Lot Details
Lot 198
Louis Lang
American, 1814-1893
H.K. Brown and his Friends, Newburgh, New York, 1864
Signed and dated 1864 (lr)
Oil on canvas
18 1/8 x 30 1/8 inches
Provenance:
Mr. James Clark McGuire, Esq., Washington D.C., by 1867
Mission Gallery, San Diego, California
Private Collection, Rhode Island
Debra Force Fine Art, New York
Private collection, Washington, D.C.
Exhibited:
[Possibly] Yonkers, New York, Yonkers Sanitary Fair, February 15, 1864, no. 169, as H. K. Brown and his Friends
New York, New York, Artist's Fund Society of the City of New York, Fifth Annual Exhibition, December 1864, no. 231, as Cottage of H. K. Brown
Literature:
Tuckerman, Henry T., Book of the Artists: American Artist Life, 2nd ed., New York, p. 632
A highly evocative painting by Louis Lang, H. K. Brown and his Friends, Newburgh, New York, from 1864, depicts a tranquil upstate scene that belies the upheaval and divisiveness of the Civil War. The painting is also significant as a record of camaraderie and friendship among kindred spirits. Both Louis Lang and the sculptor Henry Kirke Brown, seen fishing at center, were known for works focusing on historical figures and events. The two artists may have met in the 1840s in Italy, where they were then both living. Both were members of the Sketch Club of American Artists in Rome and appear in an 1845 daguerreotype taken of club members by Philibert Perraud. [Collection Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution] Both Lang and Brown returned from Italy shortly thereafter. Brown moved to Newburgh, New York in 1861; he remained there for the rest of his life. By 1847, Lang was in New York City, sharing a studio with his close friend John F. Kensett.
Only the year prior to painting this appealing scene, Lang painted a more formal portrait of Brown sketching in his studio in his studio, a small model of his sculpture Indian and Panther on a nearby ledge (oil on board, 15 3/4 x 13 inches, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution).
The present work depicts Brown relaxing by a stream in front of his cottage, where he regularly received visitors. His wife, Lydia, carrying a basket of flowers, strolls on a path behind him. Directly to his right is Hudson River School painter Sanford Robinson Gifford, who, along with Lang and Brown, was a full academician at the National Academy of Design. All three maintained studios in the Tenth Street Studio Building, and all were members of the Artists' Fund Society, where the present work was exhibited the year it was painted.
H. K. Brown and his Friends, Newburgh, New York was formerly in the collection of American art patron, James Clark McGuire, Esq. His collection, including work by Asher Brown Durand, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty and Eastman Johnson, was listed in Henry T. Tuckerman's Book of the Artists: American Artist Life. Brown was a regular guest of the McGuire family when he traveled to Washington, D.C.
Estate of a Washington, D.C. Philanthropist
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