VAM galleries including this work:
The Kentucky Historical Society | Kentucky Past and Present || VAM Home

This painting also has been referred to by the names Old Capitol Hotel in the Rain and Capitol Hotel Steps, Frankfort.

About the Artist

Paul Sawyier was born in Ohio in 1865. In 1870, his family moved to Frankfort, Kentucky, where his parents had lived as children. He attended Second Street Elementary and the Dudley Institute, an Episcopal school. His father hired Cincinnati artist Elizabeth Hutchins to give art lessons to the Sawyier children, and Paul later studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy and the Students Art League in New York.

When he returned to Frankfort, Sawyier concentrated on landscape painting, although he produced sentimental Frankfort scenes as well. He relied on photographs as models. In 1908 he bought a houseboat, which served as his studio and home for several years. He moved to New York in 1913, living in Brooklyn with his sister for a time, and then moved on to the Catskill Mountains, where he died in 1917. His grave was moved to Frankfort Cemetery in 1923.

Sawyier’s work is best known in the state of Kentucky. Most of his paintings and etchings are not dated, and he kept no diary, so it is difficult to place the works in chronological order. It is estimated that he produced more than 3,000 originals. Several hundred of his paintings have been reproduced as limited-edition prints.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: What type of weather is shown in the painting? How does the artist convey this? Does the painting look like it’s set in Kentucky? Why or why not? Would you categorize this painting as abstract, expressionistic, or realistic? Is the composition balanced? What feelings or mood does this painting convey? Compare this painting to Edinburgh by Dimitrie Berea, in the Berea College gallery. They are both outdoor scenes, but how do they differ? Which one do you like better? Why?

Activity: Paul Sawyier often used photographs as models for his watercolors. Try your hand at this technique by drawing a grid on a photograph, then transferring the image to a grid on plain paper.

Links

The ‘River Artist’ of Kentucky is an excellent article on Sawyier from the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives.
[www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/KYRiverArtist.htm]

Read the entry on Paul Sawyier in the Kentucky Encyclopedia for a summary of his life and career (subscription required for online version).
[www.kyenc.org/entry/s/SAWYI01.html]