Sàndor Bernàth (1892 – c. 1984)
Highland Light, Mass. [Cape Cod Lighthouse]
American: c. 1920s
Signed and titled lower right
Watercolor on paper
18.75 x 15.25 inches sheet
23.5 x 20 inches in gold leaf frame with white panel
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Cape Cod Highland Lighthouse
by Sàndor Bernàth
by Sàndor Bernàth
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Watercolor painting of the Highland Light and the keepers’ house in the artist’s characteristic crisp style. Bernàth’s works characteristically emphasize geometric shapes and a pronounced interest in form and light. His style is allied with the precisionist paintings of his contemporaries. This painting has less light contrast than others by Bernàth, presumably to capture the even light of typical fog of the region.
Known since 1976 as the Cape Cod Light, this famous lighthouse in North Truro, Massachusetts, has been a beacon to oceangoing vessels on the Atlantic for over 200 years. The original wooden structure was built in 1797 to prevent the numerous shipwrecks in that part of the Cape, and was the first lighthouse in the nation to have a flashing light. The structure and the light were rebuilt numerous times over the ensuing decades, with the version we know today built in 1857, becoming the highest lighthouse in New England and one of the East Coast’s most powerful lights. Technical improvements to the light itself have continued into the late 20th century. The Highland Light has been a beloved New England landmark for decades and Henry David Thoreau affectionately described it in his book Cape Cod. In 1996, concerns arose about erosion of the cliffs where the lighthouse stood and funds were raised to relocate it to a spot 450 feet away, where it stands today and is open to the public, with volunteers giving tours.
Sàndor Bernàth was a Hungarian immigrant to the United States. As a young man, he apparently traveled to Europe. He began exhibiting watercolor landscapes in New York by the early 1920s, including European and New York scenes. By 1923, he was painting seascapes of New England, including Cape Cod in 1928. In the late 1920s, he moved to Eastport, Maine, and was still living there in 1945, although he continued to travel, painting scenes of the American southwest. He did many views of the coast of Maine, one of which was purchased by the Brooklyn Museum of Art. By repute, Bernath spent the last few years of his life in the Central American nation of Belize and died there in 1984 or 1985, although this is not confirmed by the standard art biography reference works.
Bernàth developed a characteristic style of smoothly delineated forms with strong contrasts of light and shadow, which relate to his slightly older contemporaries Edward Hopper and the American Precisionist painters Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth. He is sometimes referred to as a “student of Edward Hopper” but this likely is metaphorical rather than literal. He is best noted for his watercolors, and was a member of the American Watercolor Society.
Several of the works of art we offer were purchased directly from Bernath by an advertising executive working in New York City in the late 1940s and early 1950s. According to the executive’s widow, Bernath worked as an illustration artist for many New York City advertising agencies at the time, and would frequently bring along his yacht pictures and others works to sell directly to executives working at the firms for their personal use. This particular work, however, is one of Bernath’s earlier ones, painting in the 1920s (based on a companion work of Cape Cod dunes, not offered herewith, dated 1928).
Reference:
“Highland Light (Cape Cod Light), North Truro, Massachusetts.” New England Lighthouses, A Virtual Guide. 7 February 2003. http://www.lighthouse.cc/highland/history.html (28 September 2004).