SPONGE MARKET 

A vibrant painting of the sponge market in Nassau by Stephen Etnier. Born in York County, Pennsylvania, Etnier attended Yale University, Yale Art School, Haverford College and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Throughout his career Etnier recorded the visual impact of the sun and its role in creating atmosphere and texture. This painting has captured the harsh light of the Caribbean and the blurring effect the tropical sun can cast on the landscape. Etnier had a career that spanned six decades concentrating on the areas surrounding his home in Maine and the islands of the Caribbean.

Exhibition history for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (1940) and the M.H. DeYoung Memorial Museum , San Francisco on reverse.

Publications: New York Times (1/7/1940); Art Digest (1/15/1940):21. Illustrated in Stephen Etnier 1903-1984, A Retrospective fig. 21, exhibition catalog, Historical Society of York County, 1989.

Exhibitions: Milch Galleries, 1940; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Second Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, 1940; The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 137th Annual, 1942; M.H. de Young Memorial Museum 1945.