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Signed along right edge: "Copyright 1907 by V.D. Brenner" The bottom register reads, "ABRAHM LINCOLN 1809-1865" Bronze relief mounted on marble The bronze stand on the verso is an inverted Y, consistent with an arts & crafts style date Brenner’s profile view of Abraham Lincoln is familiar to every American as it is a larger version of his design for the penny. This commemorative plaque was cast two years before the penny was minted. Brenner’s image was taken from a famous 1864 portrait of Abraham Lincoln by photographer Matthew Brady. The penny was struck to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. In the year 2007, a new Lincoln penny has been struck to commemorate his 200th anniversary. Victor David Brenner was born in Shavely, Lithuania and emigrated to New York in 1890. From the years 1898 to 1901 he studied art in Paris, where he was a student of Louis Oscar Roty as well as attending the Académie Julien. Brenner was highly successful upon his return to New York, winning numerous commissions and awards. He became a specialist in portrait plaques, depicting such well-known sitters as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, George Washington, Carl Shurz, and John Paul Jones, among others. He became a member of the National Sculpture Society, The National Arts Club, and the American Numismatic Society. Today Brenner’s work is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Harvard University Art Museums, Yale University Art Gallery, and the New York Historical Society, among many other institutions. The bronze plaque, the green marble support, and its stand are all in excellent condition. It appears to be an early cast, with crisp modeling and a warm brown patina. There is minor rubbing on Lincoln’s coat to the right of the sleeve and two small spots in the background. |
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The Irish born Thomas Hovenden (1840-1895) is among the earliest painters of American genre scenes. He came to New York from Cork at the age of 23 where he studied at the National Academy of Design, and found work as an illustrator for Harper’s Magazine. In 1880, after a six year sojourn to France where he studied mostly under the tutelage of Alexandre Cabanel, as well as at the art colony of Pont-Aven in Brittany, he returned to the United States, where the subject matter and overall tone of his works took on a decidedly democratic nature- one which expressed an interest in the lives and portrayal of everyday, middle class people, and of African Americans in particular. Hovenden’s approach established him as a contemporary among America’s great realists painters, including Robert Henri, one of his pupils at the Pennsylvania Academy, and Thomas Eakins, his predecessor as a professor of Painting and Drawing at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a position which Hovenden took over in 1886. Throughout his life Hovenden enjoyed a reputation as an established artist. He was also somewhat of a social activist, whose beliefs were articulated most clearly through his work, and good deeds. He held a keen interest in the portrayal of the lives of post-Civil War African Americans, and the house he shared with this wife, Helen Corson, was part of the underground railroad. Tragically, his life was cut short at the age of 45 in an attempt to rescue a young girl who stood in front of an oncoming train. The "Profile of a Young Man" bears a certain resemblance to the central figure in Hovenden’s most famous work "Breaking Home Ties" of 1890, which won instant critical acclaim at its unveiling at both the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1891, and later at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, mostly for its significance as an emblem for the contemporary, social, and developing stylistic issues at the time. Perhaps as an attempt to compete with the rapidly popularizing medium of photography, the sitter is rendered in a realistic portrait style similar to that of a photograph: seated in profile, and shown from the shoulder up. Hovenden’s rendering of the sitter is sympathetic yet unidealized. The condition of Hovenden’s waterolor is excellent for its age. It is elaborately housed, with an ivory toned mat, elaborate gilded frame, encased in a red crimson- lined mahogany box, covered by uv glass. |
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This pastel portrait is by a skillful, unknown artist who was
perhaps British trained. The identity of the sitter is known from an inscription in pencil on the reverse in a 19th c. hand: "Hugh Henderson's likeness Mrs. Sarah C. Gerrish's grandfather Hugh Henderson/Born in Scotland. Merchant in New York in 1778. Married Hannah Sheafe of Portsmouth, NH May 11th 1772. Died August 4th 1794. Aged 47 years. R.F. Gerrish, Kittery Pt., ME" A 6" x 9" framed certificate of Mr. Henderson's membership in the St. Andrews Club of New York, dated November 30, 1784 and signed by Robert Livingston, stays with the portrait. The portrait is under 18th century glass, as confirmed by Mary Higgins, a conservator who specializes in glass. The top right corner, visible within the site opening of the painting, is rounded. According to Higgins, this is typical of blown glass and does not represent breakage or the original shape of the work. Higgins repaired a 12” break in the lower right quadrant of the glass that is very slightly visible to the naked eye. The frame is also likely to be period. Provenance: Charles Garrish to Harry Arons Antiques, Ansonia, CN to Lilian Blankley Cogan, Farmington, CN to Anne Frances Moore Fine Art. |
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