Ella Bidgood

Historical Southern Painting - North Carolina Homestead - Belcross, Camden Co.

ca 1895

This is an unsigned, but rare, late 19th century oil on canvas of a view of the French Broad River in North Carolina. It is amongst the world’s oldest rivers. The scene depicted is mountainous and the water is swiftly moving. This would put the location at the northern end of its course, north of Asheville and near the North Carolina and Tennessee border. Much like the Hudson River School in...

This is a very rare painting by Louisville, Kentucky native Goldsborough Cowan Robinson. He was born in 1887 to Charles Bonnycastle Robinson (1853-1928) and his wife Helen Blasdell ...

Emile Albert Gruppe was a very well known Cape Ann, Massachusetts painter who founded his own Gruppe Summer School in 1942. He was born in Rochester, NY in 1896 and studied at the A...

This colorful late spring scene is most likely around Erie, Pennsylvania. Artist and teacher Joseph M. Plavcan generally painted around the area in which he lived for over 50 years. Joseph Michael Plavcan was born near Pittsburg, in Braddock. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy in 1926, studying with renowned New Hope artist Daniel Garber. Through a scholarship, he went to Europe to study. He returned to Erie in 1932 and became an art instructor, teaching for the next 38 years. Plavcan went far beyond teaching trade school requirements and instilled a true sense of sophisticated artistry in his students. During his artistic career, he exhibited often in Philadelphia, Washington, New York and Chicago. This painting, oil on canvas, demonstrates Plavcan’s style, utilizing figurative abstraction with a modernist color palette. The paint is not over applied and areas are treated with smooth broad brush strokes. The hint of late blooming leaves are dashes of paint applied in a fast yet confident manner. Plavcan’s sense of light, demonstrated in the distant church tower is spot on. While not signed, there are two official estate stamps on the reverse that attest to the authenticity of Plavcan’s work. The piece measures 16” x 20” and appears to be canvas applied to a back board. This was likely done by the former retailer, Hudson House Galleries in Hagerstown, Maryland. That shop was a fine regional art gallery and antiques shop for decades until its closure about five years ago. The painting is nicely framed in a modernist gold wood frame with a subtle pink liner. The overall framed dimensions are about 20” x 24”. The painting is in very good condition, bright and crisp. There is a very minor vertical crease above the peak of the house that is truly barely noticeable from any distance. Other than that, all is fine with the work and its frame. This strong, colorful work by Joseph Plavcan...

Country home, an impressionist watercolor painting by Charles Parnelle (American, 20th Century). Presented in a wooden frame. Signed "Parnelle" lower right. Image: 8"H x 10"W. Framed size: 13"H x 15"W. Charles Parnelle was an artist and teacher from Charleston, South Carolina...

Art Sz: 8 1/2"H x 11 1/2"W Frame Sz: 11 1/2"H x 14 1/2"W Artist: Miss Mary Munn Boxwood: Hot Springs, Bath Co, VA Boxwood Farm...where Mary “America’s Sweetheart” Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. came to hide from the ever-watching eyes of the world. “The place was so seductive that I said I’d married the farm and Mary Lee came with it,” said Fairbanks in his autobiography. Huntington Hartford...

Mid-century Southern landscape of the historical Home possibly of the Artist and built by the Kentucky Governor John Breathitt for his daughter Jane (some historical accounts say) and later the McClean family lived there, in Russellville, Kentucky by Roberta Fisk McClean (American, 1882-1975). As we get the information confirmed we will update the description. Roberta painted numerous versions of the house and one example called it the Bowden House. There is a House that looks similar on E5th in Russellville called Governors Corner, but many look like the same structure of the time. Signed "R. McClean" in the lower left corner Presented in a giltwood frame. Artist's board size: 14"H x 19"W Framed size: 17.75"H x 22.5"W Born in Russellville, Kentucky, Roberta McClean...

Mystery Artist Untitled (Upstate Country Home), c. 1990 Oil on canvas 12 x 23 3/4 in. Framed: 17 1/2 x 29 x 1 1/2 in.