
Morgan Martin
Head of Department
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Sold for US$8,670 inc. premium
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Head of Department

Specialist, Head of Sale
Provenance
Private collection, West Chester, Pennsylvania.
William C. Baldwin, West Chester, Pennsylvania, acquired from the above, by 1955.
Robert L. Harley for Old Print Shop, New York, acquired from the above, March 3, 1955.
Terry DeLapp Gallery, Los Angeles, acquired from the above, circa 1966.
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1967.
Literature
Dr. P. Trenton, "Art Insights: Ruffed Grouse", Mercury, December 1991, pp. 16-17, illustrated.
Dr. Patricia Trenton writes of the present work, "Ruffed Grouse was painted by [George} Cope in 1908 in the twilight of his career. The coloring and realistic hard-edged style of painting harks back to earlier traditions, such as the Hudson River School Painters and the Peales. It is probable that Cope utilized one of his early pencil sketches as a study for this picture. While the actual location has not been determined, the site could be in the Pocono Mountains near the Delaware Water Gap. The area was a popular scenic haunt for many artists of the nineteenth- and early twentieth- centuries. A clue to the location is the abundance of mountain laurel near the large tree in the picture. The ruffed grouse was usually found by the hunters near growths of mountain laurel....The ruffed grouse in Cope's painting is symbolic in two ways: First, it is the official bird of the state of Pennsylvania; and second, it is usually found near the base of a large tree when nesting its eggs." (Dr. P. Trenton, "Art Insights: Ruffed Grouse", Mercury, December 1991, p. 16)