Godel & Co. Fine Art ART FOR SALE

A favorite theme, which began to appear around 1864, was that of a young girl leaning against a tree in a forest or woodland setting. Paintings such as The Little Queen of the Woods, Resting in the Woods, and The Berry Picker are charming statements about the innocence of girlhood.

Signed and dated lower right: DJ 78 and inscribed on the verso: Catnip Island near / Greenwich, / Conn. / David Johnson 1879. It relates to View of Greenwich, Connecticut, 1878, oil on board, 14 x 20 in. (Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut).

Dated and inscribed upper left: Oct: 1876 – AE. 37

Provenance: The artist; American Artists Relief Committee of One Hundred, May 3-4, 1917, under management of the American Art Association; J. K. Johns; private collection; Berry Hill Galleries, New York; private collection, Scarsdale, New York.

A larger pair of Fuller portraits, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was completed in June 1829, and our cabinet portraits were done three months later, in September. It is possible they were painted for the Fullers’ children, who may have wanted a likeness of their parents.

Provenance: W. T. Fryer, London, England (acquired directly from the artist in 1885); W. T. Baldwin, Yorkshire, England, c. 1898; private collection, Yorkshire, England; Christie's, London, February 25, 1972, lot 200; Kennedy Galleries, New York; private collection, 1978–2024.

Provenance: by descent through a Connecticut family. Exhibited (possibly): National Academy of Design, New York, 1865.

In 1924 Benson traveled to Mobile, Alabama, to visit his daughter Elisabeth, who had married a plantation owner’s son. He produced only six watercolors during this trip, one of which is Deer River, Alabama.

Provenance: Thomas B. Clarke, New York, 1883; Christie's East, American Paintings, May 23, 1995, lot 2; Godel & Co., 1995; private collection, Charleston, South Carolina, 1996–2024

Provenance: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York; Richard Prosser Mellon, Ligonier, Pennsylvania