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Lot 75
NICHOLAS ALDEN BROOKS(American, 1840-1904)An Actual Necessity
19 August 2025, 12:00 EDT
Skinner Marlborough, MassachusettsSold for US$4,096 inc. premium
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Elizabeth Muir
Senior Specialist, Head of Sale
Amy Griffin
Cataloguer

Paul O'Hara
Sale Coordinator & Cataloguer
NICHOLAS ALDEN BROOKS (American, 1840-1904)
An Actual Necessity
Retaining descriptive label with an Albert Smith quotation about money, "an inescapable, a tyrannical and an actual necessity", above the following paragraph:
"Mr. Brooks paints this necessity in simple shape-in the shape of a $5 [sic] note of current currency, to wit. He paints it, moreover, with an illusory power not at all common. There are a great many people who would try to pick up this bank-bill if they saw it on the floor, and be astonished to discover that it was the coinage of talent, instead of the mint. It is but an artful counterfeit, but, unlike most counterfeits, it may be said of this one that it is worth, in the open market, a great deal more than its original."
partial label of New York art supplies dealer F.W. Devoe on reverse
oil on academy board
9 1/4 x 12 1/4 in.
framed 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 in.
Retaining descriptive label with an Albert Smith quotation about money, "an inescapable, a tyrannical and an actual necessity", above the following paragraph:
"Mr. Brooks paints this necessity in simple shape-in the shape of a $5 [sic] note of current currency, to wit. He paints it, moreover, with an illusory power not at all common. There are a great many people who would try to pick up this bank-bill if they saw it on the floor, and be astonished to discover that it was the coinage of talent, instead of the mint. It is but an artful counterfeit, but, unlike most counterfeits, it may be said of this one that it is worth, in the open market, a great deal more than its original."
partial label of New York art supplies dealer F.W. Devoe on reverse
oil on academy board
9 1/4 x 12 1/4 in.
framed 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 in.



