- 21
Daniel Ridgway Knight
Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
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Description
- Daniel Ridgway Knight
- In the Garden
- signed Ridgway Knight and inscribed Paris (lower right)
- oil on canvas
- 33 by 26 in.
- 83.8 by 66 cm
Provenance
Private Collection, Georgia
Condition
The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.:
This painting has been recently restored and is in lovely condition. The canvas has been lined using a synthetic non-wax adhesive. The paint layer is cleaned and varnished. There do not appear to be any restorations to the surface at all and this is certainly a testament to the health of the condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
Catalogue Note
Daniel Ridgway Knight is best known for his exquisite and peaceful renderings of women tending to the landscape. In 1858, he joined the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where his fellow students included Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, William Sartain and Everett Shinn. He helped to establish the Philadelphia Sketch Club in 1861 and then sailed to France the same year, where he studied with the two most eminent genre painters of the day, Marc-Gabriel-Charles Gleyre and Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier.
While with Gleyre, Ridgway Knight began long-term friendships with the young Impressionists Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir, an unusual relationship for an aspiring history painter. As the American Civil War moved closer to Phildelphia in 1863, Knight returned home to enlist. He spent the next ten years in Philadelphia continuing his studies after the war. He exhibited historical subjects, but supported himself financially by painting portraits and teaching in his studio. In 1871, Knight married one of his students, Rebecca Webster, and they moved to France where they settled permanently. Knight enhanced his reputation by exhibiting extensively in Europe and internationally, and frequently at the Paris Salon where he was awarded an honorable mention in 1882 and a third-class medal 1888, and at the Munich Salon a gold medal in 1888 and silver 1889, and in the many World Fairs held at the end of the nineteenth century.
The gardener of the present work resembles many of the models the artist painted near his home in Poissy, a rural town outside Paris, and later in Rolleboise, his home in the 1890s. More than subjects of his paintings, these women were also friends to Ridgway Knight. As George Sheldon described in 1888, "Knight is a familiar figure in the field and in the cottage. A hundred times he has been called upon to act as godfather to the children of these models, and whenever one of them is married, she is sure to receive from Mr. Knight a handsome present in gold" (George Sheldon, Recent Ideals in American Art, New York and London, 1889, p. 18). The farming women Ridgway Knight depicted were painted from life, but the artist gave them ideal proportions and a refined elegance, a legacy from his academic training. Ingeniously, he furnished an all-glass studio near his home, which allowed him to observe his models in nature yet protected from the elements that would otherwise disrupt his work. In this blend of the natural and the studied, the model's clothing is built of a palette that echoes the colors of the flowers, water and sky that surround her, and her pose duplicates the composition of the tall flowers in front of her. She appears to become one with the landscape as she is absorbed in her daily tasks (see lots 24 and 28).
While with Gleyre, Ridgway Knight began long-term friendships with the young Impressionists Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir, an unusual relationship for an aspiring history painter. As the American Civil War moved closer to Phildelphia in 1863, Knight returned home to enlist. He spent the next ten years in Philadelphia continuing his studies after the war. He exhibited historical subjects, but supported himself financially by painting portraits and teaching in his studio. In 1871, Knight married one of his students, Rebecca Webster, and they moved to France where they settled permanently. Knight enhanced his reputation by exhibiting extensively in Europe and internationally, and frequently at the Paris Salon where he was awarded an honorable mention in 1882 and a third-class medal 1888, and at the Munich Salon a gold medal in 1888 and silver 1889, and in the many World Fairs held at the end of the nineteenth century.
The gardener of the present work resembles many of the models the artist painted near his home in Poissy, a rural town outside Paris, and later in Rolleboise, his home in the 1890s. More than subjects of his paintings, these women were also friends to Ridgway Knight. As George Sheldon described in 1888, "Knight is a familiar figure in the field and in the cottage. A hundred times he has been called upon to act as godfather to the children of these models, and whenever one of them is married, she is sure to receive from Mr. Knight a handsome present in gold" (George Sheldon, Recent Ideals in American Art, New York and London, 1889, p. 18). The farming women Ridgway Knight depicted were painted from life, but the artist gave them ideal proportions and a refined elegance, a legacy from his academic training. Ingeniously, he furnished an all-glass studio near his home, which allowed him to observe his models in nature yet protected from the elements that would otherwise disrupt his work. In this blend of the natural and the studied, the model's clothing is built of a palette that echoes the colors of the flowers, water and sky that surround her, and her pose duplicates the composition of the tall flowers in front of her. She appears to become one with the landscape as she is absorbed in her daily tasks (see lots 24 and 28).