John Bunyon Bristol, N.A. (American, 1826-1909), "A Ruin near St. Augustine, Florida", c. 1859, oil on canvas, inscribed twice with artist's name on remnants of 19th c. exhibition labels en verso, 18 in. x 30 1/4 in., in a period giltwood frame. E7000-10000 Provenance: "[Name missing..., Galleries, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia" (19th c. supplier's or dealer's label, on stretcher); "Owner, J. Hosea" (19th c exhibition label); Alexander Gallery, New York, all en verso. Note: Born at Hillsdale, NY, and briefly trained under the local painter Henry Ary in the nearby river town of Hudson, Bristol-an artist sufficiently brilliant in the study of nature to be essentially self- trained-began to attract both admiring notice and supportive patrons with his first submissions to the National Academy of Design in 1858. A Brooklyn client, Jacob B. Murray, acquired one of his first New Jersey landscapes; and at least three New York collectors (Cyrus Butler, William E. Dodge Jr., and J. Hosea) purchased major paintings resulting from Bristol's highly unusual trip as far south as the St. John's River area in eastern Florida, on the eve of the Civil War (in 1859), of which this expansive view near St. Augustine is the canvas acquired by Hosea. Both Henry Tuckerman in 1867 and G. W. Sheldon in 1878 called these "semi-tropical pictures" (a character emphasized here by the palmetto plants, the almost palpable heat and stillness, and the evocative remains of Spanish architecture). Besides noteworthy public acclaim, the paintings from this adventurous expedition brought Bristol full professional recognition: he was elected an Associate of the National Academy in 1860 (full Academician status was to follow in 1875), and he married and moved permanently to New York in 1862. Sheldon's admiring assessment of Bristol's style might well have been written with this impressive early "trademark work" predominantly in mind: "Mr. Bristol's sense of atmosphere and of perspective is highly stimulated, or perhaps we should say quickened. His pictures are strongest in the rendition of spaciousness, of sunshine, and of cool, transparent shadow. Placid in spirit, faithful in record, unconventional in composition, and serious in purpose, they always are " (American Painters, New York, 1878/1881, p. 22.) This small ruined farmhouse with a low tower, tiny courtyard, and more recent lean-to has long since disappeared from the once-expansive savannah around St. Augustine. Though once labeled as Fort Matanzas (en verso), built by the Spanish in 1740 to guard the southern approach to St. Augustine along the Matanzas River estuary, and inlet, a nearly contemporaneous mid-19th c. print (published in 1872) proves that the much heavier and taller waterside structure of Fort Matanzas was as well-preserved then as now, in its present careful restoration as the Fort Matanzas National Monument (The History of Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas, Source Book Series No. 3, National Park Service, Washington, 1955, fig. 3). The small ruin seen here in Bristol's composition, lot 447, is typical of Bristol's perspective within his inimitable style.