Marie Atkinson Hull (American/Mississippi, 1890-1980) , "Cordes Aug 14", 1929, watercolor and graphite on paper, pencil-signed lower left, titled lower right, 14 3/4 in. x 12 1/4 in., framed . Ill.: Levingston, Bruce. Bright Fields: The Mastery of Marie Hull. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2015, p. 63. Note: In the spring of 1929, Marie Hull commenced an eight-month journey that would be one of the most inspirational and important periods of her long and celebrated career. Massachusetts artist George Elmer Brown, who was living in France at the time, ran a series of travel study programs which provided students, and other established artists such as Hull, the opportunity to visit various countries for artistic study of the landscapes and cultures. Hull's own passion for landscape, as evidenced by her earlier travels throughout the United States, was a perfect fit for the program, and her resulting depictions of the countryside of France, Spain and North Africa reveal her skill and lifelong openness to stylistic experimentation and growth. As Bruce Levingston writes of the significance of this trip: "It was not only that for the first time she saw many great masterpieces in person; she also was forced to rethink everything she knew about her concepts of art…this trip was a new beginning for her." The watercolor offered here of Cordes, France shows Hull is clearly exploring ideas of space and color through keen observation, rapid brushstrokes and carefully chosen line details. Ref.: Levingston, Bruce. Bright Fields: The Mastery of Marie Hull. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2015