Estimated Price:

   £   

Realised Price:

   £   

What is this symbol? This symbol indicates that this auction hose has verified this price result.

Log in or subscribe to view price data

- - oil on canvas 27 1/4 x 24 1/8 in. (69.2 x 61.3 cm.)PROVENANCEEstate of the artistAlexander Moffatt, Manchester, MassachusettsMarine Arts Gallery, Salem, MassachusettsEXHIBITEDPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Exhibition of Paintings by Ten American Painters, April-May 1908, no. 24Boston, St. Botolph Club, Feb.-Mar. 1911Boston, St. Botolph Club, Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Joseph Rodefer De Camp, Jan. 1924, no. 32, as ll Pensieroso (possibly this work)Pittsburgh, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute. Directions in American Painting 1875-1925, June-Aug. 1982, pp. 28-29, illus. (this exhibition travelled to various locations, 1982-1987)Youngstown, Youngstown State University, The John J. McDonough Museum of Art, Inaugural Exhibition, Oct. 1991-May 1992, p. 26LITERATUREW. H. Downes, "Joseph De Camp and His Work," Art and Progress, April 1913, p. 921W. H. Downes, Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1959, p. 186RELATED LITERATURER. V. S. Berry, "Joseph De Camp: Painter and Man," American Magazine of Art, April 1923, pp. 183-184La Penserosa, or the thoughtful one, was one of ten works that De Camp sent to the major retrospective of the Ten's paintings held at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1908, and was probably painted after a devastating fire in his studio in 1904 destroyed much of his previous work. It is typical of his interior figure scenes of the period in its dramatic side-lighting and focus on the mood rather than the features of the sitter. De Camp's student at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, Rose V. S. Berry, later described his painting method as follows: "De Camp seldom required a fixed, rigid pose of his model. He walked around the sitter, he felt of the head, discovered the texture of the ear, examined its placement upon the head, and proceeded in general with much the line of attack which a sculptor takes..." (Berry, pp. 183-184). The tactile quality of De Camp's surfaces reflects this approach, as does the strong modeling of his figures.In his article on De Camp for the Dictionary of American Biography, William Howe Downes lists La Penserosa as one of De Camp's best known figure pieces.