Ernest Dewey Albinson (American, 1898-1971). Oil on canvas painting depicting the Witch's Tree overlooking Lake Superior. Signed along the lower left.

Lot Essay:
Dewey Albinson was born in Minneapolis, Minneapolis March 9, 1898. He began painting at the age of 15, and studied at the Minneapolis School of Art, the Art Students’ League of New York to which he had a scholarship, in Paris and Italy. He has received many awards, and has exhibited widely in this country and abroad. Mr. Albinson executed a mural for the Cloquet Minnesota Post Office under the program of the Section of Fine Arts.

Dewey Albinson brought an expressionist approach of bold brushstrokes and strong colors to upper Midwestern subjects like farmsteads, towns and cities, Native American life, and the North Shore region of Lake Superior. He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art (today the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), the Art Students League in New York City, and in France and Italy.

Following several years of painting in France and Italy, Albinson directed the St. Paul School of Art back in Minnesota. During the Depression he painted Minneapolis and University of Minnesota scenes for the Public Works of Art Project; painted for, and directed the Education Division of, the WPA Federal Art Project in Minnesota; and painted murals for the post offices of Cloquet, Minnesota and Marquette, Michigan.

Albinson spent his final years in Mexico, where he painted a series of canvases based on Miguel Cervantes’s story of Don Quixote. Albinson’s typescript memoirs are in the Minnesota Historical Society library.
Height: 26 in x width: 22 in. The colors are bold and bright. There are no visible tears or creases. There is a slight undulation to the canvas. The stretcher bars are visible on the left, top, and right side. There are several areas of loss and repair along the extreme right edge of the canvas. The repaired areas are primarily through the upper right quadrant each measuring approximately 1/2 inch. Along the verso there is wear to the extreme edges of the canvas. Two canvas keys are missing in the upper right corner.