Friday, October 30, 2020

Japonisme - Late 1800s American Artists Look at Goldfish

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John White Alexander (1856-1915) An Idle Moment


Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910) Guilty


Robert Lewis Reid (1862-1939), Girl in Blue Kimonoo


George Cochran Lambdin (1830-1896) Goldfish


Childe Hassam (1859-1935) The Goldfish Window


Richard (Edward or Emil) Miller (1875–1943). The Gold Fish Bowl


Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942) Goldfish


Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942) The Goldfish


Gertrude Fiske (1879-1961) Goldfish


Childe Hassam (1859-1935) Bowl of Goldfish

Lydia Field Emmet (1866 – 1952) Goldfish, a Portrait of Roland and Peter Hazard



Henry Salem Hubbell (1870 – 1949) Rosemary and the Goldfish



Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Chickens, chickens, chickens - Mary Russell Smith 1842-1878


Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Spring Chickens and Butterfly

For several years, our nearby grandchildren raised beautiful rabbits to exhibit at the state fair. Now they are much too sophisticated to raise rabbits, so their mother decided to substitute chickens instead.  Lots of fresh eggs up here in our part of the woods now.

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Six Chickens and Insect

I wanted to show you their chickens, but they don't stand still long enough for flattering portraits. And then I remembered Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878).

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Young Guineas 1861

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) was born in Pennsylvania. Her father Russell Smith (1812-1896) was a well-known landscape & theater scenery painter, and her mother Mary Patricia Wilson Smith (1819-1874) was a painter of flowers. Her brother Xanthus was a marine painter, especially active during the American Civil War.

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Hen and Her Chicks

Daughter Mary, also a painter, remained unwed throughout her lifetime, while she obsessively painted farm-life, especially chickens. Mary did not show her chickens at the state fair, but she did exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1859-69, and again from 1876-78. These are a few of her chickens & rabbits.

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Rabbits

In her short career, Mary Russell Smith executed over 300 paintings, that she meticulously detailed in her "Account of Work Done by Mary Smith, Artist" which is now in the Collection of the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

Monday, October 26, 2020

Alone in the woods


Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911) Young Woman in the Woods 1879

Saturday, October 24, 2020

American Landscape Painter George Inness 1825-1894


George Inness (American Hudson River School/Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) Early Autumn, Montclair 1888


George Inness' (1825-1894) early work was influenced initially by prints of the works of Claude Lorrain & the 17th-century Dutch landscape masters. He was also touched by the work of the leading Hudson River School painters - particularly that of Thomas Cole & Asher B. Durand - whose style is evident in some of his early canvases. Travel to Europe led him to be influenced by the work of the Barbizon school, & finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism found vivid expression in Inness’ works toward the end of his life. His mature works helped define the Tonalist movement.  A few of Inness’ later paintings stay with me over time. The obscured details, diffused light, organic forms, & inherent glow of these paintings are surely evocative.


George Inness (American Hudson River School/Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) The Trout Brook


George Inness (American Hudson River School/Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) Spring Blossoms


George Inness (American Hudson River School/Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) The Lone Farm


George Inness (American Hudson River School/Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) Niagara


George Inness (American Hudson River School - Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) Early Autumn, Montclair 1891


George Inness (American Hudson River School - Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) Morning, Catskill Valley (The Red Oaks) 1894


George Inness (American Hudson River School - Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) Near the Village, October 1894


George Inness (American Hudson River School - Tonalist Painter, 1825-1894) Spirit of Autumn 1891

Thursday, October 22, 2020

1800s America Landscapes & Seascapes


Mauritz Frederick Hendrik de Haas (Dutch-born American artist, 1832-1895) Seascape with ships.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

In America - 19C Families With Pets


More children & pets! You may have to search a bit for the family pets, but they are here. These crowded depictions are a little difficult to see in this medium, but I am going to post them anyway.
Sheldon Peck (1897-1858)...Dog
H. Knight......Detail Dogs & Cat
Unknown Artist......Detail Dog & Birds
Unknown Artist......Dog

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Women & a few children by Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)


1800-02 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) The Poet Sarah Wentwort Morton


Gilbert Stuart was born in Rhode Island in 1755, and died in Boston, Massachusettes in 1828. He fled the colonies in fear of the American Revolution, and he fled the British Isles in fear of creditors. After nearly 20 years in England and Ireland, he returned to the United States to become the leading portraitist of the Federal period.



1800 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Arabella Maria Smith (Mrs. Alexander James Dallas)


Stuart's parents, Jacobite Scot snuff grinders Gilbert Stuart and his wife Elizabeth Anthony, ran a shop in Newport, Rhode Island. When he was reportedly only 10, Stuart painted a very successful depiction of a local Scot Jacobite physician's hounds.


1800 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Abigail Smith (Mrs. John Adams).

The doctor introduced the young boy to fellow Scot portrait painter Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772) in 1769. Stuart traveled with the artist to Philadelphia, Delaware, Virginia, and Edinburgh, learning the art of the portrait along the way, until his tutor died in 1772.



1800 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Henrietta Marchant (Mrs. Robert Liston).


Stuart made his way back to Rhode Island, where he painted several portraits of women; before his loyalist father moved the family to Nova Scotia in 1775, and Stuart headed for London. In 1777, he went to work there for Pennsylvania ex-patriot Benjamin West. As Stuart told artist Matthew Jouett (1787–1827), he was "allowd half a guinea a week for paint(ing) draperies & finishing up Wests portraits."


1800s Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Portrait of a Lady.

In 1777, Stuart exhibited a portrait at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Stuart helped West with his history paintings until 1782, while he personally continued to paint portraits of prominent English gentry, married, had 12 children, and ran up massive debts. His daughter Jane later explained, "the manner in which he lived should not be called extravagant, as his employment warranted the outlay; his distinction as an artist entitled him to it; the class of persons he painted for required it."



1800s Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Marcia Burnes Van Ness.

To persistant escape creditors, Stuart fled London in 1787, heading for Ireland, where his debts piled up again. Leaving unfinished portraits and ever mounting debts behind in Ireland, Stuart moved his family to New York in 1793. Once established in Philadelphia the following year, he wrote to his uncle Joseph Anthony (1738–1798)in Newport, "The object of my journey is only to secure a picture of the President & finish yours." He mentioned nothing of his debts across the Atlantic. He was successful in securing a sitting with the president in Philadelphia in 1795, completing a portrait which he would recopy and sell at least 12 twelve times.

1800s Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs Barney Smith.

Martha Washington commissioned of 2 new portraits of herself & her husband, so the president allowed Stuart another sitting in 1796. However, Martha Washington would never receive her portrait or her husband's, now known as the "Athenaeum" portraits; because Stuart until his death, made more copies of the new sitting for sale. Martha fretted to her husband about never receiving her portraits.



1800s Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Sarah Homes Tappan.


Stuart was notorious for not completing his portraits. Mary Tyler Peabody (1804-94) wrote in 1825, "At Stewart's room I saw a portrait of Webster, Mr. Quincy, President Adams and lady, Bishop Griswold, Mr. Taylor, &c. They were all unfinished."


1802 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Mrs Edward Stow

Twenty years after sitting for Stuart, Thomas Jefferson was still attempting to obtain his portrait from the artist. In response to an inquiry about Stuart from artist Mather Brown (1761–1831), Catherine Byles wrote, "We are told he is one of the best painters in the world & excels in his likeness; he has taken a number of portraits, his price is a hundred dollars; he is indeed very excentrick, he loves a cheerful bottle and does no work in the afternoon; he is very dilatory in finishing his pictures."


1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Elizabeth-Beltzhoove (Mrs John Thomson Mason).

But the people who sat for Stuart and did receive their portraits held him in high regard. Female poet Sarah Wentworth Morton was painted by Stuart and wrote in the Philadelphia journal The Port Folio on June 18, 1803,
To Mr. Stuart, On His Portrait of Mrs. M
STUART, thy portraits speak, with skill divine;
Round the bright Graces flows the waving line.
Expression in its finest utterance lives,
And a new language to creation gives.
Each varying trait the gifted artist shews,
Wisdom majestic in the bending brows;
The warrior's open front, his eyes of fire,
Or when the charms of bashful youth retire;
Or patient plodding, and with wealth content,
The man of commerce counts his cent per cent.


1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Anna Payne Cutts. White House Collection.

Gilbert Stuart died in debt in Boston in 1828. Less than 2 months after his death, the Boston Athenaeum presented memorial exhibition of his portraits for the benefit of his widow and 4 daughters. Almost 250 Stuart portraits, many of Bostonians, were loaned for the highly successful benefit exhibition. His wife would move to Newport, where she would live until 1845.


1775 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Sarah Rivera (Mrs Aaron Lopez) and son Joshua.


1780 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Christian Stelle Banister & Son John.


1794 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Matilda Stoughton de Jaudenes y Nebot.


1796 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Elizabeth Parke Custis Law


1796 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mrs. Robert Morris.


1796 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mrs. Thomas Lea.


1796 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Martha Washington.


1797 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mary Willing Clymer


1797 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Anne Willing Bingham.


1798 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Elizabeth Corbin Griffin Gatliff & Daughter Elizabeth.


1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Sarah McKean, Marquesa de Casa Yrujo.


1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Anna Powell Mason.


1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Dolley Payne Todd Madison.


1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte


1805 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Ann Penington.

1806 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Hepzibah Clarke Swan.


1808 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Lydia Smith


1809 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis.

1810 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Elizabeth Tuckerman


1811 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs Polly Hooper.


1815 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. Nathan Bond.


1817 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. James Smith Colburn.


1819 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. Joseph Story.

1820 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. Andrew Sigourney.

1823 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Elizabeth Porter Wheeler.

1824 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Ann Woodward Haven.






1824 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Miss Clementina Beach.

1824 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Lydia Pickering Williams.