Critical Responses To Carlsen's Work
Professor William Gerdts wrote extensively of Carlsen and his aesthetic sensibility in his book on American still life painting "Painters of the Humble Truth" and he describes the objects in the paintings as ..."often lacking in traditional beauty, What makes the paintings beautiful is Carlsen's sensitivity in arrangement - large shapes are juxtaposed with small flat forms and tall ones, their outlines are often united in refined harmonious curves. and are placed backward and forward on their limited support surface to allow for "breathing room," for slow movement in space."
The art historian Richard Boyle also noted Carlsen's craftsmanship, in his book American Impressionism, states:
Carlesen's special concern was still life, and his paintings are beautifully crafted and delicate of surface, reminiscent of Whistler and especially Dewing. Carlsen was concerned with "ideal beauty" as well as the beauty inherent in the subject, in texture and color; as in Dewing's works, the placement of the objects on his canvas is extremely important..."
The art writer Arthur Edwin Bye featured Carlsen most prominently in his survey of American Still life painting in 1921 and wrote of him:
“Emil Carlsen is unquestionably the most accomplished master of still-life painting in America today. …It is evident that Carlsen has lifted his art to a height it has never reached before.”
In American Impressionism, William Gerdts wrote about Carlsen's transition from still life artist to landscape painter:
Carlsen was attracted to the beauties of the rolling hills and interpreted them in soft, pastel tones. Carlsen's landscape mode, however, is more more completely of this century, and it developed in the more decorative, somewhat naturalistic manner that characterized later Impressionism.
The art collector Duncan Phillips wrote of Carlsen that his ocean scenes had "a certain trance-like mood."
Read more about this topic: Emil Carlsen
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