Hugo Ballin's "Earth Forces" Returns

Hugo Ballin “Earth Forces” Returns

Post by:        Jennifer Chapman Smith, Collections and Exhibitions Manager

Yesterday, the WCMFA welcomed home one of its paintings that was on loan to the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut. Hugo Ballin’s oil on canvas board, Earth Forces, was part of the Mattatuck Museum’s exhibition 100 Years of Presenting Art: A Celebration of the Museum’s First Exhibition. The exhibition celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the museum’s first art exhibition. It brought together representative work by the artists included in that first exhibition, including Hugo Ballin.

The Mattatuck Museum contacted the WCMFA because they saw on AskART.com that we had works by Hugo Ballin in our collection. As we continue the collections inventory project and the eventual development of the online collections component we can look forward to more people and institutions becoming familiar with the WCMFA’s wonderful collection.

Hugo Ballin studied at the Art Students’ League in New York City and worked as an artist until 1917 when he began working for Goldwyn Pictures as an art director and production designer. After moving to Los Angeles in 1921, Ballin began directing, writing, and producing silent films. When talking pictures became the norm in Hollywood, he returned to a career as an artist and became one of the foremost mural ists in the Los Angeles area. Earth Forces is an allegorical painting that was probably a study for a larger painting or mural.  

For more information on the Mattatuck Museum: http://www.mattatuckmuseum.org/home