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Jonas Lie Norwegian/American, 1880-1940 American Factory Town, Winter Signed Jonas Lie (lr) Oil on canvas 35 x 41 inches Provenance: Private collection, New York Exhibited: New York, Montross Gallery, Paintings by Jonas Lie, Jan. 30-Feb. 10, 1917, no. 4 (as The Factory Town) (Probably) New York, Probably National Academy of Design, Ninety-second Annual Exhibition, Mar. 17- Apr. 22, 1917, no. 107 (as The Factory Town) New York, Spanierman Gallery, LLC, Jonas Lie (1880-1940), Jan. 12-Feb. 25, 2006 (pp. 23-24, 30, 54-55 color illus., no. 8) Literature: William H. Gerdts and Carol Lowrey. Jonas Lie (1880-1940). New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2005, pp. 23-24, 30, 54-55 color illus., no. 8 As well as painting the harbors of coastal New England and the Canadian Maritimes, and the wilderness landscapes of the Adirondack Mountains, Jonas Lie applied his skills to the depiction of the urban and industrial scene. This was especially true of his work in the 1910s, when he was friendly with the painters of the Ashcan School, such as Robert Henri and John Sloan. This subject also had a personal resonance for Lie. After graduating from the Ethical Culture School in Manhattan, he worked as a designer of textile patterns at Manchester Mills, a cotton factory, in New York, while studying art in his spare time. Lie's interest in the pictorial potential of the small factory towns scattered across the northeastern United States is reflected in this image. Painted from an elevated vantage point, the image provides a foreshortened view down a typical quiet street in a country village, but instead of a forest or rural meadows, the distance is filled with the clustered homes of factory workers and the factory chimneys that spew smoke into the air. Bringing out the contrast between the sunlight reflecting from snow-covered roofs and the atmospheric blending of smoke into the sunset, Lie portrayed a positive vision of industry in America. While using a realist approach, he strengthened the vibrancy of the image through vigorous brush handling and a warm palette of earth tones and creamy whites. C The Spanierman Gallery, LLC