Dalton Brown's work synthesizes various realist tendencies in a manner that evades easy placement within typical modes of contemporary realism or photorealism. [8] [7] [2] For example, despite using reference photographs, she does not imitate their optical qualities, nor does she derive compositions directly from them, but rather, reconstructs, edits and collages reality freely to suit her purposes. [8] [26] [21] Similarly, her painterly treatments of foliage, water and floorboards, eccentric compositional rhythms and perspectives, and level of psychological and emotional content introduce expressionist qualities at odds with more conventional realism. [8] [27] [2] Art historian April Kingsley compares Dalton Brown's approach to those of Richard Estes and Edward Hopper, deeming her a "subjective realist." [2] In addition to Hopper's influence, writers have cited Post-Impressionists such as Gaugin, Bonnard, Vuillard and van Gogh, the Dutch Old Masters, the 19th-century American sublime tradition, the American Precisionists, and Josef Albers (for his theories of color structure), as significant to her work. [2] [28] [6] a b My Art Museum. "Alice Dalton Brown, Where the Light Breathes," Exhibits. Retrieved January 11, 2023. In her later career, Dalton Brown has had solo shows at Fischbach Gallery in New York (1987–2014), [20] [7] [21] [3] and Butler Institute of American Art (2018, 2019), [9] and retrospectives at the Springfield Art Museum (1999), [22] Johnson Museum of Art (2013), [23] and My Art Museum (2021, Seoul). [24] [25] Work and reception [ edit ] Alice Dalton Brown, Blues Come Through, oil on linen, 54" x 86", 1999.

A contemporary realist using the medium of oil on canvas or pastel on paper, Dalton Brown achieves beautifully detailed scenes of airy domestic views, breezy porch settings and dappled seascapes to inspire a romantic, meditative mood. In the mid-1990s, Dalton Brown shifted her perspective, with scenes from inside houses looking out, most characteristically with through open windows whose diaphanous, windblown curtains enlivened otherwise still, bare rooms with an implied human presence. [7] [22] [33] [29] Paintings with lake scenes, such as Summer Breeze (1995), Blues Come Through. (1999) and Whisper (2001), emphasized an active play of light, shadow and geometry on curtains, walls, floors and water through reflection, refraction and distortion. [22] [26] [34] [35] Art in America critic Gerrit Henry described them as works of eternal summer, "crystal clear in their psychological pantheism" with "a glistening apprehension of sun and weather" and an eye for the extraordinary amid the everyday. [6] With works such as the elegiac Autumn Reverie (1998), Dalton Brown's emphasis shifted to the house's architecture and the varying visual effects created by windows, in that case within an elaborately conjoined triptych-like structure of transitional passage consisting of porch, doorway and interior. [31] [8] Cooper, James. "Enchanted Sanctuary: Alice Dalton Brown," American Arts Quarterly, Spring 2000, p. 3–7. a b Minneapolis Institute of Art. A Sheltered Spot, Alice Dalton Brown, Collections. Retrieved January 10, 2023.

Alice Dalton Brown

Her light-filled interiors and fresh landscapes contain strong graphic compositions, which divide space with broad planes of color, to which she adds her distinct Realist detail to highlight the subject matter. She completes her major paintings in her New York studio, working from her en plein air studies and collaged photographs. Dalton Brown is able to portray an acute sense of time and place in her work by her masterful rendering of light and shadow. a b c Butler Institute of American Art. Alice Dalton Brown: Pastels, Portfolio. Retrieved January 10, 2023.

Alice Dalton Brown (born 1939) is an American painter known for realist works that capture the light and texture of specific, if often invented, places and moments. [1] [2] [3] Her signature motifs include exteriors of Victorian houses, barns and waterscapes viewed through windows or sheer curtains, by which she explores the play of light, shadow, reflection and geometry across various surfaces. [4] [5] [6] Critic J. Bowyer Bell wrote of Dalton Brown's style, "her realist works are more than the sum of their parts. In fact, there are so many parts so cunningly included, so many skills on display, that the result is almost an encyclopedia of what can be done." [7]

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a b Johnson Museum of Art. Retreat Grasses, Alice Dalton Brown, Objects. Retrieved January 10, 2023.

Dalton Brown's work belongs to the public collections of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, [36] Asheville Art Museum, Butler Institute of American Art, Johnson Museum of Art, [11] Frost Art Museum, Maier Museum of Art, [37] Metropolitan Museum of Art, [10] Minneapolis Institute of Art, [12] New York Public Library, Springfield Art Museum, [26] Tampa Museum of Art, and Telfair Museums, among others, as well as to corporate, university and private collections. [9] [2] Exhibition catalogues and books [ edit ] Dalton Brown was born in Danville, Pennsylvania in 1939 and grew up in Ithaca, New York. [14] Her memories of the light, shadows and homes during her youth in the area would serve as later inspirations for her art. [15] After high school, Dalton Brown studied art at the Académie Julian and the L'Université de Grenoble in France before majoring in English at Cornell University. [14] [16] After transferring to Oberlin College, she earned a BA in studio art in 1962, working in a realist vein at odds with the day's dominant abstract modes. She was greatly influenced at Oberlin by art historian Wolfgang Stechow and his discussions of compositional dynamics and iconography. [17] [16] Inspired by frequent travels, she completes her major works in her New York studio, working from her ""en plein air"" studies and collaged photographs. Dalton Brown is able to portray an acute sense of time and place in her work by her masterful rendering of light and shadow. a b c d e f g h i j k l m Kingsley, April. The Paintings of Alice Dalton Brown, New York/Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2002. Retrieved January 10, 2023.a b Kingsley, April. "The Clear Light of Alice Dalton Brown," Alice Dalton Brown: Interior Spaces – Exterior Light, Springfield, MO: Springfield Art Museum, 1999. Retrieved January 10, 2023.