. (June 2015). "Then and Now—A Brief History of Tokay, New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Geology. 37 (2): 47–51. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 18, 2021.
  15. ^ "Railroad uses Texas painting to advertise". El Paso Evening Post. November 20, 1929. p. 10. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  16. ^ "To hang in center". Abilene Reporter-News. April 9, 1975. p. 10. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  17. ^ a b Fowler, Gene (August 23, 2019). "The Whole Enchilada: 250 Years of Texas Art at the Witte Museum". Glasstire. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  18. ^ "Engagement of Miss Nicols, Ronald F. Morrison announced". El Paso Times. April 29, 1951. p. 31. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  19. ^ Turner, Jack (September 1, 1932). "Famous artist tells of reaction when near death". El Paso Times. p. 1. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  20. ^ a b "El Paso artist taken by death". El Paso Times. November 14, 1941. p. 12. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  21. ^ "Has birthday". El Paso Times. July 20, 1941. p. 14. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
  22. ^ a b c Sanchez, Sara (February 5, 2019). "An El Paso treasure that spent time in a janitor's closet now hangs in art museums". El Paso Times. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  23. ^ a b Sommer, Elisabeth W. (September 8, 2017). "El Paso Museum of Art Audio Guide Labels". The Museum Doctor. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  24. ^ Galaviz, Lisa; Talusani, Sarita (May 2005). "Visions of Texas: Exploring early Texas art" (PDF). Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  25. ^ a b Gerstheimer, Christian J. (2010). Leach, Dorothy Ann (ed.). Into the desert light: Early El Paso art 1850−1960. El Paso, TX: El Paso Museum of Art. pp. 12–21. ISBN 978-0-9785383-3-0.
  26. ^ Zanetell, Myrna (February 17, 2013). "3 generations of El Paso Art". El Paso Inc. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  27. ^ "Audley Dean Nicols Painting View of El Paso at Sunset". El Paso Times. February 1, 2019. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  28. ^ Lilly, Marie Seacord (1929). "The Texas wild flower painting competitions". The American Magazine of Art. 20 (6): 342–347. ISSN 2151-254X. JSTOR 23930460 – via JSTOR.
  29. ^ Hart, Alexandra (May 13, 2019). "Seeing Texas History Through An Artistic Lens". Texas Standard. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  30. ^ Cascone, Sarah (February 6, 2019). "A Long-Lost Classic of Texas Art Was Found in a Janitor's Closet—and Now It's Getting Its Own Museum Show". artnet News. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  31. ^ "Search: audley dean nicols [0 790 231]". Heritage Auctions. Archived from the original on May 27, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  32. ^ Levitt, Scot (August 1, 2017). "Desert at Dusk". Bonhams. Archived from the original on May 27, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  33. ^ "Object Record". Tucson Museum of Art. 2016. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  34. ^ "Object record". El Paso Museum of Art. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.

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