#1972

SOLD

The Delaware Water Gap
Attributed to Thomas Chambers

This representation of the Delaware Water Gap, while clearly influenced by more academic examples of the scene painted by Asher B. Durand and Thomas Doughty, exists in the realm of a more folk art style. Bold and dramatic in its coloration, exaggerated in its value contrasts, and employing rhythmic curves, reflections, and repetitions, it creates a picture that is "flat, bright, and brilliantly decorative, without the loss of the spirit of serenity and contemplation within the subject. A picture of space, rather than an illusionistic representation, such a painting calls to mind the strategies of Matisse."(quote from "Thomas Chambers, American Marine and Landscape Painter, 1808-1869", pg 92, from a description of this painting by Kathleen A. Foster, Curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art).

Oil on canvas, 22 1/2 x 30 1/2 inches sight and in appropriate period gilded frame 27 1/2 x 37 1/2 inches. Circa 1840-1850.

Illustrated in above and included in the traveling exhibition which opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008, went to The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York in 2009, The American Folk Art Museum, New York in 2010, and to Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington also in 2010. The work has also been exhibited at the New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown; the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester; the Albany Museum of History and Art, New York; Munson-Williams-Proctor Insitiute, Utica; Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, New York; New York Historical Society, New York City, 1958-59, "Rediscovered Painters in Upstate New York", no. 24, p.30 illus.; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1971, "Twenty-five Folk Artists"; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1975, "Delaware Water Gap"; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, 1983, "19th Century Painters of the Delaware Valley".

#1973

SOLD

Portrait of a Woman with a Rose

By William Kennedy (1817-after 1870)

A beautiful and serene portrait of a young woman holding a single rose, a picture in which the absolute simplicity and balance of the composition create a particularly successful work. The sitter's black dress and narrow lace collar perfectly set-off her wide-set brows and grey eyes, and the red drape, which falls at its outer edge into deep shadows, is balanced by a bar of shadow on the opposite side of the painting. The rose, held in the fingertips of a hand shown bordered by a lace cuff similar to that of the collar, creates a counterpoint which balances the upper and lower parts of the image.

Signed WM Kennedy in pencil in script on the upper bar of its original gilded frame and dated 1846. Sold by John Walton as having descended in a Connecticut family.

Very minor scattered retouching. 20 x 24 inches sight and 24 5/8 x 28 5 /8 inches framed.

#1950

A Portrait of Miss Small
Attributed to Royall Brewster Smith (1801-1855)

One of only a few dozen portraits which can clearly be identified as by the hand of Smith, an itinerant painter who worked in a small area of towns in southern Maine between 1830 and 1857. This sitter, identified on an old jelly label on the back as "Miss Small, Standish, Maine, Painted 1830" and also in a pencil inscription on the stretcher, is probably Miriam Small (1812-1890), daughter of John and Hannah Small of Limington, Maine which shares a border with Standish.

Miss Small would have been painted early in the career of the artist and displays prominently a number of highly abstract and quirky characteristics which give the work great visual appeal. The artist painted the nose of his sitter in profile, defined by a sharp shadow which falls behind it, as if she had been viewed from her right side, whereas the rest of her face and upper body are drawn from an almost frontal position. Her eyes, which appear slightly crossed, give her a startled expression. They are outlined, as are her lips, fingers and nails. The hands themselves are awkwardly drawn and placed, holding a sprig of leaves with a single rose, before a Federal period sofa with clearly defined yellow upholstery tacks. The odd facial shading, the abstractly patterned hair-comb and drapery folds, and the lace collar composed of lines and dots within a rhythmically drawn border are all characteristics prized in this artist's work.

Oil on canvas, 25 by 32 inches, and 31 1/2 by 38 1/2 inches framed.

Literature: "The Clarion", Spring 1988, 'Painted by Royall B. Smith', by Arthur and Sybil Kern, pgs 48-55, illustrated pg 50.

#1928

The Buildings and Station of S.S.&C. Junction
J. McCambridge, Agent

T. Bonneau (drawer), Iberville PQ

T. Bonneau, an artist whose name has escaped note for his works painted in northwestern New York State and northern New England, is here identified in a Canadian painting. The works are distinctive: architectural simplifcation with internal linear details emphasized, boldness of drawing, interesting color palettes, flattened perspective lines to base of structures and stacked planes indicating recession in space.

Works by this artist from Upstate New York and northern New England are included in "Folk Painters of America" by Robert Bishop, cover and pg 115; "The Marcus Collection", Sotheby's , Ocober 1989, lots 30 and 31; and "Seasonal Selections", The Magazine Antiques", at Giampietro, New York.

Circa 1900. Watercolor and ink on paper, 19 1/2 x 25 3/4 inches sight, floating on a mat in a simple modern painted frame, 22 1/4 x 28 1/2 inches.

Portrait of Jeannie Dwyer Holding a White Dove

Attributed to Edwin A. Conant

#1934

A very fine pair of folk art portraits by an unidentified artist, masterful in their boldness of characterization of a rather "quirky" couple. The husband holds a carpenter's square and the wife, who is seated in a green painted and decorated bamboo-turned windsor side chair, holds a book. The abstraction of the wife's body reduces it to flat color and curving lines. Their finger nails are outlined in black, while white lines define the husband's fingers, and an oval black shadow separates them from where they rest against his square.

In their original grain-painted frames, one of which says in script at the top, "Painted in 1822". Oil on poplar panels, one with old butterfly supports to a split in the panel. Panels are 25 x 29 1/2 inches, and framed the paintings are 30 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches.

Exhibited at the Museum of American Folk Art, NYC, "Collector's Choice", 1969, the Eckley Collection.

#1941

A Portrait of Miss Bullfinch
Attributed to E.E. Finch

From 1833 through 1847 an artist known now only by his initials E.E. and the last name Finch painted portraits of Maine sitters in the Augusta, Waterville, and Waldoboro towns in Maine. His works are distinguished by soft facial modeling, an unpretentious approach and a lack of exaggeration of expression or form. It is actually their simplicity and directness that defines them stylistically.

A small paper label on the back of the painting stretcher identifies the sitter, whose birth records can be traced to Waldoboro. She was born between 1835 and 1837 and lived widowed in the same town until her death in 1914.

The red dress of our sitter falls unevenly across her shoulders and has lace at the edge of its short puffed sleeve, features also seen in a portrait by Finch of Charles Glidden in the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine.

Typical also of Finch's work is the small size of the canvas, here 17 x 21 inches and 22 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches in its original gilded frame. Excellent condition.

#1622 SOLD

Girl in a Paint-Decorated Chair

A superb folk art portrait of a teenaged girl seated in a salmon colored fancy chair with red striping and green leafage and vines.

This portrait, long known through its publication in AMERICAN PAINTED FURNITURE, by Schaffner and Klein, p. 120, has been examined in the context of the work of Jonas Holman by Anne Verplanck, Curator of Prints and Paintings at Winterthur Museum and in PORTRAIT OF A PAINTER: THE DOUBLE-SIDED LIFE AND WORKS OF JONAS W. HOLMAN (1805-1873) by Caroline Riley, Figure 1. As no signed examples exist of the particular group of works to which this belongs, I consider the specific attribution provisional.

The sitter, wearing a somewhat skeptical expression, is one of its artist's earliest known works and one of a group in which the subject is shown seated in a variant of the same decorated chair. The painting, found in a home in western MA is considered by Riley to have been painted during the period when Holman, a ME born artist, was in Philidelphia. Last year a work exhibiting many similar stylistic characteristics was found in a family home in Dorchester, MA.

Other works by the artist are in the collections of the Winterthur Museum, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection at Colonial Williamsburg, the Detroit Institute of Art, and Fruitlands Museum.

Oil on poplar panel circa 1827-1830.

#1858 SOLD

A View on the Hudson

Thomas Chambers (1808-1869)

A classic Chambers' work featuring sailboats on the river, the surrounding hills and houses, and foreground figures who themselves are poised to view the scene before them. The unusual palette choices to portray the distant sunset and the expanded tonal range from deep greens in the foliage to the pale sunset hues are hallmarks of the artists' work.

In original condition and in a period gilded frame. 14 x 18 inches sight and 17 3/4 x 21 3/4 inches framed.

#1856 SOLD

A pair of pastel portraits of Harriet and Frederic Parker of Pepperell, Massachusetts, circa 1815.
A superb example of schoolgirl portraiture, these pictues show a boy standing behind a paint decorated Windsor side chair feeding his pet squirrel and a girl, presumably the artist, seated in a Sheraton armchair with her painted box, which is inscribed 'Geeves & Woodyear', on a table before her.
Pastel on paper mounted on their original canvas and stretchers, each with its original gold-leaf frame.
Illustrated full page in ''American Primative Painting'' by Jean Lipman; ''Portrait Painting in America'', by Ellen Miles, p.97; "The Magazine Antiques", January 1951, by Marion Carson, p.55.
Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell Taradash, Claude and Alvin Bisnoff.

#1854

A charming portrait of a young woman pictured with a vase of flowers beside her on a table, seated in a paint decorated chair, and holdiing a beaded purse with floral decoration on it.

Painted inscription on the back reads:

Painted By J. Parks
Nov 1837

For Catherine J (?) Rogers
Born Dec 3rd 1819

Parks' work in the 1830's is said to be from Mohark Valley, New York.

Reference: "The Folk Tradition: Early Arts and Crafts of the Susquehanna Valley," compilrd by Richard I. Barons, pp. 6-8.

Small repairs and minor scattered inpaint. Period frame.

Henry Walton

A pair of portraits of a couple, strong on character and conveying an intensity and sense of individuality notable in Walton portraits. The sitters are thought to be from the Billings or Robinson family of McLean, New York, and the man holds a newspaper on which "Journal..." can be read, probably the Ithaca Journal, which is dated January 1845.
Inscriptions by the artist on the backs of each portrait are, "Painted by H. Walton, McLean."
Illustrated on page 62 in "Artist of Ithaca: Henry Walton and his Odyssey" by Leigh Rehner Jones. Included in the 1988-1989 exhibit at the Herbert H. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, the Everhart Museum in Scranton, PA, and the New York State Museum in Albany, NY.
Ex-collections: Ernest C. Burnham, Peter Zaharis

#1765 SOLD

A Folk Art Masterpiece by
Ammi Phillips

A spectacular example of Phillips' work in his 'Kent Period', this portrait, inscribed with the sitter's name, age, and the date of its making on its reverse side, is a demonstration of the artist's ability to
produce a work of consummate skill. This portrait of Lena Helen Ten Broeck, 1803-1839, of Germantown (Columbia County), New York and painted in 1834, an incisive character portrayal drawn with absolute assurance and control, is compositionally dramatic and powerful, and is a beautiful balance of pale skin tones and lace against a dramatic backdrop of a vibrant green-painted velvet dress with painted black leaf and vine decoration on her belt and cuffs, which are in strong
contrast to the brilliant red of the small volume of 'Watts' which she holds. The whole is set against a black upholstered Federal sofa and a rich mahogany background.

This work is in a remarkable state of preservation in its original dark green painted frame with a raised yellow edge, is unlined and on its original stretcher, and bears the inscription shown.

Its provenance includes three great collections: those of Mary Allis, William Guthman, and Thomas and Nancy Tafuri.

#1584

A pair of portraits attributed to Milton W. Hopkins

These paintings descended in the family of Frederick Baker whose ancestors were early
settlers of the town of Pompey Hill, New York. Portrayed are a stylish young couple seated
with fringed red swagged drapery pulled back with red fabric rosettes, identical to the
drapery in a portrait of Margaret Place Baker, the only other known example of the artist's
work to use drapery, a popular period artistic convention.

The husband is shown at a writing table with ink well and quill pens and writing a letter.
He is seated in a grained and free-hand painted Hitchcock-type chair with leaf decoration
on its rolled crest ear, a typical Hopkins' detail. The wife has a beribboned head piece with
trailing streamers, another often seen Hopkins feature. She holds the same red book with
its text minutely detailed, as does Margaret Baker in her portrait. Her shawl, white and in
this case edged with a red paisley border, is an period status symbol, a provincial version of
the all paisley versions worn in the city.

Oil on poplar panel in virtually pristine condition. Circa 1835-1837.
Reference to the portrait of Margaret Place Baker: "FACE TO FACE: M. W. HOPKINS AND
NOAH NORTH", Jacqueline Oaks, p.77.

#1648   

An interesting historical portrayal of a meeting with Washington, painted and signed by Edmund Henry Garrett (1853-1929), a Boston artist, and inscribed by him as "From the original by N. C. Wyeth".  Probably painted c.1920 during the Colonial Revival period.

#1511

Rare example of an early eighteenth century school of painting referred to as "New York Dutch Scripture History Painting".

This work, actually of a mythological subject, portrays "Romulus and Remus Received into the Household of the Shepherd Faustulus and his Wife Acca Larentia", based on a print after a painting of the same name by Italian Mannerist painter Pietra da Cortona, done in 1643 and now in the Louvre.

In remarkable, nearly untouched condition, and in a
period Hogarth frame.

Illustrated and with textual analysis in "Fortress of the Soul: Violence, Metaphysics, and Material Life in the Huguenots' New World, 1517-1751", Neil Kamil, pp. 916-919, Figure 17.4.

Circa 1700-1740. 19.25"wx15"h.

#1530
                         Portrait of Edward Sterling with his Dog

A large-scale pastel portrait with watercolor details shows Edward, the son of Dr. Ann Jackson Buckner Sterling, with his pet poodle in a vibrantly colored, flower-filled setting.  Edward and his twin sister Helen Marion were born in Savannah, the children of an early woman doctor whose portrait is included with that of her son (as is a photograph of pastel portrait of his twin sister).

The pictures are composed of sheets of paper with strips added by the artist to enlarge them, mounted on their original stretched canvases.  Both pictures are in their original gilded frames and bear fragments of a Jacksonville, Florida newspaper which is dated 1877.  The family lived in a nearby area called Brooklyn, Florida from shortly after the Civil War, and the pictures hung in the family home here until 1967.  They have since descended in the family.

Circa 1845.  Framed dimensions 36 1/2 x 30 3/4 inches.

#1471

An unusual and highly stylized pair of pastel, charcoal, and watercolor portraits of "Mr. and Mrs. Broadhill of Chestnut Street" (Philadelphia). The pictures visually resemble smaller scale profile portraits and are primarily conceived as black and white images, like silhouetttes, although color is used sparingly in the faces and quite dramatically in the woman's striped dress.
Paper on original canvas mounts with the sitters' names and address inscribed on the back of one.
19 1/2" x 23 1/4" framed