
Morgan Martin
Head of Department
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Sold for US$157,875 inc. premium
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Head of Department

Specialist, Head of Sale
Provenance
Henry Nicola Mancini (1924-1994), Los Angeles, by January 15, 1970.
By descent from the above to the present owner, 1994.
Exhibited
New York, National Academy of Design, Winter Exhibition, December 9, 1911-January 7, 1912, p. 25, no. 177.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, One Hundred and Seventh Annual Exhibition, February 4-March 30, 1912, p. 40, no. 406.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, Sixteenth Annual Exhibition, April 25-June 13, 1912, n.p., no. 293.
Chicago, Illinois, The Art Institute of Chicago, Twenty-Fifth Annual Exhibition, November 5-December 8, 1912, no. 253.
Literature
P.H. Falk, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: 1876-1913, Madison, Connecticut, 1989, p. 450, no. 406.
P.H. Falk, A.A. Bien, eds., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago: 1888-1950, Madison, Connecticut, 1990, p. 848, no. 253.
P.H. Falk, A.A. Bien, eds., The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design: 1901-1950, Madison, Connecticut, 1990, p. 486, no. 177.
B.H. Peterson, The Cities, the Towns, the Crowds: The Paintings of Robert Spencer, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2004, pp. 156-158.
Robert Spencer's The Two Mills was painted at time when Spencer was breaking through to his maturity as an artist and is representative of Spencer's best known subject matter. The present work was likely painted in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and is revealing of just how Spencer, through dappled brushwork, aimed to humanize the structures and landscape. Spencer's friend and writer, F. Newlan Price described Spencer's approach best when he wrote, "To Spencer, castles are not half so romantic as are factories or mills or tenements. Every brick, every angle, every opening in a mill means something, has its history, especially if the mill be old. The stains on the walls, the broken places are landmarks of battles with storm and sunshine, with man-made machines, with time. Every workman, every year leaves some impression of himself or itself,...each succeeding family leaving its mark, until the very structure becomes human and fits into the moods of the town." (F.N. Price, "Spencer-And Romance," International Studio, March 1923, vol. 76, no. 310, p. 490)
Please note that lots 32 and 33 have been transposed in the printed catalogue.