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Fanciful Landscape
Thomas Doughty1834
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Details
- Title: Fanciful Landscape
- Creator: Thomas Doughty
- Date Created: 1834
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 76.3 x 101.5 cm (30 1/16 x 39 15/16 in.) framed: 105.7 x 130.5 x 11.8 cm (41 5/8 x 51 3/8 x 4 5/8 in.)
- Provenance: Possibly William Warner Hoppin [1807-1890], Providence, until 1855 or later.[1] Private collection, near Sheffield, Massachusetts; acquired summer 1963 by (Lois W. Spring, Sheffield, Massachusetts); sold 1963 to (Vose Galleries, Boston);[2] purchased 9 October 1963 by NGA. [1] Graphite inscriptions on the stretcher and on the frame appear to read "Hoppin"; however, the stretcher is not believed to be original, and it is not known whether the inscription was transferred from an earlier stretcher. Robert C. Vose (letter of 26 October 1963 in NGA curatorial files) argued that "the name Hoppin on the back does represent an earlier owner. There was a very prominent family of that name in Providence, Rhode Island." At the _Second Exhibition of the Rhode Island Art Association_ in 1855 a work by Doughty called _Landscape_ was lent by W[illiam] W[arner] Hoppin. Hoppin (1807-1890) was then the governor of Rhode Island (_Dictionary of American Biography_, 20 vols., New York, 1928-1936, reprinted in 10 vols. with 8 supplements, New York, 1944-1988: 9:227 228) and cousin of Thomas Frederick and Augustus Hoppin (_Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography_, James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds., 6 vols., New York, 1888: 3:261 262). Another of his cousins, lawyer William Jones Hoppin, was closely involved with several cultural and artistic organizations in New York, including the American Art-Union and the Century Association, and helped organize the 1848 Thomas Cole Memorial Exhibition at the American Art-Union. (Laurette E. McCarthy, intern in the department of American and British Paintings, NGA, did the research on the Hoppin family.) [2] According to Robert C. Vose (letter of 26 October 1963 in NGA curatorial files) the painting was purchased "from a small dealer [Lois W. Spring]." Lois W. Spring (letter of 10 December 1963 in NGA curatorial files) reported, "two decorators . . . stopped here one day last summer and had the painting in the back of their station wagon. They said they had just come from delivering some draperies to a customer and she had given them this painting to sell." It has not been possible to establish the name of the "customer" who owned the painting prior to Spring.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on canvas
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