Featured Who is Harry Cummins?

That's correct. My parents were friends with Michael and Harry on the Vineyard. They were frequent dinner and cocktail guests. I met them a few times as well. I have an O'Shaughnessy that I inherited. One of my sisters got the Cummins - a large pastel. I have only the vaguest of memories other than they were both characters, bon vivants - though Harry was more shy than Michael. Liking art is subjective. I think the sunflowers that you found - and hopefully kept, are beautiful.

 

Thank you both, I'm sorry I missed both of these comments the first time around! I'm outside of Boston, so see a lot of New England work. Really nice to find some personal stories to go along with the artwork. And, yes, I kept both of them - in fact my wife hung up the sunflowers in a guest room - though I think I'm going to have to put it in a proper frame. We have way more art than we can hang up and my wife and I have different taste (I appreciate a much broader range of work than she does). So the fact that she picked this one I consider a vote for the work of Harry Cummins!

But now - I just went and searched liveauctioneers again, because I don't understand why none of his work has shown up at auction. Nor is he listed in askart, which is where I normally search for artists. How is this possible? Is it possible that Harry was a nickname, and that he had another given name?

And to stir the pot to boiling, in my search on liveauctioneers I did find the following pastel painting and signature. The work and signature look very similar to me - but the auctioneer ascribed it to a different artist Gus Cummins, British Fauvist born in 1943. What is going on??? https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/82432113_gus-cummins-pastel
(Sorry the pics are so small, I had to screenshot them when my original links won't display, but if you follow the liveauctioneers link you'll see them full size).

 

I was hoping someone would have some thoughts about his work based on the sold work I found that seems to have the same signature and style, but a different (and I think incorrect) attribution. Anyone see this or know anything more about why Harry Cummins work doesn't show up more often?

Very annoying that liveauctioneers won't allow linking to photos, but here is a hopefully better attempt to capture the photos in the link I gave in the previous message.

 

Just from a quick look online, this is very atypical of Gus Cummins, so there may be reason to question the attribution. But how much faith can you put in a quick look online.

It does look fauvist. See the landscapes of Andre Derain.

I think the sunflowers are more Odilon Redon than Van Gogh, not least because Redon worked in pastels.

Maybe a student trying his hand at various styles?

Neither Gus Cummins nor Harry Cummins is contemporary with any of these styles.

 

Well, at least we're pretty sure my works are by Harry Cummins, since they are signed as such on the back. But I'm just frustrated that although he had a shop on Martha's Vineyard and presumably sold a lot of work to tourists and others, that I can't find any record of any of his works being re-sold, other than the one piece above that seems to have been mis-attributed. So although that one is almost certainly by him, and sold for a decent amount of money, it doesn't count as his work due to the mis-attribution. I would really like to find some other evidence of his work. Maybe I'll have to take the ferry to Martha's Vineyard; certainly there are worse things to do!

 

@Marc Chinard , who commented above, mentioned that a sister got one of Harry Cummins's pastels. I know that Marc is a new member but maybe will come back to say whether there is an image of that pastel available for you to see?

 

Hi! I recently purchased a beautiful painting by Harry Cummins in an auction, signed and dated '1957'. It is an interior scene. I was not able to find much on the internet about him but I'm glad I found this thread.

See link to the painting: https://www.weschlers.com/auction-lot/harry-cummins-20th-century-interior-scene-oil_2CD46D99D5

 

That's nice, isn't it?

Debora

 

Thanks for sharing, @Amy1290 . Nice painting. Welcome to Antiquers!