In the “Style of George Caleb Bingham” was the description of a portrait sold at auction several years ago. The winner bidder asked Fine Art Investigations if George Caleb Bingham created Man in a Blue Vest? Bingham? No. Not only did the technique differ, the painting had an entirely different sensibility. The dark-haired subject’s open collar, his dressing gown worn …
Recto – George Caleb Bingham Shubael Allen (1793- 1841) was New York native and a civil engineer. Before moving to Missouri by 1818, he helped build bridges in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. In 1822, in Boonville, Missouri, he married Dinah Ayers Trigg. They moved to Missouri’s western frontier where for several years they shared a dog trot cabin with Dinah’s sister …
Dorothy Sulger Kelly is a re-discovered portrait by John Neagle (1796-1865). Neagle painted her portrait around the same time that he portrayed John Haviland. Haviland was the architect for the original Franklin Academy, which was built across the street from the Kelly’s Philadelphia home. Neagle painted Dorothy with a vibrancy that compels her owner, a direct descendant, to sit with …
On this day in 1873, George Caleb Bingham in Kansas City, Missouri, wrote to James S. Rollins in Columbia, Missouri, “I will call by as I go east, and assist in the proper framing of your portrait. It will be well to put on a new strong stretching frame, with another good thick canvas behind it to give that on which the …
Recto and Verso The stories behind 19th century American portraits on this blog have so far spoken to the lives of people on the front of the canvas. The front of an artwork is referred to formally as “recto.” Verso” is the term for the back. The back of a painting is literally a support system. Beginning with this blog, …
“There are two ways for a painting to perish, the one is for it to be restored, the other is for it not to be restored.”—Étienne Gilson“Restoration is a necessary evil.”—Max Friedländer Restoration vs. Conservation is a frequent topic in conversations with clients about their heirloom portraits. This article by George Bisacca,Conservator Emeritus at The Metropolitan Museum of Art brilliantly explains the …
