Important painting of the first 14th of July (French National Day) fireworks after the end of WWI by Lucile Howard, c1918

Provenance: Estate of Daniel W Collins, Moorestown New Jersey.

Signed Lucile Howard lower left.

Measures 11 inches by 8 inches in a frame 12.5 inches by 15.5 inches

Davids notes: As a founding member of the Philadelphia Ten, Edith Howard would have been aware of Whistlers Nocturne in Black and Gold, maybe one of the most famous paintings of the late 19th century, whose surreal dreamy images of fireworks in the London sky was the inception for one of the greatest art lawsuits of the post Renaissance era, the fight between Whistler and the art critic John Ruskin over what constitutes and defines a work of art. In Edith Howards painting, the surreal night sky is purple instead of black and gold, but the feeling is the same, Armistice Day, which celebrates the end of WW1, transforms into a celebration of the artists right to create, explore and depict anything on canvas or board, and call it legitimate. For the thousands of people celebrating the end of the war in Europe, Lucille Howard is celebrating the freedom of art in the early 20th century, 50 years after Whistler won his lawsuit against Ruskin, but ended up broke and broken from the ordeal. Its no accident the lights of the casino are bright gold, Howard is paying a direct homage to Whistler and acknowledging the debt to him of all artists.

Lucile Howard
(Source: Wiki) Edith Lucile Howard (1885 to 1959) was an American landscape artist. She was born in Bellow Falls, Vermont, and died of cancer in Moorestown, New Jersey, in 1959.Edith Howard was a founder and member of the Philadelphia Ten. The Philadelphia Ten was exclusive to women artist and sculptors, active from 1917 to 1945. A partial list of members includes, Eleanor Abrams, Katharine Marie Barker, Theresa Bernstein, Cora S. Brooks, Isabel Branson Cartwright, Constance Cochrane, Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton, Arrah Lee Gaul, Lucile Howard, Helen Kiner McCarthy, Katharine Hood McCormick, Maude Drein Bryant, Fern Coppedge, Nancy Maybin Ferguson, Margaret Ralston Gest, Sue May Gill, Susette Schultz Keast, Marian T. MacIntosh, Emma Fordyce MacRae, Mary Elizabeth Price, Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, Susan Gertrude Schell, Edith Longstreth Wood, Gladys Edgerly Bates, Cornelia Van Auken Chapin, Beatrice Fenton, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, Genevieve Karr Hamlin, Joan Hartley, and Mary Louise Lawser.

Howard studied with Henry B. Snell and Elliott Daingerfield at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, which is now called the Moore College of Art & Design. Howard entered college at the age of nineteen and received her diploma in 1908. Her first exhibition was at the Worcester Art Museum in 1914. She taught at the School of Design for Women, Grand Central Art Galleries and School of Art in New York and retired in 1949.Exhibition of water color paintings selected from The Exhibition of The Philadelphia Water Color Club. February 1 to 23, 1914.Under the name of "Lucille Howard", Edith Lucille Howard authored an article about the work of young fashion students inspired by artifacts in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology.

Good condition overall. Provenance: Estate of Daniel Collins, Moorestown, NJ(the same small town that Lucile Howard died in). Davids notes: Not much is known about Daniel Collins, he was born into a wealthy real estate family and never had to work. He was a philanthropist, and traveled the world after graduating from Harvard. He had several paintings by Edith Lucille Howard in his home at the time of his death, but what connection, if any, between the artist and Collins, is unknown.