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Dimensions: measurements 14 by 11 3/4 in. alternate measurements (35.6 by 29.8 cm)
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Provenance: Mrs. William Rehn Claxton, New York (the artist's daughter), 1895
Emily La Farge Claxton, New York 9her daughter), 1932
Mrs. Margaret Lloyd, New York (her niece), 1983
Thomas Colville Fine Art, New York, 1987
Grete Meilman Fine Art, New York, 1988
Acquired from the above, 1988
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Exhibited: New York, Ortgies & Company, 1884, no. 11
New York, Century Association, 1884
New York, Moore's Art Gallery, 1885, no. 48
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, 1895, no. 218
New York, Graham Gallery, 1966, no. 16
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Two Hundred Years of Watercolor Painting in America, December 1966-January 1967, no.58
Yonkers, New York, Hudson River Museum; Utica, New York, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute; Chicago, Illinois, Terra Museum of American Art, John La Farge: Watercolors and Drawings, October 1990-August 1991, no. 68
New York, The Jordan-Volpe Gallery, Nature Vivante: The Still Lifes of John La Farge, April-June 1995, no. 51, pp. 45, 133, illustrated in color p. 97
New York, Berry-Hill Galleries, American Beauty: The Rose in American Art, May-July 1997, pp. 22-23, 110
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Notes: Executed circa 1879.
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION
James A. Yarnall writes: "In the midst of the changes in La Farge's personal and professional life during the late 1870s, the artist emerged as a prolific watercolorist. Even though his use of watercolor in recent decorative work had prepared the way for this, this development came as a surprise.... This new attention to watercolor appeared to serve both as a liberation from the daily rigors of decorative work and as a sudden resurgence of interest in painting for its own sake. "Most of the new watercolors were studies of flowers such as camellias, roses, or water lilies. The compositions frequently included vases or other oriental objets d'art from the artist's personal collection, which included hundreds of pieces at this time. La Farge delighted in contrasting the fragility of petals with the brittle sheen of ceramics, much as he had in his early oil still lifes. He sought close-up perspectives derived from Japanese prints, and indulged to its fullest his calligraphic skill in handling watercolor. 'No nearer approach has, probably, ever been made to the freshness, purity, and delicacy of texture of natural flowers,' wrote one contemporary critic. 'To be the painter of these ... ought to satisfy a modest ambition; and while I am far from saying that Mr. La Farge's other work has been wasted, it is on these modest watercolors that his fame, in the future, promises to rest'" (John La Farge: Watercolors and Drawings, 1990, p. 35).
