Waldo Peirce (1884 - 1970) American
Oil on Board
Measure 18"in H x 14"in W and 21 1/2"in H x 17 1/2"in W x 2"in D with frame

Known for: Figure, children, landscape, still life
Biography: Waldo Peirce was born in Bangor, Maine in 1884, the son of a wealthy lumberman. He was educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard (Class of 1907) but he overslept his last exam and never really graduated. Later he jumped off a cattle boat in Boston harbor and swam miles before being picked up by lobster fishermen, leaving his companion to be hauled up for his presumable murder. He went to Paris to study at the Julian Academy. He made a tour of Europe, particularly in Spain with Ernest Hemingway, and served in the French and American armies during World War I. In 1912, during a trip to Rome, Peirce decided he was through with formal training and began to paint for himself. It was in Spain that he got married for the first time. 1920 was the year of his second marriage. He drove a Model T Ford for an ambulance unit. After that he spent three winters in Tunis, where he was elected to the Isawa of Hammamet, a lodge of whirling dervishes. His large untidy beard and his Rabelaisian vocabulary contributed toward his reputation as "the last of the Bohemians." He remained abroad until 1930, following the 19th century artists' route to the Midi and Tunisia, all the while absorbing the French manner of painting. While there he painted local scenes in the flat bright manner of Henri Matisse. Peirce was married four times and fathered five children with the third and fourth wives. His painting changed with the growing family, becoming warmer and filled with action of his children. His paintings glowed with a health and happiness rarely found in more ambitious pictures.

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