|
A
SELECTION OF AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
|
|
Lot 1213
Thomas Badger
American, 1792-1868
Still Life
Signed Painted by T. Badger (ll)
Oil on panel
18 1/4 x 24 inches
Sold for $74,500
Thomas Badger, trained by the Boston ornamental artist, John Ritto
Penniman, was a well-regarded portrait painter and miniaturist. Born in
Massachusetts, he worked most of his life in Boston, while making
frequent trips to Maine where he was active from the 1830s through the
1850s. Badger exhibited portraits at the Boston Athenaeum's annual
exhibitions, as well as New York's National Academy of Design. He died
in nearby Cambridge.
Badger's portraits are competent, professional works but it is his small
body of still-life paintings that, in recent years, have garnered
serious attention from scholars, collectors, and museums. Professional
still-life painting began in America only in the second decade of the
nineteenth century, and for the first twenty years was practiced almost
entirely only by members of Philadelphia's famous Peale family,
especially by Raphaelle Peale, his uncle James Peale, and by several of
James's daughters, most notably Sarah Miriam and Margaretta Angelica
Peale. Just about no other American painter of the first three decades
of the nineteenth century devoted him- or herself to traditional
still-life painting, and only rare examples of the theme are known by a
few artists such as John Archibald Woodside, Robert Street, John
Johnston, and Charles Bird King.
The one exception to this paucity of still-life painting is the work of
Thomas Badger. Though the number of his still lifes remains rare - he
was, after all, primarily a portrait painter - a solid body of work in
this genre has emerged, and offers true distinction, both constituting a
personal aesthetic and one very different from the contemporaneous work
of the Peale family. Though Badger could have seen work by James and
Raphaelle Peale at the exhibitions held at the Boston Athenaeum
beginning in 1827, he appears to have evolved his own approach to the
subject long before such works were available to him. Furthermore,
Badger's still lifes exhibit characteristics inimical to the Peale
tradition. Though like the Peales, he concentrated on fruit subjects -
flower pictures would not become popular in America until the later
1840s - Badger's compositions are much fuller and more lush than those
of the Peales. While the Peales strove for simplicity, Badger presents
abundance. Furthermore, while the typical Peale still life arrangement
rests on some kind of board or elongated table - there is no way to tell
for sure the nature of the support for their subjects - Badger preferred
a variety of more "elegant" supports - sometimes crisply painted,
immaculately white tablecloths, sometimes a well-polished wooden table,
or, as here, a thick piece of grained gray marble, which in turn rests
upon a handsome wooden support. In addition to the bright, even glowing
depiction of the fruit he painted, especially distinctive was Badger's
introduction of two favorite fruit motifs - the sliced watermelon but
even more, the "bomb"-like form of the melon, inserted on a diagonal,
which may almost be considered the artist's signature.
Badger appears to have begun painting still lifes early in his career,
and may even have considered choosing this as a direction for his
artistry along with portraiture (he is known to have painted portraits
as early as 1814). He began exhibiting fruit still lifes at the
American Academy of the Fine Arts in New York City in 1817, and
continued to do so in 1819 and again in 1826. The earliest dated still
life by Badger to come to light today was completed in January 1818,
contemporary with Raphaelle Peale and before James Peale turned to this
theme. Though relatively few in number, Badger was certainly the
earliest Boston artist to be attracted to the still-life subject and all
those which have come to light exhibit a mastery of the theme. Whether
he continued to paint still-lifes throughout his career is not known;
Badger has not yet been the subject of extensive scholarship, except for
an exhibition and catalogue of the portraits he painted in Kennebunk,
Maine, held in 1964, for which a small catalogue was published. He did
exhibit fruit pieces at the early Boston Museum and Gallery of the Fine
Arts in 1841 and again in 1847, though whether these were recent works
or pictures he had painted early in his career is not known. The
respect and admiration for Badger's contribution to the art of
still-life painting in America finds testimonial in their representation
in such institutions as the Colby College Museum of Art, The Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco, and the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia.
This is, indeed, a rare and worthy example of American still-life
painting. We are grateful to William H. Gerdts, author of American
Still Life Painting and Senior Advisor in American Art at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, for contributing this catalogue
essay.
|
|
|
Lot 1267
Grigory Gluckmann
American, 1898-1973
After the Lesson
Signed Gluckmann (lr)
Oil on panel
16 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Sold for $68,500
|
|
|
Lot 1251
Irving Ramsey Wiles
American, 1861-1948
The Dock, circa 1927
Signed I...Wiles (ll); inscribed on an old label affixed to the frame The Dock/Irving Wiles, Peconic, Long Island/N.Y./20 x 26; stamped Ex. P.A.F.A., inscribed CM 3021 and N.A.D./Pa Acad/Milch/Macbeth/Nat.Arts/Club on the stretcher
Oil on canvas
20 1/4 x 26 inches
Provenance:
The artist
Emma Austin Yawkey Gardner Ouerbacker, Louisville, KY; thence by descent to the current owner
Exhibited:
New York, National Academy of Design
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1928, #258, The Dock
New York, Macbeth Gallery
New York, National Arts Club
P. Jackson Higgs, Inc. Gallery, New York, 1933
Sold for $62,500
Irving Wiles found refuge at his home and studio, "The Mooring," on
Indian Neck in Peconic, Long Island, where he summered beginning in
1895. The tranquil countryside and scenic waterways of the bucolic
North Fork offered abundant inspiration for an artist actively engaged
during the winter months as a skilled and fluid portraitist.
The present work depicts the Wiles family dock, with the artist's
daughter, Gladys, a frequent model for her father, gazing into the
sparkling waters of Peconic Bay. The land visible at the horizon is
likely Shelter Island. In the distance are what appear to be Wiles's
own yawl - a two-masted sailboat - as well as the runabout used by
Gladys herself. Both vessels, as well as the Wiles dock, are also
depicted in The Gale, another work of the same period, reproduced in
International Studio (November, 1927, p. 63).
In November, 1927, Dana H. Carroll discussed Wiles's marine paintings
and praised his knowledge of sailing ships in an article in
International Studio: "Whenever a person with a feeling of sympathy
toward the sea has come upon one of the rarely exhibited marine
paintings by this portrait-painter, the observer has stopped, looked and
listened - listened for a sharp order to sailors or for the music of a
sailors' chantey, or even for the moaning of the tide." (Dana Carroll,
"The Marine Paintings of Irving Wiles," International Studio, November
1927, pp. 61-65. The artist's personal copy of the article is held in
the Wiles Family Collection of Papers, Southold Historical Society,
Southold, New York.)
Related both chronologically and conceptually to the works discussed in
the article, The Dock was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts in 1928. It is listed on page 144 of the artist's handwritten
notebook, Records of Sales - Portraits & Pictures 1910-1948 (Collection
of the Southold Historical Society, Southold, Suffolk County, New York).
We are grateful to the Southold Historical Society and its Director,
Geoffrey K. Fleming for so generously sharing archival information and
assisting in cataloguing this lot.
|
|
|
Lot 1253
Bruce Crane
American, 1857-1937
Winter, 1917
Signed Bruce Crane and inscribed copyright by S. T. Shaw 1918 (ll);
inscribed Samuel T. Shaw on frame and titled Winter on a Salmagundi Club label on the reverse
Oil on canvas
26 x 24 inches
Provenance:
Samuel T. Shaw, New York
Exhibited:
New York, Salmagundi Club, March 12-24, 1917
Property from the Estate of Anton Schutz
Sold for $31,250
This elegant winter scene was awarded the Samuel T. Shaw Purchase Prize
when it was shown at the Salmagundi Club in 1917. For fifty years, Shaw
sponsored the award, along with an eagerly anticipated dinner party for
the artists in competition. In keeping with tradition, the party
commemorating Crane's award took place the following year, on March 7,
1918. The year Crane won the prize, its value was increased from $500 to
$1,000. Award-winning works became part of Shaw's extensive personal
collection, which was dispersed after his death.
Samuel T. Shaw (1861-1945) was the proprietor of the Grand Union Hotel
on the southeast corner of 42nd Street and Park Avenue, across from
Grand Central Terminal. An art collector and patron of living artists,
Shaw hung the hotel walls with his personal collection of works by
American painters. He was closely associated with the Salmagundi Club,
the Society of American Artists, and the National Academy of Design, and
awarded cash prizes for the best picture at the annual exhibitions held
by those institutions.
A commercial photographer was engaged to make a panoramic group portrait
of the jovial and formally dressed painters at their dinner table. At
the center of each photograph appear two easily identifiable men: the
award-winning artist from the previous year (his head bedecked with a
laurel wreath), and their great patron, the bearded, white-haired (and
usually unjacketed) Samuel T. Shaw, often sitting beneath the Club's
portrait of Shaw by Wayman Adams.
|
|
|
Lot 1229
William Aiken Walker
American, 1838-1921
Cabin Scene with Family
Signed with conjoined capital initials WAWalker (ll)
Oil on panel
6 1/8 x 12 1/4 inches
A letter of authentication from Robert M. Hicklin, Jr. accompanies this lot.
Sold for $22,500
The distinctive listing chimney supported by wooden poles in the present
composition is characteristic of the work of William Aiken Walker.
Chimneys were intentionally angled away from cabins such as the one seen
here. In the event of fire, a common occurrence with ramshackle
construction, the supporting poles could be pulled away so the burning
smokestack would collapse away from the building, hopefully saving it
from conflagration.
|
|
|
Lot 1263
David Burliuk
Russian/American, 1882-1967
Farmers (Man and Woman), 1945
Signed (lr) and dated 1945 (ll); inscribed on stretcher N.Y.C.
Oil on canvas
9 x 12 inches
Sold for $21,250
|
|
|
Lot 1244
Allen Dean Cochran
American, 1888-1971
Ladies by the Lake, 1912
Signed and dated Allen D. Cochran 1912 (lr)
Oil on canvas
39 1/2 x 49 1/2 inches
Provenance:
The artist; thence by descent to the present owner
Sold for $21,250
|
|
|
Lot 1256
Harrison Cady
American, 1877-1970
Slade's Store in the Great Smokies
Signed Harrison Cady (ll)
Oil on masonite
25 x 30 inches
Provenance:
Samuel T. Shaw, New York
Exhibited:
New York, Salmagundi Club, Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings, February 15 - March 6, 1942, no. 76
This work was awarded the Samuel T. Shaw Purchase Prize when it was shown at the Salmagundi Club in 1942.
Property from Estate of Anton Schutz
Sold for $17,500
|
|
|
Lot 1218
Samuel Colman
American, 1832-1920
Cordoba, 1866
Signed S. Colman and dated '66 (ll)
Oil on panel
7 x 13 inches
Sold for $14,375
Samuel Colman was the first American artist to travel to and extensively
depict Spain. Departing for a three-month sketching trip to the Iberian
peninsula in early summer of 1860, he traveled from Gibraltar to
Seville, and then to Granada by way of Cordoba, managing to stop at all
the major sites in the south. He made several sketches in Cordoba, one
of them picturing the city from the south, another delineating the
Moorish mills on the banks of the Guadalquivir.
Colman moved on to Paris, where he shared a studio with George Boughton
and commenced work on a series of paintings depicting the Rock of
Gibraltar, the Alhambra Palace in Granada, and Seville. Spain remained
the dominant theme in his work of the next seven years. Between 1862 and
1866, eleven of the subjects that he exhibited at the National Academy
of Design were Spanish. [Mary Elizabeth Boone, Vistas de Espana:
American Views of Art and Life in Spain, 1860-1914. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2007, pp. 13-15.]
In 1871, Colman again traveled abroad, visiting Switzerland, North
Africa, Italy, France, and Spain, returning to New York in 1876.
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
