Lawrence Mazzanovich 

(1872-1946)

There is an expressed belief that creative people are “difficult.” In this particular case it seems to be true. Born at sea off the California coast, trained in Chicago and France, Mazzanovich settled in Westport, Connecticut, in 1909 and began a prolonged period of great productivity and critical success. He underwent an intriguing stylistic change from Tonalist European influence to highly decorative modified Impressionism of tightly applied brushwork, intense coloration, and carefully patterned landscape composition. His view of nature was not so much nature as it is but nature as he chose to arrange it. However, it’s noted in various articles that he was also prone to irrational statements and speaking in spiritual terms. Whatever the cause, Mazzanovich abandonned his wife and family, leaving Westport around 1925 and settling in Tryon, North Carolina. His embittered and impoverished wife actually teamed up with Arthur Dove’s wife to run the Westport Manor House Inn. I first saw an image of his work as a Christmas card from the Cooley Gallery; by the time I inquired, it had already been sold. Sensitized to the work, I continued to watch for the right example until 1998 when the Cooley Gallery had the right piece for me. It seems that Mazzanovich lived on the edge of the artworld of his day, producing some extraordinary work, perhaps contending with his own demons along the way. As a testament to Mazzanovich’s importance, the ubiquitous Dr. William Gerdts says in his 1990, three-volume tome Art Across America, “Westport’s finest landscapist was Lawrence Mazzanovich, whose work is only now beginning to attract serious attention… he seems to be one of the country’s finest practicioners of… Post-Impressionism… he still awaits thorough study and presentation."