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LÖIS MAILOU JONES (1905 - 1988)
Monday at Menemsha
.
Oil on linen canvas, 1943. 381x457 mm; 15x18 inches. Signed in oil, and dated and inscribed “©”
in ink, lower right recto. Signed, titled and dated in ink, lower stretcher bar verso.
Provenance: collection of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection,NewYork.
This charming and colorful view of Menemsha is a wonderful early example of the artist’s painting
on Martha’sVineyard. Menemsha’s docks were an important subject to the artist and one which she
revisited many times over a 60-year period. Jones knew the area well—as an artist, beginning with
her first oil landscapes in the late 1930s, and from her youth through her family’s ties to the area.
Her grandmother worked as a housekeeper and nanny on theVineyard, and had saved up to purchase
land in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, where Jones began spending summers in 1906. Her parents also
purchased a summer home there in 1909, and Jones spent every summer on the picturesque
waterfront. She maintained ties to the community while studying graphic design and art in Boston,
and throughout her long and distinguished career. Her
Indian Shops, Gay Head, Massachusetts
, 1940,
is in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art,Washington, DC.
[12,000/18,000]
