Edward Volkert (1871-1935)
Holsteins and Guernseys by Water
Oil on academy board, 12 x 16”
Signed lower right

Volkert was "Cincinnati’s Cattle Painter" when he moved to the Hamburg section of Lyme in 1922. Scenes in which cattle are minor figures gave way in Connecticut to paintings in which cows appear close enough to touch, their massive forms emblazoned against the bands of land and water behind them.

The artist experimented with Impressionism in Old Lyme but rejected broken color in favor of complementary color areas. He used light not to dissolve form but to articulate it so expressively that a critic said it was as though he carried his own bottle of sunlight.