Editor's note: It's not just the English who can conjure up heavily altered objects and call them rediscovered antiques. BADA still amounts to a pile of turds on this subject.
Aided by photos of a previously "unadorned" 1840s piece became a heavily altered circa 1862 "masterpiece" the Maine Antiquess Digest reveals a story of how bad behavior by crooked dealers in cahoots with a creative restorer claimed a new victim, the Wadsworth Athenaeum.
To Read More on The Maine Antique Digest:
https://www.maineantiquedigest.com/stories/fake-civil-war-masterpiece-a-tale-of-two-photographs/6819
Fake Civil War Masterpiece: A Tale of Two Photographs
It’s one of the best folk art fakes of all time. It fooled them all: dealers, curators, vetters, journalists, and more. Had it not been for one grainy 72 dpi digital photograph, the dogged persistence of a concerned group of antiquarians, and a dealer who eschewed embarrassment and confronted the possibility head on, the fake might never have been uncovered.
At the 2015 Winter Antiques Show in New York City, Alyce Perry Englund, then the Richard Koopman Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, asked folk art dealer Allan Katz of Woodbridge, Connecticut, to do a short presentation on a major piece in his booth for some members of the museum board in attendance at the show.
To Read More on The Maine Antique Digest:
https://www.maineantiquedigest.com/stories/fake-civil-war-masterpiece-a-tale-of-two-photographs/6819
Wadsworth Atheneum, Art Oasis, Hartford, CT
By Robert Alexander Boyle
First published 30.07.2017
Situated in the downtown of Hartford, CT the Wadsworth Atheneum is one of the oldest museums in the United States as well as one of the most overlooked. To ignore this collection because of its rundown urban location is to miss one of the great cultural gems of New England.
Founded by arts patron Daniel Wadsworth (1771-1848) as a home for his collection of Hudson River School paintings (bought directly from the artists themselves), the collection later went on to have such illustrious patrons as Elizabeth Jarvis Colt, J.P. Morgan and the Aetna Insurance Company. Some of the finest Impressionist paintings ever produced may be seen here in galleries almost devoid of visitors. Parking is not a problem.
Thomas Cole (1801--1848), "Kaaterskill Falls, 1826"
A second version of a now lost work by the artist that made front page news of the New York Evening Post on November 22, 1825, this composition and several like it launched Cole's career and that of the Hudson River School just as the Erie Canal opened.
Jacob Ward (1809-1891), "A Wolf in the Glen, Kaaterskill Falls, 1833" Minor artist from Cole's generation it shows the same location as Cole's work but from outside the falls looking up.
Thomas Cole (1801-1848), "Scene from Last of the Mohicans" Cora Kneeling at the Feet of Tamenund, 1827
In an era before pure landscape became the norm, artists made a living painting history, allegory and scenes from popular literature. "Last of the Mohicans" takes place during the French and Indian War, particularly around Lake George, a vital portage between Lake Champlain and the equally strategic Hudson River Valley. A prequel as it were to Burgoyne's disaster at Saratoga, a generation later.
Alvan Fisher (1792-1863), "Niagara Falls, 1823"
Thomas Cole (1801-1848), "View of Monte Video, Seat of Daniel Wadsworth, Esq." 1828
Wadsworth founded this museum, the last great cultural bastion of Hartford, and while alive he was Cole's greatest patron and almost as an after thought, in 1844, he recommended that a friend's son (Joseph Church) send young Frederic Church to study under Cole.
Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), "Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness from Plymouth to Hartford in 1636, painted in 1846.
Sent by his father Joseph Church to study under Cole in 1844 at the age of eighteen, it was twenty year old Frederic Church who sent this as his first contribution to the prestigious National Academy of Design in 1846.
Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), "View of Quebec, 1846"
Charles Dewolf Brownell (1822-1909), "The Charter Oak, 1857"
A relative of Trinity College founder Thomas Church Brownell (like his kinsman Frederic Church), neither wanted to go into the insurance business and opted for the life of a painter.
The ancient tree depicted here was allegedly the site where the colony of Connecticut's charter was hidden from over zealous representatives of King James II, who wanted to revoke the numerous colonial charters and consolidate New England into a singe colony. The tree finally succomed to old age and a thunder storm in the late 1850's. Numerous relics around Hartford were carved from its wood, including the frame for this canvas.
Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), "Coast Scene, Mount Desert Island, Maine, 1863"
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), "Toward the Setting Sun, 1862"
While other artists painted the eastern seaboard, German born and New Bedford raised Albert Bierstadt made a career of applying European honed skills to the vanshing frontier of the American west. His canvases could be as splendid as Church, but his studies of native American life remain the last record of many tribes soon to be decimated by small pox and a changing way of life. The advent of the railroad and barbed wire were going to be fatal to the Buffalo, the major supplier of both food and clothing for the native nomads of the American plains.
John F. Kensett (1816-1872), "Niagara Falls, 1855"
A native of Cheshire, CT Kensett got to Niagara before Church, but never achieved the fame from this subject the way his more bombastic contemporary achieved, especially with the one now on display in Washington, DC.
Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), "Niagara Falls, 1856"
A larger painting by the artist from the Canadian side is one of the centerpieces of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), "Vale of St. Thomas, Jamaica, 1867" A stunning work of epic size, best seen in person, photography does it scant justice
Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), "Gremlins in the Studio, 1865-1871"
Best known for his haunting views of eastern salt marshes the inclusion of gremlins as a trompe l'oiel illusion were suggested to be a practical joke played on Heade by his close friend Frederic Church.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875), "Panoramic View of Rouen"
John F. Kensett (1816-1872), "Coast Scene with Figures, (Beverly, MA) 1869"
One of the largest known works ever painted by the artist, it is remarkable for its size, while its composition is simple, a reduced scale of man versus nature.
Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877), "Sunset Effect: The Shore at Trouville, c. 1866"
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), "Coast of Brittany (Alone with the Tide), 1861"
Born in Lowell, Mass and the son of a military engineer, Whistler was expelled from West Point and elected to go abroad to study art. In London and Paris he became active with the dissidents of the era, he could never resist an arguement, and as such was influential in the advancement of the Barbzon generation into the Impressionists. The critical event for that was the Salon de Refuses, a state sponsored exhibition for the avante guard artists denied acceptance by the official salon.
Eugène Delacroix, (French, 1798-1863), "Tiger Drinking, c. 1853-55"
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) "The Beach at Trouville, 1870,"
Until the outbreak of the Franco Prussian War, Claude Monet toiled as an artist in poverty and obscurity, but in the chaos of war, a chance meeting of Parisian exiles in London, between the artist and dealer Paul Durand Ruel, saved Monet's career. This was one of the paintings Durand Ruel bought because he recognized a spark of genius.
Claude Monet, (French, 1840-1926), "The Church at Vernon, 1883"
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919), "Claude Monet Painting in his Garden at Argenteuil, 1873"
One of the most important French Impressionist works ever created, and likely included in every serious book on the subject beginning with John Rewald's opus, "The History of Impressionism", reading about it or seeing a photo is one thing, seeing it in person is entirely different. Paintings like this one are on of the rare strategic advantages a city like Hartford has over WIlliamstown, Massachusetts. Someday a lightbulb will go off at Trinity College of Hartford and they just might say, "Hey, maybe we should build an annex for the Wadsworth on or next to the Trinity campus."
Theodore Robinson (1852-1896), Beacon Street, Boston, 1884"
A rare pupil of Claude Monet, the French artist loathed his native critics, and allowed a circle of American painters such as Robinson, Theodore Butler, WIllard Metcalf and John Singer Sargent to become his closest artistic friends once the Impressionist exhibitions had finally run their course. Theodore Butler actually married Monet's step daughter.
Albert Andre (French, 1869-1954), "The Painters Atellier, 1890"
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890), "Self Portrait, c. 1887"
One art historian mentioned to this writer that he thought this may be wrong. There is a subtle code to van Gogh authenticity. In his letter to his brother Theo he wrote of his paintings being taken off the stretchers and stored in rolls. Consequently, the thick pigments dried in this compressed state. The lead curator for the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Louis von Tilborgh, terms this facet of condition, "Impacted impasto" and it can't be faked. When visiting Hartford and looking at this painting in person, look at his tie and lapels, impacted impasto!!!
This is right as rain.
Louis Anquetin, (French, 1861-1932), Avenue de Clichy (Street—Five O'clock in the Evening), 1887,
Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944),"Aasgaardstrand, c. 1904"
Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918), "Two Girls with Oleander, c. 1890-92"
Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876-1958), "River Scene with Bridge, c. 1905"
William J. Glackens (1870-1938), "View of West Hartford, 1907," A native of Philadelphia and a member of the Ashcan School, Glackens tie to the Hartford area came from his wife Edith Dimmock, a native of West Hartford
George Bellows (1882-1925), "Pulpit Rock, 1913"
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), "Military, 1913"
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), "Movement Number Eight, Provincetown, 1916"
Peter Blume (1906-1992), "The Italian Straw Hat, 1952"
The hat aside, the most merit worthy object of mention in this work is the mobile by Alexander Calder.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976), The Praying Mantis, 1936, Painted and gessoed wood, iron rods, wire, and string, sculpture
In dating a Calder, the earliest examples are the most important with those being made of wood the rarest of all. Later in his career he could afford riveted steel, but these early works have a unique charm all to their own.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Stegasaurus, 1972, made of steel.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
600 Main Street Hartford CT, 06103
Regular Hours:
Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 11 am – 5 pm
Saturday & Sunday: 10 am – 5 pm
https://thewadsworth.org/visit/
You may also like to read:
* Images of the American Revolution
* Smithsonian: Scenes from the Wild Continent
* Pollock-Krasner House, Easthampton
* Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
* Art Museum Road Trip, Princeton, Stop One
