Symbolic Objects Still Life
Watercolor by Richard A. de Menocal

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Menocal Fraternal
Menocal Fraternal
Menocal Fraternal
Richard A. de Menocal (1919-1995)
Symbolic Objects Still Life
American: c. Mid 20th Century
Signed verso: "de Menocal" and stamped by Condé Nast Publications
Watercolor and gouache on paper
16 x 12 inches
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Watercolor still life of a set of symbolic objects, including an altar-like structure, a hand at the end of a staff, a spear, a star on stand, a book and a sheaf of grain.  These are typical of symbolic attributes adopted by various fraternal or religious organizations.  This work apparently was drawn for a magazine belonging to Condé Nast Publications, bearing the publisher’s stamp on the back.  Indeed, de Menocal worked for Condé Nast early in his career.

The Smithsonian Institution has the following online biography of the artist from the catalog of the Sara Roby Foundation collection:

De Menocal graduated from the school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  During his early career he drew illustrations for Condé Nast publications, organized displays for the Lord and Taylor department store in New York City, and created costume designs for Radio City Music Hall.  He had his first solo exhibition in 1951, and continued to show in this country even after moving to Brazil.  In the 1960s de Menocal withdrew from the secular world and spent over a decade at the Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, and later with the Trappists in Derryville, Virginia, and Spencer, Massachusetts.  After leaving the monastery he settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and returned to painting.  In the still life arrangements for which he is best known, de Menocal is concerned with quietude of mood and with formal issues of balance and tone.

Reference:

Mecklenburg, Virginia M.; Essay By William Kloss.   Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1987.  p. 48. Online at http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=1205 (9 August 2006).