Edward Cucuel (American, 1875-1954) Coin de atelier Oil on Canvas 19-1/2 x 22-3/4 inches (49.5 x 57.8 cm) Signed on the reverse: Cucuel PROVENANCE: The artist, Paris; Wilhelmina Busch-Woods and Samuel Edison-Woods, Schloss Höhenried, Bernried, Bavaria; Thence by descent to the present owner. The present sale brings together three early paintings by Edward Cucuel from the collection of Wilhelmina Busch and her husband, the American diplomat Samuel Edison Woods. Dedicated collectors both individually and together, they amassed a substantial art collection, with a particular emphasis on German painters, displayed throughout their Bavarian residence, Schloss Höhenried. Following their deaths in 1952 and 1953, respectively, the paintings descended in the family. Their subjects—a studio interior, a winter landscape, and a harbor scene—offer a broader view of an artist best known for his luminous paintings of women at leisure beside Bavaria's lakes. Born in San Francisco, Cucuel trained in Paris, where he studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme, and worked as an illustrator before settling in Munich in 1907. His friendship with Leo Putz encouraged his development as a colorist and painter of outdoor subjects. He subsequently established studios in Munich and Starnberg, finding enduring inspiration along the Starnberger See. In 1939, with the outbreak of World War II, he left Germany permanently and settled in Pasadena, California. Busch, an heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune, likewise had longstanding ties to the Starnberger See, where she built Schloss Höhenried. Following their marriage in 1948, she and Woods made the château their home. Woods had provided valuable intelligence to the United States in the struggle against Hitler, obtaining information through the German economist and resistance contact Erwin Respondek about Nazi atomic research and plans to invade the Soviet Union. No evidence establishes a personal acquaintance between the collectors and Cucuel, although Busch's earlier residence in the area leaves open the possibility that she knew him before his departure. Labels on the reverses of Coin de Atelier (lot 69065) and Solitude d'hiver (lot 69067) record their French titles and the Paris address 5 rue Bellart. The latter is dated 1912; the matching labels suggest a connection between the works, although they do not securely date the studio interior. Cucuel exhibited in Paris in 1913 at the Salon d'Automne, the same year he became a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, providing a context for these inscriptions. The colorful interior, with paintings displayed around the walls, may depict a studio he used there. The lively harbor painting, Abend im Hafen (lot 69066), may represent Hamburg, a subject Cucuel treated on other occasions. Together, these paintings reveal interests extending beyond the sunlit figure compositions on which Cucuel's reputation chiefly rests. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

The artist, Paris; Samuel Edison Woods and Wilhelmina Busch Woods, Schloss Höhenried, Bernried, Bavaria; Thence by descent to the present owner.

Unlined. Stretcher bar marks visible. It appears this canvas has once been rolled and there a few vertical folds to the surface. Scattered pigment loss.
Under UV: original pigments fluoresce. Brushy retouching at edges.
Framed Dimensions 22 X 26.5 Inches