Artist: George Loftus Noyes

Canadian- American (1864-1954)

Biography:

The notable Massachusetts artist, George Loftus Noyes, was actually by birth, a Canadian, though is rightly listed as an American artist though naturalisation.

Born in Bothwell, Ontario in 1864, he died in Petersborough, New Hampshire in 1954 at the age of ninety.

He had studied at the Massachusetts Normal School with George Bartlett way back in the early 1880s, not surprisingly heading for France and studying at the Academie Colarossi in Paris between 1890-93. There he worked under Ernest Courtois, LeBlanc, the great landscape painter Paul Louis Delance and under the guidance of the master craftsman, Jean Andre Rixens.

It was Rixens who was to influence him to a huge degree. Giving him mastery and the vision to record with clear luminosity, so evident in his still life painting.

Under their great guidance and tutoring, Noyes was to become a competent and notable Impressionist.

Later a member of the Boston Art Club, the Boston Society of Watercolour Painters, the Guild of Boston Artists, the North Shore Art Association and a charter member of the National Society of American Artists, he exhibited extensively throughout New England.
He won awards at both the Buenos Aires and Pan-Pacific International Expositions in 1910 and 1915 respectively.

During his life he exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Corcoran Galleries and held solo exhibitions at the Hatfield Galleries in Boston in 1906. There were further successful exhibitions at the Copley Society, no less than 6 times and also at the influential Vose Galleries.

He showed at the St. Botolphe Club in Boston in 1915 and the Guild of Boston Artists, at least 4 times.
A Memorial Exhibition, following his death, was held at the GBA in 1955.

At the turn of the century, at the age of 36, Noyes began teaching a summer class at Annisquam, Massachusetts and became mentor to one of his very first students. This was the great American artist; Newell Convers Wyeth. (1882-1945) A fine artist who was to become one of America's best loved painters. Noyes had permanent studios for most of his life in Boston.
East Gloucester (from 1893 to 1931), but in Winter Park in Florida (between 1931 and 35) returning to Pittsford-Branden, in Vermont from about 1935 onwards.

He worked and painted at the Fenway Studios on Ipswich Street starting in 1906 where latterly, in 1939, a fire was to destroy literally 100s of his works of art.
Following this incident, Noyes became hugely disheartened and even considered giving up his lifetime career.

Throughout a full and successful career, he had travelled extensively and on numerous occasions, painting throughout Europe. He had visited both France and Italy several times.
North Africa and Mexico also feature in his travels, where he searched for the perfect light.