Description:

James Campbell Moise (American/Louisiana, 1849-1901) , "Natchitoches", 1877, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, inscribed "Completed April 26th 1877" en verso, 40 in. x 60 in., framed with original brass title plaque . Provenance: Descended in the family of David Pierson (1837-1900) Provenance: Descended in the family of David Pierson (1837-1900). Exh.: Louisiana State Fair, Shreveport, LA, c. 1920s. Note: Son of renowned Charleston and Louisiana artist Theodore Sydney Moise, James Campbell Moise was born in Natchitoches, Louisiana, studied at Christian Brothers college in New Orleans and followed in his father’s footsteps in the arts before undertaking a study of law. Moise inherited his father’s talent with a brush and served as a draughtsman in the engineering department during the last year of the Civil War. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, he worked as a photographer and portrait painter, known for his skillful depictions. Following the completion of the 1877 canvas offered here, Moise left behind his artistic pursuits, studied under Judge David Pierson (10) and developed a successful second career as a lawyer, judge and the assistant Attorney General of the state of Louisiana. Moise married Marie Aline Sompayrac in 1873 in Natchitoches, and they had ten children. Surviving paintings by James Campbell Moise are extremely rare, and the significant canvas offered here represents the first example to be offered at auction. A struggling artist, Moise raffled this painting to procure funds to move to New Orleans and advance his law career. According to the Shreveport Journal in 1941, the landscape was painted at Clear Lake in Natchitoches Parish, a favorite fishing spot. The prominent citizens of Natchitoches visited Moise’s studio to pose for the portraits, which were added to the scene after the landscape had been completed. The inclusion of these twenty-one citizens was a brilliant decision by the young artist, guaranteeing a strong participation in his raffle. The painting was won on a roll of the dice on a single chance purchased by Mrs. Sidney Pipes Pierson, wife of David Pierson (10) who himself had bought thirty chances in order to support the artist. Moise raised $500, a princely sum in 1877. Louisiana’s landscape of swamps, marshes and forests has long been a draw to lure artists both native to the state and visiting. Noted art historian Estill Curtis Pennington describes the post-Civil War period in Louisiana landscape painting thusly: “As the nineteenth century closed, the creeping nostalgic light of the bayou acted as a counterpoint to the imaginary sunset of a vanished culture, whose demise was evoked in dreamy longings for a landscape of comforting isolation…Amid all this sadness, real and imagined, the wild splendor of the Louisiana countryside persisted, and it was at this time that the landscape artists of Louisiana seem to have found their subject matter.” Particularly in this period with the rise of photography, the demand for portraiture lessened, and from 1865 to 1875, the Louisiana style of landscape fully emerged from Moise’s contemporaries, such as Richard Clague, William Henry Buck and Marshall J. Smith, Jr. In the 1870s, due to the tensions of the Reconstruction era, there was increasing formation of groups and societies based on common interests such as fishing, horse racing or other pursuits, and large group portraits on a monumental scale, such as the one offered here, became the order of the day. The important collaborative works of Moise’s father, Theodore Sidney Moise, Victor Pierson and Paul Poincy such as the award-winning “Life on the Metairie” of 1868 and the “Volunteer Firemen’s Parade” of 1872 bear notable stylistic similarity to “Natchitoches,” not surprising given the familial connection. James Moise’s luminous landscape combines a masterful and expansive depiction of water, sky and land, with astonishing consideration to the characterization of each figure. The immense attention to detail throughout the unique composition creates a captivating scene that speaks clearly to life in Louisiana in the 1870s. The grand group portraits are among the most remarkable of this time period in the South, and Moise’s “Natchitoches” combines the best of both historical portraiture and classic Louisiana landscape painting – truly the artist’s magnum opus. Ref.: Pennington, Estill Curtis. Downriver: Currents of Style in Louisiana Painting 1800-1950. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 1991; Pennington, Estill Curtis. Look Away: Reality and Sentiment in Southern Art. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers, 2000; Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2008; “Judge James Campbell Moise Obituary.” The Times-Democrat (New Orleans), February 12, 1901: p. 3; “Shreveport Woman Owns Painting of Many Prominent Louisianians.” The Shreveport Journal. August 8, 1941: 6C; Nichols, Effie Mae Dranguet. “Trophies of the Turf.” The Daily World (Opelousas). February 17, 1971: p. 4.

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