Description:

Joseph Rusling Meeker
American/Louisiana, 1827-1887
"Cuba"
oil on canvas
1872, signed and dated lower left, titled and dated en verso, 3 "Sotheby's" labels with artist, title and date, one on stretcher, one on reverse of frame and one on backing board, framed.

Many of the greatest nineteenth century American landscape painters traveled to the West Indies to capture the beautiful mountains, valleys, and tropical vistas. The Caribbean provided the warm climate and exotic panoramas often sought out by artists who desired a change in scenery from American topography. Often called the northernmost city in the Caribbean, New Orleans was the perfect departure point for these artists, many of whom left from that port to Cuba, the Bahamas, or other tropical destinations. Joseph Rusling Meeker, who studied under Hudson River School painter Asher B. Durand, was well versed in American landscape painting. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Meeker studied and worked in New York City and Louisville, Kentucky, before settling in St. Louis, Missouri in 1859. During the Civil War, Meeker traveled the Mississippi River with the Union Navy; his time near the mouth of the Mississippi exposed him to a new type of landscape, and he learned to love the humid atmosphere, which dispersed the light in a beautiful, hazy manner. After the war, Meeker continued to make summer trips to the New Orleans area to sketch the nearby lakes, bayous, and swamps; his sketches and notes provided the material needed to complete his canvases later in St. Louis. During Meeker's many trips near the Gulf of Mexico, his extant canvases indicate that he extended his travels to the West Indies. This work bears striking resemblance to a much larger work by Meeker from the same year depicting Cuba near the Yumuri Valley (sold at Neal Auction on September 9, 2017), with the luminous atmospheric effects, mountains, palm trees, and body of water handled with Meeker's characteristic style and skill.

  • Dimensions: 21 1/2 x 36 in. (54.6 x 91.4 cm.), Frame: 29 x 43 1/2 x 2 in. (73.7 x 110.5 x 5.1 cm.)
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Condition: Not relined; 2 in. x 1 1/2 in. and 1 in. x 1 in. areas of inpainting upper left (sky); 4 in. x 2 1/4 in. area of inpainting lower right (behind boat); 3/4 in. x 1 in. area of inpainting with associated paint loss and visible inpainting upper right (palm leaf); scattered small areas of inpainting upper right edge (tree canopy); 1/16 in. x 1/8 in. area of loss and visible inpainting mid-right (beside second tree); canvas slightly slack on stretcher; abrasions and small losses along edges from contact with frame; very light scattered bloom along edges under frame rabbet; scattered light marks and accretions throughout; frame has marks, nicks, abrasions, light stains, losses and light separation in corners.

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April 4, 2025 11:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

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$30,000 $49,999 $5,000
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