Benson Bond Moore (American 1882-1974)

"Stream in Autumn, near Bethesda MD."

Oil on board, signed lower left and titled on the reverse

Painting: 12" x 16"
Frame: 17" x 20.75"

SAFA/10945 Provenance: The Estate of a Toms River Collector

Benson Bond Moore, painter, etcher and teacher was born in Washington, DC. He studied at the Corcoran School of Art with Messer and Brooke , and also with Weyl . He continued his studies in drawing at the Linthicum Institute under Ballenger and learned painting conservation from his father.

Active in professional societies, he was a member and officer of the Landscape Club of Washington. He was also a longtime member of the Society of Washington Artists. He exhibited with both groups from as early as 1915 and continued through the 1930's. His work was also shown at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

As an artist, he became well known and honored for his local scenes, many of which are in major public collections. His works are held by the National Museum of American Art; Historical Society of Washington, DC; Library of Congress; The White House; Bibliothèque National de Paris; Cosmos Club; National Museum of American History; the Houston Museum of Fine Art and the Los Angeles Museum of Art. Over his life, he was honored with numerous awards for his work.

Sources:
McMahan, Virgil. "The Artists of Washington, D.C. 1796-1996"
Consentino, Andrew and Glassie, Henry. "The Capital Image, Painters in Washington, 1800-1915"
Strass, Sephanie, "A Seasonal View - The Landscapes of Benson Bond Moore"

Fine Late Regency Papier-Mâché Tray having a shaped gallery with gilt stencil decoration and inlaid with mother of pearl. English, circa 1835, mounted on a later bamboo form ebonized stand.

Height: 23.25 ” Length: 29.5” Width: 21.5”

John Burr (Scots/English, 1831-1893)

Caught Napping

Oil on canvas, signed and dated: “1867”

Painting size: 15.5” x 26.5”
Frame size: 22.5” x 33”

A student of Scots artist, Scott Lauder, John Burr studied at the Trustee’s Academy in Edinburgh. He moved to London in 1861 with his brother and fellow painter, Alexander Burr. Upon his arrival Burr began exhibiting at the Royal Academy. He continued to exhibit there until 1882. In addition, he exhibited at Suffolk Street and the Old Watercolour Society. Burr is known for his genre paintings involving small children and domestic scenes.

Source:

Wood, Christopher. Dictionary of British Art: Victorian Painters. (1995).

Harris, Paul and Julian Halsby. The Dictionary of Scottish Painters. (1990).

Auguste Marie Barreau (French, d.1922)

Young Woman in Grecian Dress

A gilt and patinated bronze statue, signed on the base and inscribed “Médaille d’Or à l’Exposition des Beaux Arts 1865” and “Acheté par l’État”.

Height: 24.5”

Born in France, Auguste Marie Barreau, was a sculptor active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français and the Exposition des Beaux Arts of 1865 where he won a gold medal for this Classical figure. Barreau died in 1922.

Source:

Benezit. Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. (1999).

English School (ca. 1850-1870)

Two Antique English miniature watercolors with printed borders.

Frame size: 7.5" x 8.5"

Antique bronze Paperweight in the form of a of a crushed fedora hat, Continental, late 19th century.

Length: 6.125”
Height: 2.25”

James Francis O’Brien (American, 1917-1996)

Bethesda

Oil on canvas, signed lower left and titled on the reverse.

Painting size: 20” x 24” Frame size: 25.5” x 29”

** Please Note - This painting came directly from the Estate of Mr. O’Brien. For other examples, type “O’Brien” into the search box.

** For other paintings by artists from Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC or North Carolina, click on the “Regional Artists” button on our Homepage.

Born in Newtonville, Massachusetts, O’Brien exhibited a love of drawing and painting from a very early age. As a high school student, he took all possible elective courses in art and technical drawing. He supplemented this study with evening courses at M.I.T. Following his move to Washington, DC as a young man, he enrolled in the Washington Workshop of the Arts. WWA, like the Art Students League in New York City, was a school in which all the classes were taught by a rotating roster of professional artists.

During WW II, his technical artistic training served his country well when he was put to work as a map maker. In the final year of the war, O’Brien married. On his honeymoon in New York City, he found time to paint the rooftop view from his hotel room window. This initiated a lifelong pursuit of city painting (his family was inclined to call it an obsession).

Starting with the founding of Federal Graphics, a commercial art firm he launched with a partner in 1947, he pursued a commercial career for the majority of his life. However, he always considered painting his “real” work, and his dedication to this vocation was apparent in a myriad of ways. He helped to found the Montgomery County Art Association and held memberships in the Arts Council of Montgomery County and American Art League.

Throughout his life, he exhibited widely, both as an individual and in group shows. The Arts Club of Washington, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Montgomery College, and the Rehoboth Art League were a few among the many venues at which his works were shown. In addition, he exhibited in several private galleries.

During the course of his painting, O’Brien noticed that the paints on his palette sometimes mixed into designs as interesting as those more deliberately created. From this observation arose the text, Design By Accident, first published in 1968. The book became widely used by art teachers following very favorably reviews by newspapers and magazines. It was even reviewed by Scientific American from a technological-aesthetic.

A draftsman, illustrator, writer and most importantly painter, O’Brien was fortunate to have his work recognised and appreciated during his life. He won awards from The Montgomery County Art Association, Rehoboth Art League and American Art League. Even art critics praised his work with the most succinct calling his paintings, “familiar scenes, fresher and lighter than life”. (Florence Berryman of The Washington Star)

O’Brien believed that the “creative urge” was something all children have. However, as adults, that impulse falls victim to ever growing demands and responsibilities. He maintained that artists are able to keep alive the childlike ability to see beauty and mystery in commonplace things.

Thanks to his sense of wonder, he left us deeply in his debt. His paintings remind us that every day that Washington, DC is full of inspiring sights that fall outside of the traditional “glamour” views depicted by most artists.

Fine pair of Antique French Louis XVI style ormolu candlesticks with circular bases with laurel leaf decoration and tapered, fluted shafts with applied laurel swags. Late 19th-century, now wired as lamps.

Provenance: from the collection of Ron Van Swerengen

Height to Shade: 25.5”

Rare antique British folding campaign desk in mahogany having hinged leather lined writing surface that folds for transport. Circa 1860-70.

Height: 29”
Length (open): 24”
Width: 24”

See British Campaign Furniture, Elegance Under Canvas,1740-1914 by Nicholas Brawer for similar examples.

Eavesdropping

Oil on panel, signed and dated: “1865.”

Painting size: 9” x 6.75”
Frame size: 14.5” x 12.5”

Petrus Theodorus Van Wyngaerdt (also spelled Wyngaerdt or Wijngaerdt) was born in Rotterdam. A student of J.H. Van de Laar, he painted genre scenes and portraits, as did his older brother, painter Anthonie Jacobus Van Wyngaerdt.

In "Eavesdropping", Van Wyngaerdt depicts a well-known theme from popular 19th-century French and Dutch prints-- a Roccoco figure listening at a door while a private conversation (or event) is underway. The women’s yellow skirt, pink bodice and lacy cap suggest that she is a lady (of sorts) and her plump arms, pretty features and sly expression suggest what may be going on behind closed doors.

Van Wyngaerdt’s work can be found in the collections of the Haarlem Museum. He is listed in Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (Bénézit, 1999).

Augustus John: Fifty-Two Drawings

Signed, limited edition, with an introduction by Lord David Cecil. Published by George Rainbird, London (1957). Hardcover folio, 16.5 x 11.75 inches. Limited to 150 copies of which this is Number 107 with slipcase. Signed by Augustus John and Lord David Cecil and inscribed to the art collector Emily Chadbourne and signed a second time by Augustus John. The book was designed and produced by George Rainbird and Ruari McLean.The lithograph self-portrait was drawn by the artist in July, 1955 and directly printed from the plate at the Curwen Press which also printed the text. The plates were printed in photo-litho offset by Van Leer of Amsterdam. The text is printed on Abbey Mills Suede Text Antique laid. Bound by Zaehnsdorf of London in half vellum over brown paper with gilt title on spine. Lithographic plate to the top board. Very good condition; a handsome copy of an important work.

Antique English Regency style child's high chair in mahogany with caned seat and back, with a replaced adjustable footrest, turned cross stretcher and detachable turned leg stand. The stand can then serve as a small table when used with the chair.Late 19th century.

Height: 36”
Width: 17”
Depth: 14.5”

Rare set of English Regency bedsteps in mahogany with caned sides and back, having a turned gallery above three tooled leather treads, the first with tambour doors below, the second now with drawer below. Circa 1800-1815.

Height: 27” (top of top step)
Depth: 31.75”
Width: 20”

Exceptional George III bachelor’s chest in nicely figured mahogany with good color and patina, having a rectangular, cross banded top above an oak brushing slide and four graduated drawers flanked by canted, reeded corners and raised on straight bracket feet. English, circa 1780 (brasses replaced).

Length: 33.75”
Depth: 19.75”
Height: 32.5”

**Please note: This item is not currently on view in our gallery. If you would like to see it, please call at least 48 hours in advance.

Henry Perlee Parker (1795-1873)

“On the qui vive” (The Smuggler)

Oil on canvas , titled, signed and dated on the reverse

"QUI VIVE" (A French phrase meaning long live who? (a sentry’s challenge), used to mean a state of alertness or watchfulness.)

Painting: 30" x 25"
Frame: 36.5" x 31.5"

One of the best-known painters working in north-east England during the early nineteenth century Henry Perlee Parker specialized in pictures of marine subjects and smugglers and came to be known as "Smuggler" Parker. He was a leading artist in Newcastle in the 1820s and 1830s, a member of the Northumberland Institution, and a co-founder (with T.M. Richardson) of the ill-fated Northern Academy of Arts. He died penniless in Shepherd's Bush in 1873. There was an exhibition of his work at the Laing Art Gallery, 1969-1970.

See Wiikpedia entry for a more complete biography

Edmond Darch Lewis (American, 1835-1910)

Schooner off the Atlantic Coast

Watercolor on paper, signed lower left and dated “1896”

Sight Size:13" x 26"
Frame Size: 23.25" x 36"

Lewis was born and died and Philadelphia where he studied with Paul Weber from about 1850-55. According to Peter Falk ("Who Was Who in American Art"), “he was one of the most popular landscape painters of Philadelphia during the late 19th century. His early works were chiefly scenes of the Lehigh, Susquehana, and Wissihickon Rivers of Pennsylvania, and were in great demand. Before 1860 he also exhibited landscapes of New York and New England and even some Cuban scenes. By the mid 1870’s he turned increasingly to shoreline views with yachting scenes, painting prolifically in watercolor from Cape May, NJ to Narragansett, RI. Wealthy and admired, he entertained in a grand style in his opulent Philadelphia home surrounded by an extensive collection of antique furniture, china and decorative arts.”

Wilhelm Engelhard (German, 1813-1902)

"Lorelei" a Bronzed Spelter Sculpture

Signed and Dated in the Cast: "1852"

Height: 20"

Wilhelm Englehard trained as a sculptor first in Paris and then in London, In 1839 he became a pupil of Thorwaldsen in Copenhagen and in 1841 a pupil of Schwanthaler in Munich.

Englehard is known for his sculptures of mythological groups, single figures and genre pieces, most often in limestone. Some of his works are the statues of “Odin,” “Thor,” and the “Valkyries.” In 1851 he began on his masterwork, the “Edda Frieze” which depicts scenes from Norse mythology. He produced contour drawings of the frieze for the Great Exhibition in London of that year which helped him to win some acclaim. In 1855 he traveled to Rome where he executed several life-size marble statues including a “Lorelei.” At the request of King George V of Hanover, Englehard sculpted his Edda Frieze in plaster in the entry hall of the Marienburg Palace. It was 112 feet long and 3 feet high.

Englehard became a member of the Hanover Artist Association in 1850 and in 1869 he became a professor at the Polytechnic School in Hanover.

Sources:
Hermanowski, Paul, “Die Deutsche Götterlehre und ihre Verwertung in Kunst und Dichtung”
Thieme-Becker, ed. “Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler vonder Antike bis zu Gegenwart”

August Carl Vilhelm Thomsen (Danish 1813-1886)

Young Busker With His Monkey

Oil-on-canvas, signed lower right

Painting Size: 24.5” x 20”
Frame Size: 35 ” x 30.25”

Thomsen was an artist adept at painting many different subjects: landscapes, portraits, genre scenes, mythological subjects and religious scenes. He was a student at l’Académie des Beaux-Arts in Copenhagen. He painted numerous altar pieces for the churches of Copenhagen as well as the country churches of surrounding area. This sensitive painting depicts a young street musician with his hurdy-gurdy slung over his back, his monkey tucked under his arm and his outstretched hand with his hat ready to receive coins.

Source:
Benezit, E. Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs