Ogden M. Pleissner (1905-1983)
Salmon Fishing
signed "Pleissner" lower right
oil on canvas, 18 by 22 in.

Ogden Minton Pleissner was born in Brooklyn, New York, and studied figure painting and portraiture with Frank DuMond (1865-1951) and Frederick J. Boston (1855-1932) at the Art Students League of New York. Despite growing up in the city, Pleissner was attracted to the outdoors and, as a teen, he visited dude ranches in Wyoming, where he sketched from life. Pleissner wanted to be classified primarily as a landscape painter, who also loved to hunt and fish. His subjects range from the landscapes of Europe to salmon fishing in Quebec, and his style is informed by the classical traditions. In 1932 one of Pleissner?s paintings was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, making him the youngest artist in their collection. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, as a member of the Salmagundi Club, Pleissner frequently won club prizes in the annual shows and gained special note from Howard Devree, art critic for "The New York Times." Pleissner?s art is included in more than thirty public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. His art hangs in the offices of the Pentagon, West Point, and the Air Force Academy.

In his monograph on Pleissner, Peter Bergh writes, ?Great sporting artists are great artists who know the habits of wild creatures and have committed to memory every detail of habitat...[They] have experienced the thrill of an Atlantic salmon.?

Indeed, Pleissner recalled his New Brunswick salmon adventures, ?I drove up there alone and I sketched around for a while...I had a tent and camping equipment so we got in a canoe and ran the whole length of the Restigouche and camped along the way??

This significant oil painting shows boldly painted figures about to land an Atlantic salmon. While Pleissner did several small to mid-size oils depicting western trout fishing, his mid-size oils of salmon fishing are rarely seen.

The back of the Newcomb-Macklin frame has an additional painted Pleissner signature. At the same time the artist titled the stretcher ?Salmon Fishing.?

Provenance: Norman B. Woolworth, Winthrop, Maine
By descent in the family
Private Collection, acquired from Copley Fine Art Auctions, LLC, Plymouth, MA, July 23, 2008, lot 39
Private Collection, Connecticut

Literature: Peter Bergh, "The Art of Ogden M. Pleissner," Boston, 1984, p. 79, pl. 108, illustrated.

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24.25 x 28.5 in