Joseph Pennell (American 1857-1926)

The Inauguration Steps, 1912

Lithograph on ivory laid paper

17 x 22 (image); 19 x 24.5 (sheet); 17.75" x 22.25" (sight); 24" x 30" (frame)

Wuerth 265

Washington D.C. series. Edition of 25. Signed on stone and in pencil and inscribed: " #2 The Inauguration Portico"

This is from a series of six lithographs made for the Century Magazine entitled "The Capitol at Washington” and described as the "East Front of the Capitol" Another example is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Joseph Pennell was widely recognized for his illustrations and etchings, a process he began in the late 1870s.  The son of Philadelphia Quaker parents, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia where his instructor, James Claghorn recognized and encouraged Pennell's etching talent.

From 1884 to 1917, Pennell lived primarily in Europe.  There he made scenery prints in many parts of the Continent, working in a variety of graphic media.  He also returned to America long enough to travel in the American West, and in 1912 and 1915, did scenes of San Francisco, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, which along with twenty-three lithographs he did of the Panama Canal were purchased by the Italian government and are in the Uffizi Gallery.

Pennell completed over 1800 etchings and lithographs.   His style was strongly influenced by James Whistler, and his technique was influenced by drawings of Charles Reinhardt.  He also wrote and illustrated nearly a hundred books including a biography of Whistler.

Sources:
Falk, Peter, ed. Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975
Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California 1786-1940

Exceptional Pair of Italian Bronze and Ormolu Candlesticks with nicely detailed foliate decoration and with good patina and fine castings. Having a removable ormolu drip pan above a bronze candle cup and supported by a turned and foliate decorated column with a tripartite scrolling ormolu base and mounted on a tripartite bronze plinth. These would have been brought home as a souvenir by someone who had made the Grand Tour. Italy, circa 1870. 5" x 5" x 13"tall

Johannes Marinus Ten Kate (Dutch, 1859-1896)

Working the Field

Oil on canvas. signed lower right

Painting17" x 24 3/4"
Frame: 28" x 35 1/4"

Ten Kate was known for his landscapes, beach scenes and genre paintings. Born in Amsterdam, he was the son of Johannes Mari ten Kate, under whom he most likely studied. He lived and worked in the Hague and was a member of the Hague Artists’ Society and the Pulchri Studio (latin:"for the study of beauty"), a Dutch art society, art institution and art studio based in the Hague. The countryside around the coastal town of the Hague provided a rural environment and an unspoiled landscape which attracted many young artists of the nineteenth century eager to escape the strictures of academic art guilds.

Harriette F A Sutcliffe (British, fl.1881 - 1922)

Beauty and the Beast

Oil on canvas, signed with monogram and titled on the reverse

Exhibited: The Royal Academy, 1899

Miss Suitcliff was a Hampstead painter of genre and portraits who exhibited at the royal academy from 1881-1899 and elsewhere.

Source:

Christopher Wood, The Dictionary of Victorian Painters

Painting Size: 16" x 20" Frame Size: 24" x 28"

An unusual and dramatic firescreen abattant. It reminds me of some of the smaller, New York classical parlor furniture I've seen in Southern house tours with late Federal drawing and music rooms furnished with pieces imported by successful merchants - almost, but not quite, over the top in their design yet direct in their function. So an argument could be made for high, New York city style. And the inlaid oval in the center, with pie crimped edge, is reminiscent of some New England work. The passive function is that of a firescreen and explains the distress to the side with inlay which likely faced the fireplace (rather than the upholstered side.) The "surprise" is the enclosed work area with the hinged top dropping to provide a writing surface (abattant [fr], "put horizontal") below the interior fitted with letter or document slots (only the back one of three dividing slats remaining - evidence of two more, and three segments which would have divided at least one of two lateral slots into three sections.) Perhaps because of the narrow profile, there appears to be no secondary wood under or behind any of the solid mahogany. Condition is quite good considering the likely heat exposure as a firescreen and probable stress to the hinged top which relies upon the case as a counter-stop. We had distress to the inlaid surface evened out, filled and finished - disturbing old finish as less as possible - to make it presentable for the decorator yet acceptable to the collector. We left the old upholstery (possibly original) alone for the next steward to decide. Our restorer (specializing in period furniture) had also never before encountered this design. Our photographs illustrate the character of the old, now serviceable inlaid surface. Ca 1800 - 1810. Height, about 42 3/4 inches. Width, about 21 5/8 inches (about 22 1/4 inches wide at the trestle base).

This firescreen abattant may be inspected at The Antique Center at Historic Savage Mill, Maryland

Exceptional pair of antique French Gilt Bronze Fireplace Chenet in the form of Dionysian children seated on a plinth and eating grapes, and with foliate and cyma curved decoration. 18th/19th Century. Each Approx.: 12.5" x 12.5" x 5.5 deep

August H.O. Rolle (American 1875-1941)

River Birches

Oil on Canvas, Signed lower right and titled and signed on reverse

Painting: 20" x 24"
Frame: 24" x 28"

** For other paintings by artists from Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC or North Carolina, click on the “Regional Artists” button on our Homepage.

August Herman Olson Rolle, painter, printmaker and graphic artist, dabbled in many activities before turning his focus to art. Born in Sibley County, MN, in 1875, his first path toward adulthood led him to Red Wing Seminary. Service in the Spanish-American War, eventually lead him to Washington, DC where he became a forestry expert for the Census Bureau.

Once in Washington, Rolle studied at the Corcoran School of Art under Messer, Brooke and Moser beginning in 1905. His specialties were landscapes and seascapes in oil and watercolor, but he also executed dryprints, woodblock prints, monotypes and etchings.

Following the tradition of his day, Rolle was active in many art societies. In addition to helping found the Landscape Club of Washington in 1915, he served as its president for many years. That was just one among a number of affiliations which also included the Sculptors and Gravers Society of Washington, the American Federation of Arts, and the Arts Club of Washington.

Rolle also exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the old National Gallery, the Maryland Institute and at the Greater Washington Independent Exhibition of 1935. He had a joint exhibition of prints with fellow artist Benson B. Moore at Venable's Gallery in 1924.

Rolle died in Washington, DC in 1941. Today, his work is represented at the Corcoran Gallery, the Historical Society of Washington, DC, and the Arts Club of Washington. A retrospective of his work was held at the Corcoran's 1982 "Washington on the Potomac" and at the National Museum of American Art's 1984 show "The Capitol Image."

Sources:
Consentino, Andrew and Glassie, Henry. "The Capital Image, Painters in Washington, 1800-1915"
Falk, Peter, ed. "Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975"
McMahan, Virgil. "The Artists of Washington, D.C. 1796-1996"

Richard Redgrave (British, 1804-1888)

Resting Deer in a Forest Landscape

Oil on canvas

Provenance: Thomas McLean Gallery, London (retaining the original label on the back).

Painting: 20.75" x 36"
Frame: 30" x 45"

Redgrave was a genre and landscape painter. For a time he worked with his father who was an engraver before entering the Royal Academy in 1825. He began by painting historical genre in 18th century costume but in the 1840s he was among the first to depict contemporary social subjects in contemporary clothing (“The Seamstress”, “Bad News from the Sea”, “The Governess”). In 1836 he finally gained wider audience with his painting of “Gulliver on the Farmer’s Table”.

Redgrave was involved with the organization of the Government School of Design (1847) as well as the first keeper of paintings at the South Kensington Museum (now known as the Victoria and Albert museum). He was Inspector of the Queen’s Pictures and co-author with his brother Samuel of “A Century of Painters of the English School”, still a valuable book on English art.

Redgrave exhibited some 175 works at the Royal Academy from 1824-1883, the British Institution, the Society of British Artists and others. Several of his paintings are in the Victoria and Albert museum, the National Portrait Gallery (London) and the Shipley Art Gallery (Gateshead).

Retiring from his many offices in 1880 due to ill health, Redgrave’s later work was mostly painted while summering at his country house, primarily landscapes painted in a pre-Raphaelite style.

Sources:
Benezit, E. "Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs"
Johnson, J. and A Greutzner. "The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940"
Wood, Christopher. "Dictionary of British Art. Vol. IV, Victorian Painters"

Manuel Robbe (French, 1872-1936)

Nocturne (ou Le Flirt)
[Merrill Chase, no. 63]*

Aquatint with etching in colors, circa 1906, on wove paper, signed in pencil in the image lower left. From the edition of about 100, with minor staining in the margins, not examined out of the frame.

Image Size: 13.5" x 17.5"
Frame Size: 24" x 27.5"

Robbe was a painter of genre scenes, a watercolorist, pastellist, engraver, designer and illustrator. He studied both at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris where he was mentored in etching and aquatint methods by Eugene Delâtre. He exhibited in Paris regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français and was awarded a bronze medal in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Leaving that salon in 1905, Robbe became a member of the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He chiefly worked in the medium of colored aquatint engravings in which he had become quite accomplished. He was an innovator of the experimental “à la poupée” process of printing many colors from a single plate which gave his prints a startling subtlety, each print having its own uniqueness. Robbe’s favorite themes were of scenes of Paris life, scenes of streets animated by young parisiennes of the Belle Époque and young women and children engaging in the social activities of the day. His prints were designed to be framed and hung on the wall just like oil paintings.

Source:
Benezit, E. "Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs"

*Manuel Robbe's works are catalogued and described by a series of soft covered books published by Merrill Chase Galleries in 1978, 1979, and 1980. These books serve as the recognized catalogue raisonné for Robbe.

Peter Paul Duggan (Irish/American 1810 ? -1861)

Macbeth

Oil on artist board

Provenance: Sycamore Farm, Portsmouth, VA (Estate of Robert Vick and Charles Sibley)

Note: Listed in "The National Academy of Design Exhibition Record 1861-1900" page 249, number 482.

Painting Size: 6 ½” x 6 ½”
Frame Size: 10” x 10”

Born in Ireland, Duggan was brought to the United States as a young child, probably around 1810. He was a student at the National Academy of Design from approximately 1842-1849. He was a frequent exhibitor at the National Academy as well as at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

Duggan was known to have exhibited works at the Academy (1844-51) which were religious and historical in nature although he was admired by his contemporaries as a portraitist in charcoal and crayon - undoubtedly the source of his livelihood. Later works exhibited (1855-56) were portraits only. He also sculpted several medals for distribution by the American Art-Union. In the late 1840’s Duggan was a professor of drawing at the Free Academy of New York (later the City College of New York).

Duggan suffered from tuberculosis and retired in 1856 at which time he went to live in London with relatives. In the spring of 1861 he went to Paris for what was intended to be an extended stay but was there only until October when he succumbed to his illness.

Sources:
Falk, Peter, ed. Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975
Groce & Wallace, Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860
Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge. Index of Artists

John Henry Smith (British, fl.1852-1893)

An Artist at Work

Oil-on-canvas, signed lower left and dated “1863”

Painting Size: 22.25” x 18”
Frame Size: 31.25 ” x 27.25”

This charming portrait of a young woman artist at work is a wonderful depiction of the painter and her tools. Her subject of a vase of flowers with fruit sits on a table to her right. The sturdy adjustable easel has a shelf where she has laid out her tubes of pigments. She is using a mahl stick to create a bridge across the canvas which supports her painting hand to avoid touching the surface. An artist’s apron lays across her lap to protect her skirt. Her full concentration is on the canvas in front of her which is nearing completion.

J. Henry Smith was a painter of genre, landscapes and animals, living in London, Brixton and South Lambeth who exhibited extensively from 1852-1893 at the royal Academy, the British Institution, the society of British Artists and elsewhere. Titles exhibited at the Royal Academy included “Where the Shoe Pinches” (1882) and “A Book is the Best Solitary Companion in the World” (1885).

Sources:
Johnson, J. and A Greutzner. "The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940"
Wood, Christopher. "Dictionary of British Art. Vol. IV, Victorian Painters"

Ebenezer Colls (British , 1812-1887)

"The Old Ship Victory off Southampton Water"

Signed lower left and titled on an old label on the reverse.

Painting: 26" x 17.25"
Frame size: 32" x 23"

Colls was a painter of shipping and coastal scenes who lived in Camden Town, London and exhibited at the British Institution from 1852-4. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has a pair of his paintings. Denys Brook-Hart (see below) comments "Ebenezer Colls' pictures are quite rare although some paintings which are not his are sometimes attributed to him."

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. After 1824 she served as a harbor ship. In 1922 she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship.

Sources:
Archibald, E.H.H. "Dictionary of Sea Painters"
Brook-Hart, Denys. "British 19th Century Marine Painting"
Wood, Christopher. "Dictionary of British Art. Vol. IV, Victorian Painters"

Antique Carved Oak Statue of a Monk holding a book and seated on a curved bench. Probably American, circa 1880.

9" x 9" x 14" tall

Jean-Baptiste Germain (French 1841-1910)

Primavera

Bronze, signed.

Height: 33”

Known as a sculptor of classical and allegorical figures, Germain was a student of Dumont and Gumery. He worked with his brother Gustave in producing classical and historical statues and groups. Germain exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1866 to 1879 and later at the Salon des Artistes Français where he became an Associate in 1889. His bronzes include various images of Joan of Arc, Dido and Aeneas, The Harp Player, the Young Flutist and an Arab on his Camel.

Sources:
Benezit, E. "Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs"
Mackay, James. "The Dictionary of Western Sculptors in Bronze"

A By-path

Henry Hobart Nichols, Jr. (American, 1869-1962)

Watercolor on paper, signed and dated: “1897”.

Exhibited at the Third Annual Washington Water Color Club, 1898.

Illustrated in McMahan, The Artists of Washington, DC: 1796-1996, p. 158.

Provenance: from the Estate of Virgil McMahan.

A painter and illustrator, Nichols was a member of quite an artistic family. His father, brother and wife were all professional painters as well.

He had diverse training beginning with instruction from Howard Helmick. He also attended the Art Students League of Washington before heading to Europe. In Europe, he studied at both the Froebel Institute in Germany and at the Academie Julian in France.

His early career (1889-1905) included a position on the Board of the Art Students League, as well as employ by the U.S. government. He worked as an illustrator for both the U.S. Geological Society and the Bureau of American Ethnology.

A member of the Washington Watercolor Club and Society of Washington Artists, Nichols favored subject was landscapes.

Nichols is listed in Who Was Who in American Art by Falk.

Sight size: 13” x 9.5”
Frame size: 21” x 17”

** For other paintings by artists from Maryland, Virginia or Washington DC, type “local” into the search box.

Fine Pair of French Brass Urns with two handles, raised relief of floral sprays on the sides, and with rouge marble bases. Late 19th century.

Height: 12”
Diameter of Marble base: 5”

Antique English Umbrella or Stick Stand of Coopered construction, oval, with brass binding with oak staves. Now fitted with a divided top and interior tin drip tray. 18th/19th Century.

16" x 13" x 24.5" tall

William Richardson Tyler (American 1825-1896)

Misty Morning at Windsor Castle

Oil-on-canvas, signed lower left

Painting Size: 18.5”” x 29.5”
Frame Size: 31” x 42”

**Please Note: This item is not currently on view in our gallery. Please call at least 48 hours in advance if you wish to see it.

Tyler is known to have lived and worked in Troy, NY during the 1850‘s and 60‘s where, aside from Abel Buell Moore, he was Troy’s best known artist. According to William Gerdts “Troy was a prosperous industrial and commercial city. It was also a major center of education in the 19th century. Tyler had gone to Troy to work for the carriage company of Eaton and Gilbert. In 1858 Tyler opened his own painting studio (and he) painted the local landscape but was more drawn to the sea. He specialized in scenes off the coast of Long Island and Massachusetts.” It is apparent from the record of his works that he traveled extensively in Europe painting scenes in Venice and scenes in England such as this luminist view of Windsor Castle. Tyler also painted the landscapes of the White Mountains (NH) and the Keene Valley in the Adirondacks of New York.

Tyler exhibited at the National Academy of Design (1862-1867 and 1878) and his work “Breezy Day Off Boston Light” is held by the Troy Public Library.

Sources:
Benezit, E. "Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs"
Creps, Bob, "Biographical Encyclopedia of American Painters, Sculptors &Engravers of the U.S."
Falk, Peter, ed. "Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975"
Gerdts, William H., "Art Across America, Two Centuries of Regional Painting"