Having settled in Boston, the Lee Lufkin and her husband William Jurian Kaula were among the first occupants of the famed Fenway Studios building upon its opening in 1905. They moved to the large corner studio, number 311, and worked and lived there until William’s death in 1953.

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The Kaulas befriended many of their studio neighbors, including Edmund Tarbell, the leading painter of the Boston School, and Lee’s embrace of the Boston School tradition is evident in the floral still lifes, genre scenes, portraits and figural work she created and exhibited throughout her career. The Green Shade contains all of the elements of the Boston School ideal: a lovely young woman dressed in a similarly attractive garment, and posed in an interior setting with diffused light. However, Lee’s vivid color palette and the use of a variety of interesting, yet complementary, textiles became a hallmark of her style.

Provenance:

Private collection, Medade, Texas
With Vose Galleries, Boston, inventory no. 32616, September 1998
To private collection, North Chatham, Massachusetts, October 1999 to present

Labels:

1). Previous Vose Galleries label, inventory no. 32616
2). (on top stretcher, handwritten) LEE LUFKIN KAULA / FENWAY STUDIOS / BOSTON, MASS / “THE GREEN SHADE”
3). (partially torn label on backing) –Work / of / –Brookline Public Library / March 6, March 20 / [Artist] LEE LUFKIN KAULA Title THE GREEN SHADE / Address 311- FENWAY STUDIOS
4). (remnants of label on top stretcher) –nal / –of Women / –culptors / –ity / –on (most likely an exhibition label from the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors)

Exhibitions:

1). Brookline Public Library, Brookline, Massachusetts (year unknown)
2). (possibly) National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors
3). The Boston School Tradition: Truth, Beauty and Timeless Craft, Vose Galleries, Boston, June 6 – July 18, 2015, lent from private collection