Carl W. Peters

the long version

Carl W. Peters (1897-1980), the American Scene painter and Regionalist from Rochester, New York, drew upon a wide variety of influences - from the Hudson River School tradition to tonalism and impressionism, to the urban realism of Robert Henri's group, the Eight, to Woodstock modernism. All of this he assimilated during the volatile years of his artistic formation. After studying at the Art Students League, Peters began a career in which he was honored with numerous national awards, including three Hallgarten Prizes at the National Academy of Design. He divided his time between painting winter scenes in the Genesee region and executing brilliant mariner scenes in Cape Ann in the summer. During the Depression he painted several large-scale murals in Rochester. In the face of the European "invasion" of modernism, Peters and his Rockport Realist friends were part of the American Scene milieu and contributed to the subsequent Regionalist movement, which temporarily turned the tide back toward a "homegrown" expression of American naturalist art. Throughout his life Peters depicted the ordinary places and people of America. From Rochester to Rockport, Peters made an amazingly coherent group of fascinating, masterful American pictures.