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Lot 326
Description:
Louis Oscar Griffith (American, 1875-1956, active New Orleans, 1916-17), "The Sand Boat, New Basin Canal, New Orleans", c. 1916-17, oil on canvasboard, signed upper left, titled and inscribed en verso, 10 in. x 14 in., in a period Newcomb-Macklin giltwood frame, 17 1/4 in. x 21 1/4 in.
- Notes: Note: Louis Oscar Griffith spent the winter of 1916-17 in New Orleans with fellow artist Robert Grafton. The two found much inspiration in the architecture, waterways and people of the city. Based upon the works L.O. Griffith painted here, a favored subject matter of his seems to have been the New Basin Canal. His scenes of this active waterway that traversed the city are his most painterly and impressionistic of the body of work that he created during his sojourn here. The New Basin Canal was a shipping canal in New Orleans from the 1830s to the 1940s. Constructed by the New Orleans Canal and Banking Co., the intent was to build a shipping canal from Lake Pontchartrain through the swamp land to the booming Uptown, or "American" section, of the city. The canal joined with the lake around the present day intersection of Robert E. Lee and West End Boulevards. From the lake, the canal headed south into the city, ending in a turning-basin at Rampart St. and Howard Ave. The canal was commercially important through the 19th century, but with the opening of the Industrial Canal in 1923 it began to decline. In 1936, the Louisiana Legislature passed an amendment to close the canal and by 1950, it was filled in, save a half mile long stretch at the lakefront still used as a yachting harbor today. Period photographs of the canal show an active waterway with boats moored along the sides and graceful buildings adjacent to the canal. This energetic scene, titled "The Sand Boat," depicts a boat docked along the canal and a group of men off loading sand. Whether this sand was intended to support the retaining walls of the canal, or was intended for other parts of the city, is not known. Either way, the work beautifully depicts the life and activity of the New Basin Canal and is emblematic of Griffith's paintings of this waterway.
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September 12, 2009 10:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US
Neal Auction Company
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