1890s Paintings

oil on canvas without frame One point of restoration

Samuel Henry Baker (British, 1824–1909) Ullswater from Gowbarrow Park, Cumberland, late 19th century Oil on canvas In this sweeping view of Ullswater, nestled in the heart of the La...

➡️The River from Rousseau⬅️ "Il est tombé par terre, C'est la faute à Voltaire, Le nez dans le ruisseau, C'est la faute à Rousseau" - He fell to the ground, It's Voltaire's fault, H...

Medium: Pen, Ink, and Wash Details over Printed Background Signature: Printed Signature in Image, Right. Opening page for the July 1897 isssue of The Inland Printer...

AMEDEO SIMONETTI Italian, 1874-1922 Writing a Letter Signed ‘Amedeo Simonetti’ Oil on canvas 30 x 20 inches

Edward Francis Rook American, 1870-1960 Brittany Oil on Canvas 30 by 30 in. W/frame 38 by 38 in. Signed lower left Circa, 1898-1900 Rook, born in New York City on September 21, 1870, became one of the most original impressionists at Old Lyme. First he was a student of Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian.  Life started out to be rather promising for Rook, around the turn of the century.  He exhibited at the Cincinnati Art Museum and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, both in 1898, when his harbor scene, entitled Pearl Clouds — Moonlight was reproduced in International Studio, in April.  In addition, the PAFA presented him with the Temple Gold Medal for Deserted Street, Moonlight, which the Academy purchased.  Three years later, Rook was awarded a bronze medal at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, where he exhibited three landscapes.  Caffin (1902, p. xxxvi) praised the artist's "translucent quality of color," which suggests a study of color theory.  Also in 1901, Rook married Edith Sone.  For most of 1902, the Rooks were in Mexico. Rook came to Old Lyme in October of 1903.  The date is significant because Childe Hassam was also there that month.  Hassam would more or less re-orient the artists' colony from Tonalism to impressionism.  Rook would move there permanently two years later.  He took two medals at the St. Louis Universal Exposition (1904) where his landscapes from the Mexican trip were displayed.  More awards followed: a silver medal at the International Fine Arts Exposition in Buenos Aires, 1910, a gold medal at San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915,  a Corcoran Bronze Medal, and a William A. Clark Award in 1919 for Peonies.   By 1924, the artist was made a National Academician.  Despite all these awards and recognition, Rook did little in the way of selling his art and reportedly, his prices were too high.  His paintings were handled by Macbeth and Grand Central Art Galleries. Rook was active in Old Lyme's art community.  As stated above, he would have met Hassam that October in 1903 but Willard Metcalf had departed at the end of the summer.  As several writers have explained (Connecticut and American Impressionism, 1980, p. 123), Hassam "was the catalyst around whom [impressionism] coalesced."   Rook's niece, Virginia Rook Garver, who happened to be the grand-niece of Hassam, confirmed that Rook and Hassam knew each other in Europe — before they went to Old Lyme (Fischer, 1987, p. 19).  Rook was one of the relatively young painters to come to Old Lyme, along with Gifford Beal, William Chadwick, and Robert Nisbet, on the wave of impressionism, initiated there by Hassam and Metcalf.  Old Lyme became a center of American impressionism, and as Donelson F. Hoopes remarked, "under Hassam, the shoreline of Connecticut became a kind of Giverny of America."  Among Ranger's group, palettes started to become lighter, except those of the most determined tonalists.  Ranger himself, perhaps admitting defeat, moved to Noank in 1904.  Rook is best known for his views of Bradbury's Mill, which was soon called Rook's Mill, owing to the painter's many versions of the scene.  One, called Swirling Waters, dated ca. 1917, is in the Lyme Historical Society.  Even more famous is Rook's Laurel, dated between 1905 and 1910 (Florence Griswold Museum), in which a profuse laurel bush (the state flower), is set off by a spectacular Constable-like background.  But Swirling Waters could never be confused with Constable, with its violent brushwork, impasto-layered water, and bright, almost chalky, plein-air palette.  Gerdts (1984, p. 226) compares the paintings of Walter...

dated ‘Juli 94’ (lower left)

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right

Medium: Gouache on Several Pieces of Collaged Watercolor P Signature: Signed Center Right Original art for the Art Supplement to The Philadelphia Inquirer's July 25, 1897 issue Acc...

Story illustration for “In the Carquinez Woods” by Bret Harte, published in the book The Writings of Bret Harte, Volume IV: Stories of California and the Frontier II (Boston and New ...

This painting by Orientalist artist Rudolf Ernst depicts a Muslim man in quiet contemplation during prayer. He kneels in solitude in the vast desert as the light fades around him. Ma...

A Day in June, Scene Eastchest, New York Edward Gay (Irish, American, 1837-1928) Oil on Canvas Complimented by original frame in great condition Signed and Dated Lower Right Titled a...

FABIAN DE LA ROSA Filipino, 1869 - 1937 "FILIPINO GIRLO COMING DOWN THE STEPS" signed & dated "F. de la Rosa, 1894" (lower right) oil on canvas 42-3/4 x 23-3/4 inches (108 x 60...

FABIAN DE LA ROSA Filipino, 1869 - 1937 FILIPINO FARM WORKERS IN HORSE CARRIAGE signed & dated "F. de la Rosa, 1894" (lower left) oil on canvas 42-3/4 x 2...

Materials: Oil and paper cut outs on canvas.

Frank Hyde (British 1849-1937) "A Conundrum in the Kitchen" c. 1900 Oil on Canvas Signed Lower Left Image: 37.5 x 57.5 inches Framed: 44 x 64.5 inches From the Maidstone Museum, UK: Hyde was born in Surrey in 1849 and spent a large amount of time in London during his youth. His father had been in the army but retired to live the life of a gentleman upon inheriting the family seat, Hyde End Manor in Berkshire. Hyde, however, would later inherit and sell the Manor. As a young man, Hyde trained as an artist at the Royal Academy, London, and his subsequent career revealed striking artistic versatility. His subjects varied from the portrayal of real, dramatic events to comic characters commissioned by the card manufacturer Raphael Tuck. Starting out as a 1st Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, Hyde moved on to begin his career as a war artist during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, producing drawings for ‘The Graphic’, an illustrated weekly publication. Hyde married Constance Mary Louise Felgate in 1876, but she died less than a year later. While he travelled extensively throughout his life after Constance’s, death Hyde purchased a villa in Capri where he met Rosina Ferrara, whom he used as a model, and John Singer Sargent, with whom he shared a studio. Hyde is perhaps best known for his paintings of Capri...