$41,125
John LaFarge (American, 1835-1910) Stephen Peckham Barker's Farm House, Paradise Avenue, Middleton, Rhode Island, Circa 1884 Unsigned, identified on labels on the reverse. Watercolor on paper/board, sight size 6 x 8 1/2 in. (15.2 x 21.5 cm), framed. Condition: Not examined out of frame. Provenance: Moore's Art Gallery, New York, sale March 26-27, 1885 (bought in), returned to LaFarge 1885-1890, then placed with Doll & Richards, Boston, 1890, and purchased by Martin Brimmer, Boston. N.B. This watercolor depicts the Rhode Island farmhouse belonging to Stephen Peckham Barker where LaFarge stayed and painted in the 1860s. The land on which the house stood belonged to General John Hazard as noted on the label on the reverse. The house was torn down in 1898. The watercolor was first reviewed in the Boston Evening Transcript , in the Art Notes section of the February 20, 1885 issue. The critic called the piece "a studious and accurate piece of faithful transcription of Nature; the solidity and force of the modeling, the freshness of the dewy air, the elaboration of detail and the entire effect of early morning are as rare and refreshing as they are unconventional and unpictorial." A January 30, 1890 article in the Boston Post noted that "(LaFarge) condenses, on a few inches of paper, the substance of a shelf full of books, and writes, with his brush, a pastoral and a poem." We are grateful to James L. Yarnell for his assistance in cataloging this piece.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2005-03-04
