Cummer Museum

In downtown Jacksonville there is a small museum on the old Cummer estate.  It is a small museum, with a small formal garden out back.  The collection is largely the idiosyncratic  gathering of art and artifact of an old Southern aristocratic family.  However, they had a large room exhibiting the work of Eugene Savage.  This was a delightful discovery.

Savage painted the Seminole Indians living in the Florida wilderness in the 1930s, 1940s.  (Here is a brief summary of the history taken from Wikipedia.) The Seminoles were a collection of mostly Creek southern tribes that tried to avoid the encroachment of European colonization by retreating to the Florida wilderness.  After the Seminole War  ending in 1858 the majority were "relocated" along with other tribes to the reservations.

Savage painted the Seminoles to document their culture and to witness the destruction of that culture  by the encroachment of "civilization" and environmental exploitation.  His style was a beautiful, soft abstraction as opposed to realism.  I found that the removal of detail left me with a feeling of place-- the extreme quiet and warm soft air.  

A few examples.  You can view more at http://hamiltonauctiongalleries.com/Eugene-Savage.htm.