"“Rosa and Doctor Lutyens quarreled violently” Cosmopolitan illustration" Lot no. 4590
By Ralph Palen Coleman 1892-1968
1935
25.5" x 35.5"
Oil on Canvas
Signed & Dated Lower Right
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Story illustration for “The Kenworthy Case” by Rex Beach, published in Cosmopolitan, May 1936, pages 48-49.
The full caption reads: "While Rosa and Doctor Lutyens quarreled violently, a man stood in the shadows outside the open windows listening—a man whose love for this woman had brought him back from the dead." A chilling pull quote from the story ominously states: "Only the great tropic stars saw justice strike that night when a man came back from a living death to avenge an inhuman wrong."
Coleman masterfully employs sharp diagonal lines to guide the viewer's eye through this tense scene. As our gaze moves from the disgruntled man clenching his hands at lower left, across the dinner table strewn with unfinished food, and towards the woman dramatically leaning forward, clutching the table edge, we are almost drawn past the sinister figure of a barefoot man entering through the doorway, dressed in tattered clothing and with his finger poised on the trigger of a gun. Coleman subtly directs our attention to this lurking figure by utilizing the horizontal table runner and the crease in the rug as visual cues, leading our eyes towards the doorway. The extinguished candles, with their dried wax drips, not only suggest that the argument has lingered long past the end of the meal but also serve as a chilling metaphor for the life that hangs precariously in the balance.
Over his illustrious career, Coleman illustrated stories by literary giants such as W. Somerset Maugham and F. Scott Fitzgerald, gracing the pages of major publications like The Saturday Evening Post and Cosmopolitan. This captivating composition, with its undeniable dramatic tension, stands out as one of the most compelling scenes we've encountered from this gifted artist.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Over his long career, Ralph Pallen Coleman illustrated stories by many famous authors including Somerset Maugham, Rex Beach, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Louis Bromfield and Clarence Budington Kelland; this work appeared in most of the magazines.
Coleman, who was educated at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, sold his first illustration to The Saturday Evening Post in 1919. His work appeared regularly thereafter in the Post and other magazines for over twenty years. He also found time in his busy career to paint many portraits and a number of murals in churches in Jenkintown, Lancaster, and Montoursville, Pennsylvania, and in Wilmington, Delaware. In addition, he executed a series of paintings depicting the Life of Christ for the George Washington Memorial Park in White Marsh, Pennsylvania.