Alfred Copeland Shepherdess and Sheep, dated 1885

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About the Item

Oil on canvas, signed lower left 24" x 40" showing credit for Leroux in the signature, a large scale important work by Copeland, framed dimensions. Alfred Bryant Copeland, painter, teacher and American expatriate was born in 1839 into a socially prominent Boston family. Copeland spent the early years of his career designing machinery for making artificial limbs for disabled Civil War veterans. It is believed that Copeland painted some New England landscapes in the early 1860s; his "Falling Leaves" (unlocated), a view of the Maine woods, was for sale at the Athenaeum Gallery (later the Boston Athenaeum) from 1867 to 1870. In 1866 he went to Antwerp to study at the Royal Academy, where he may have met Frank Millet, who, along with Frederick Porter Vinton, was said to be among his friends. While in Antwerp, Copeland copied paintings by Rubens and made studies of the interiors of the Old Stein prison and several churches. Copeland returned to Boston about 1872, and he exhibited his copies and studies of the Old Masters done abroad at the Boston Art Club in 1873 and at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in 1874. His copies after Gilbert Stuart's famous portraits of George and Martha Washington (unlocated) may date from this period. Copeland returned to Paris in 1875 for further study, but it is not known where he studied or with whom. During this trip he exhibited Antwerp interiors (he specialized in meticulous renderings of historic buildings in Antwerp and Paris) at the Paris Salons of 1877, 1878, 1880, and 1881. One critic wrote that Copeland created "marvels of close and studious application and observation." He also exhibited during this period at the 1878 Paris Exposition some scenes of Paris, among them detailed views of the Seine from his window, with the Pont Neuf, the Louvre, and Notre Dame, were well received when shown in Boston in 1879. It is believed that Copeland probably also worked from photographs, since there was a "chemical laboratory," or darkroom, in his Paris studio; an album of the artist's photographs contains pictures of his studio, showing his library, classical statues, picture gallery, and darkroom. He also painted genre, streets, market and interiors. Copeland's genre scenes of this period exemplified the art that was popular with artists in Europe and America in the 1880s, among them William Merritt Chase. During his life Copeland exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was included in the important "Special Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists at Home and in Europe." In 1881, two of Copeland's paintings were chosen by a Paris jury that included Frederick A. Bridgman, Daniel Ridgway Knight, Charles Sprague Pearce, John Singer Sargent, and Edwin Lord Weeks, who were also active in the 1889 Exposition. While in Paris, Copeland made copies at the Louvre and the Luxembourg, including two of Alexandre Cabanel's Birth of Venus (Forty-five copies were in his estate at his death). It was said that Copeland had a "remarkable capacity for reproducing the spirit and form of the originals." Copeland was second professor of drawing in the department of polytechnics at Washington University in St. Louis from 1873 to 1874. In 1896, Copeland returned to Boston, where he lived the rest of his life. An auction of his estate, presumably most of his life's work, included 178 original paintings mostly New England, French, and English landscapes, human and animal figures, and interiors, (many copies) and 17 paintings by Europeans and Americans such as Mark Fisher and Antwerp-trained John Henry Dolph. Alfred Bryant Copeland passed away on January 30th, 1909 in Boston, Massachusetts. Source: Blake Benton Fine Art

Creator:
Alfred Bryant Copeland (1840 - 1909)
Creation Year:
1885
Dimensions:
Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 46 in (116.84 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
Medium:
Oil
Movement & Style:
American Realist
Period:
1880-1889
Condition:
Lined, original stretches, a least one mended tears recently restored and ready to hang and presents beautifully.
Gallery Location:
Hallowell, ME
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU128926460072