Artist Profile

Carl Lawless

• Lived:
• 1894-1964
• Worked:
• Pennsylvania, Connecticut
• Style:
• Landscape, Still Life

• Carl Lawless, a native of Illinois, studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts prior to World War I. As a recipient of the Cresson traveling scholarship from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he studied in Europe after the war's end. Upon his return he relocated to Pennsylvania. He became enchanted by the shore town of Mystic, Connecticut when visiting a married couple with whom he had studied in Europe. He later purchased a home in Mystic in 1925 and immediately became an active member in the budding local art association.1

  The most notable aspect of Lawless' approach to landscape painting is his ability to incorporate certain "patterns into an overall design that [is] authentic to nature."2 Light and shadow also have a prominent role in Lawless' artwork, a quality which the artist most likely adopted from a fellow Mystic resident and member of the art association, Charles Harold Davis (1856-1933). Davis, too, is well known for his richly hued scenes with an emphasis on the effects of natural light.

  Sources:
  1 Priscilla W. Pratt and Lois H. Constantine, “Carl Lawless” in News and Views (1998).
  2 Pratt and Constantine.

  Written by Caitlin Murphy

  ___________________________________________

  Studied:
  Chicago Academy of Fine Arts
  Pennsylvania Academy if the Fine Arts

  Membership:
  Co-founder and member of the Mystic Art Association, Mystic, Connecticut

  Exhibited:
  Art Institute of Chicago
  Pennsylvania Academy Annuals 1920-26; 1930
  National Academy of Design 1923, 1927 (prizes)
  Connecticut Academy of Fine Art 1925, 1931
  Corcoran Gallery biennials 1926, 1935
  Grand Central Gallery 1929
  New Haven Paint and Clay Club 1930
  Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut 1936

  Collections:
  Pennsylvania Academy
  Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Museum
  New Haven Public Library
  Connecticut State College, Storrs

  Sources:
  Who's Who in American Art 1940
  Art in Connecticut
  Connecticut death index 1949-2001
  death date correction courtesy of Elizabeth A. Keep