Hovsep Pushman (1877-1966)

Hovsep Pushman, or Pushminian, was an Armenian American artist known for his beautiful paintings of women.Hovsep Pushman came by his oriental learnings by birth and travel. Born in Western Armenia, Pushman studied at the Royal Academy of Art (  Sanayi-i Nefise Mekteb-i Âlisi  ) in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) in the declining days of the old Ottoman Empire.

Silence, 62,2 x 48,9 cm

Then in Paris he became a pupil of Tony Robert-Fleury and Jules Lefebvre.After his student days he exhibited in the French salons, even since becoming an American citizen keeping a studio in the French capital.Hovsep Pushman's arrangements of still life are suggestive of the Eastern tradition to which he was born.In 1896 Pushman's family emigrated to Chicago, where he studied Chinese culture, immersing himself in Asian art.He opened his own studio in 1921 and, with the encouragement of Robert-Fleury, concentrated his efforts on exotic portraits and still lifes of carefully arranged objects he had collected.

Youth, 48 x 36 cm

 Pushman died on February 13, 1966, in New York City.Pushman's paintings are in the collections of many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, the Seattle Art Museum, the San Diego Art Institute, the Houston Art Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.


Sources:
Survey of American painting:October twenty-fourth [to] December fifteenth, 1940