Pair of paintings each in original American Federal Period white pine gilded scoop frames with inner row of beads. Framed Dimensions: 24 x 29 1/2 inches. Provenance available upon request.
Michele Felice Cornè, considered to be Salem, Massachusetts’ most versatile early nineteenth century artist, painted this remarkable pair of paintings about a decade after he arrived in America from Naples, Italy. Cornè worked and lived in Salem from 1800-06 when he moved to Boston. During his Boston tenure (1807-22) the artist was noted for painting portraits of Boston ships and naval battles of the War of 1812, as well as taking on major mural commissions. This charming pair of paintings, each of two children playing, were possibly intended as overdoor decorations for a Federal period house. Cornè’s most ambitious decorations were the wall murals which he painted for the Sullivan Dorr house in Providence in 1810. And this pair of paintings seems to date from about the same period. From 1822 to his death in 1845 he lived in Newport, Rhode Island. The pair of paintings of Children playing was long in the famous Americana collection of Benjamin Flayderman. Flayderman was said to have set the standard for collecting in American furniture and decorative arts in the 1920s. Much of his collection was sold at a legendary sale at the American Art Association-Anderson Galleries (predecessor of Parke-Burnet and Sotheby’s, New York) in April of 1931. These paintings, however, were retained by Flayderman and descended in his family.
Cornè was instrumental in transferring current Neapolitan painting techniques as well as Italian landscape themes to America. On the subject of Cornè's non-marine work, Nina Fletcher Little, the Cornè expert, stated: “Although Cornè's claim to twentieth century recognition has rested chiefly on his marine subjects, it is becoming increasingly apparent that he was equally successful in the charming landscapes he placed upon overmantles, fireboards, and framed canvases. Many depict the rolling countryside of his native Italy, which he copied from romantic engravings. These compositions, featuring grazing cows and frolicking peasants, are extremely colorful and picturesque. Arched bridges, steepled churches, crenellated castles, and round stone towers form most decorative backgrounds.”
The two paintings: Two Children at Play with a White Bird and Two Children Playing recall earlier European and Italian models. Cherub paintings were popular throughout western Europe in the last quarter of the 18th century. But these Cornè paintings also recall the Renaissance paintings of putti such as the little angels by Raphael, painted as part of his Sistine Madonna, and lately enjoying greatly renewed popularity and notice. Cornè often used Italian old master models as a basis for landscape or figure paintings.
Cornè was born on the island of Elba in 1752. During the Napoleonic Wars, he sought refuge and sailed to America on the ship Mount Vernon commanded by Elias Hasket Derby, Jr., at whose father's house Cornè resided in Salem. The artist arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in July of 1800. Derby, impressed by the Neapolitan marine paintings that he had seen and collected during his Mediterranean voyages of the late eighteenth century, sought to make the same skills available in Salem by encouraging Cornè to live and work in that town. Cornè was quite successful in transferring the current Neapolitan decorative painting to America, and his popularity grew rapidly. Cornè attracted the patronage of many in Salem, and was introduced to Samuel McIntire with whom he worked on many of Salem's houses. Between 1807 and 1809 he was at 27 Hanover Street in Boston, but by 1810 the city directories list him at 61 Middle Street. By 1822, he was settled in Newport, Rhode Island and received enough patronage to support him the rest of his life.
Cornè is well represented in public and private collections including the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, the Peabody-Essex Museum of Salem, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, New Haven Colony Historical Society, the New York Historical Society, Newport Historical Society, Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Rhode Island Historical Society, the Smithsonian Institution, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, the United States Department of State, the United
States Naval Academy...
