Earl, Godwin (1860?-1944)

There is some contradictory information about this NDG artist, including the Federal Art Project listing his paintings as “Earl Godwin”—perhaps the confusion due to a prominent journalist having that name. Godwin Earl was teaching at the Los Angeles Art Institute as of 1928. For the 1930 census, in Los Angeles, Earl gave his birthdate as 1865 and his birthplace as Argentina; for the 1940 census, in New York, he gave his birthdate as 1860 and birthplace as New York. The 1860 birthdate seems more likely, since in 1941 he penned an epigram entitled “I’m Over Eighty”: “I am very tender hearted, so / I want to gently drop, / Into a vat of boiling oil, / The pest who calls me ‘Pop’ ” (New York Sun 11 Feb. 1941: 84). Everything that is known about Earl points toward a talented but curmudgeonly painter struggling amidst the Great Depression, in part due to his conservative standards of what constituted art. In response to MoMA’s plan to bring art supplies to soldiers in camps, Earl called it “another futile attempt to make people believe that art is something one can produce after a few days’ practice, as one would learn to whitewash the garden fence at home.” He instead argued for rigorous training (Godwin Earl, “Dark View of Art,” letter to editor, New York Sun 22 April 1942: 20). 11 more images at FAP.


 

Works in the New Deal Collection at GVCA by Godwin Earl:

Featured
Sea Bass
Sea Bass

One of the more challenging still lifes you'll see, Earl strips down his painting to three primary objects: a ceramic casserole, two lemons, and the eponymous sea bass. Perhaps a third of his composition is given over to an unadorned countertop. If this were cuisine, the message would be: if you have good fish, don't adorn it unnecessarily. Perhaps Earl conceived of his shimmering bass in a similar manner.

White Flowers
White Flowers

The subject of this painting is a vase of white flowers. The flowers themselves are large and take up a significant portion of the area, but are balanced out by a multicolored vase underneath. The vase seems to have the pattern of some sort of animal in a variety of colors. The background is beige and displays some shadows, indicating curvature or a corner. The flower and its vase are the only subjects in this painting.

earlGVCA