Portrait of a Man

Maker Frederick Frary Fursman (American, 1874-1943)

Dateca. 1920-24

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 36 × 30 in. (91.4 × 76.2 cm)
frame: 42 × 36 1/4 × 1 3/4 in. (106.7 × 92.1 × 4.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Dryer Family Foundation

Label TextBorn and raised in Central Illinois, Frederick Fursman studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and abroad in Europe before founding a summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan with a colleague in 1910. Influenced by his exposure to Impressionism and Fauvism during his time abroad and the sunny environs of his adopted home on the Lake Michigan coast, he developed a reputation as a painter who favored plein air observation, bright light, vibrant colors, and loose brushwork of the kind that was often employed by chroniclers of pleasant, sun-soaked coastal scenes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After moving to Michigan permanently in 1920, Fursman embarked on a new project, a series of portraits that he called the “Saugatuck Anthology”, that featured everyday people from the area in a style that was less colorful or impressionistic than most of his previous work. Portrait of a Man was probably a part of this series, and it demonstrates the more realistic approach that he used when chronicling Saugatuck’s working-class townsfolk. Details including the man’s weathered face, powerful build, thick, strong hands, and unfashionable but practical clothes suggest that he was a hardworking, unpretentious person whom Fursman admired despite an apparent lack of sophistication. While paintings like this one continue to be prized by museums and collectors, Fursman’s greatest legacy was likely the school he founded, later named the Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists' Residency, which continues to flourish in Saugatuck today.

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