An error has occurred while processing this page. The site administrator has been notified. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Lot 199
Description:
William Perkins Babcock (American/Boston, 1826-1899), "The Toilette of Venus, with Cupid Holding a Mirror and Flower-Garland", oil on artist's board, signed "WP Babcock" lower left, 12 in. x 12 in., in an American Arts and Crafts carved and gilded frame, with incised inscription/production no. "Carrig-Rohane / Shop Inc. / R. C. Vose / Boston / #5896" on reverse of bottom rail.
- Provenance: Provenance: Robert C. Vose, Sr. (1873-1964), Vose Galleries, Boston.~ Note: After a preliminary artistic training in Boston, the 21-year-old Babcock moved to Paris, where he was reputed to have been one of the first pupils of the great master of Romantic Realism, Thomas Couture (1815-1879), in the very year that the latter established his atelier in 1847 Babcock's fellow pupils in that famous studio included three celebrated colleagues born in 1824: William Morris Hunt (with Couture 1847-52, which seems to have been Babcock's identical period of tenure), Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (in the studio in 1849), and Eastman Johnson (in 1855); slightly younger pupils of Couture's included Edouard Manet (in 1850-56) and John LaFarge (in 1855). This fascinating and important painting seems likely to be a work of Babcock's early maturity, since it recalls so perfectly Couture's concentration on "the pure color and fresh brushwork of the sketch, which he encouraged his students to retain into the finished picture" (Albert Boime, "Couture, Thomas," The Dictionary of Art, Grove, London, 199 6, vol. 8, p. 76). By 1853 Babcock had returned to Boston, where he exhibited at the Athenaeum from that year (with interruptions) until 1870, and at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1863; he eventually took up permanent residence in France, where he died. It is perhaps just possible that this is his painting of "The Bath" (no. 295 in the Athenaeum exhibition of 1859), although it is probably more likely to be one of his dozen or more submissions listed simply as "Pictures." He is represented by seven comparable paintings in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, all at this same scale, several also representing mythological subjects. Babcock was the subject of a monographic exhibition at the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, in 1954 References: G.C. Groce & D.H. Wallace, Dictionary of Artists in America (New-York Historical Society, 1957), p. 18; American Paintings in the MFA (Boston, 1969), vol. 1, p. 17, nos. 69-75, v. 2, p. 217, fig. 340; Robert F. Perkins Jr. (with William J. Gavin III), Boston Athenaeum Art Exhibition Index, 1827-74 (Boston, 1980), p. 15, nos. 228-307
Shipping Options
Accepted Forms of Payment:
October 11, 2008 10:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US
Neal Auction Company
You agree to pay a buyer's premium of 0% and any applicable taxes and shipping.