Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
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Lot 55
John Francis Murphy(1853-1921)The Little Village 10 5/8 x 14in (27 x 35.6cm)
29 July 2020, 16:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$1,402.50 inc. premium
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John Francis Murphy (1853-1921)
The Little Village
signed 'J Francis Murphy." (lower left) and inscribed with title (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
10 5/8 x 14in (27 x 35.6cm)
Painted circa 1886.
signed 'J Francis Murphy." (lower left) and inscribed with title (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
10 5/8 x 14in (27 x 35.6cm)
Painted circa 1886.
Footnotes
Provenance
The artist.
Estate of the above.
Hersey Egginton, acquired from the above.
Sale, American Art Galleries, New York, November 26, 1926, lot 199, sold by the above.
Private collection, (probably) acquired from the above sale.
Davis Galleries, New York, 1964, sold by the above.
Private collection, acquired from the above.
Estate of the above, 2014.
Private collection, New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.
John Francis Murphy is widely acknowledged as one of the leading American Tonalist painters alongside the ranks of Dwight Tryon (1849-1925) and Alexander Helwig Wyant (1836-1892). Murphy became one of the leading members of the American Barbizon School and was deemed by his peers as the "American Corot" due to the similarity in style of his landscapes to those of French Barbizon painter Camille Corot (1796-1875). In 1883, Murphy married fellow painter Adah Clifford Smith (1859-1949) and, in 1886, the couple made their first journey to Europe to tour Paris and the French countryside. For six months they settled in the village of Montigny in Normandy where The Little Village was most likely painted. The present work is an excellent demonstration of Murphy's ability to achieve tonal harmonies with a limited color palette. Furthermore, he executes the present work characteristically with fine brushstrokes and thick impasto. When Murphy and his wife returned to America after their stay in the village of Montigny, they purchased land in Arkville, New York in the Catskill Mountains and built a house and studio. During the next three decades in Murphy's career, he chose to live in Arkville for about eight months of the year and would return to the Hotel Chelsea in New York City each winter to paint and exhibit his work.