Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF WILLIAM DANA LIPPMAN
Lot 54
Charles Sprague Pearce(1851-1914)Across the Common 44 5/8 x 32 1/4 in. (113.4 x 81.9 cm.)
7 November 2023, 14:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$127,500 inc. premium
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Mary Manfredi
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
Charles Sprague Pearce (1851-1914)
Across the Common
signed and inscribed 'Charles Sprague Pearce. Paris' (lower left)
oil on canvas
44 5/8 x 32 1/4 in. (113.4 x 81.9 cm.)
Painted circa 1884.
signed and inscribed 'Charles Sprague Pearce. Paris' (lower left)
oil on canvas
44 5/8 x 32 1/4 in. (113.4 x 81.9 cm.)
Painted circa 1884.
Footnotes
Provenance
Elizabeth H. Gates (c.1840-1899), Buffalo, New York.
The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, bequest from the above, 1900.
Warren Cresswell, New York, by 1982.
Richard York Gallery, New York, consigned from the above, by December 15, 1982. (as The Country Girl)
Acquired by the late owner from the above, July 29, 1985.
Exhibited
Houston, Allied Bank of Texas, on loan beginning June 6, 1984.
New York, The Jordan-Volpe Gallery, Inc., A Rare Elegance: The Paintings of Charles Sprague Pearce (1851-1914), October 23-December 4, 1993, p. 69, no. 19. (as Across the Fields)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, American Paintings in Southern California Collections: From Gilbert Stuart to Georgia O'Keeffe, March 17-May 26, 1996, p. 63. (as Across the Fields)
Literature
The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Sculpture and Paintings with Some Additions, Buffalo, New York, 1907, p. 25, no. 48.
The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Catalogue of the Permanent Collections of Sculpture and Original Paintings at Present on Exhibition, Including Some Loans, Buffalo, New York, 1913, pp. 25, 43, no. 78.
The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Catalogue of the Permanent Collections of Sculpture, Original Paintings and Other Works of Art, Buffalo, New York, 1919, pp. 26, 43, no. 74.
Charles Sprague Pearce's Across the Common is a crown-achievement in the artist's oeuvre that beautifully demonstrates his prowess and position as one of the great American painters working in France in the late 19th century. During the last quarter of the 19th century, images of rural life in the provinces of France increased in popularity with American collectors and constituted for a great number of the figure paintings that American exhibitors displayed at the Salon. Pearce's rustic portrayal of young peasant women in lush, green landscapes were celebrated by critics and patrons alike for the idyllic purity and piety of the past they embodied. Furthermore, Pearce separated himself from his contemporaries by infusing a sense of melancholia into his figures, as he has done in the present work to lend a satisfying lyricism to the scene. The present work was once in the collection of Elizabeth H. Gates (c.1840-1899), daughter of George B. Gates (1812-1880), a prominent resident of Buffalo, New York and successful railroad man of national reputation. Elizabeth bequeathed the present work to The Buffalo Fine Art Academy, Albright Art Gallery upon her death in 1899.