Elihu Vedder

The Fable of the Miller, His Son and the Donkey: a Set of Nine Paintings

Lot Closed

May 26, 06:19 PM GMT

Estimate

80,000 - 120,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property of a Private Collector, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Elihu Vedder

American

1836 - 1923

The Fable of the Miller, His Son and the Donkey: a Set of Nine Paintings

the first: signed with the initial V. (center left); the second: signed with the initial V. (lower right); the third: signed with the initial V. and dated 1869 (lower right); the fourth: signed with the initial V. (center right) and signed with the initial V. and numbered 4 (upper left); the fifth: signed with the initial V. and numbered 5 (lower right); the sixth: signed with the initial V. and numbered 6 (lower left); the seventh: signed with the initial V. (lower right) and numbered 7 (lower center); the eighth and ninth: signed with the initial V. (lower right); each also inscribed Copyright 1899 by E. Vedder (lower left)

oil on panel

each panel: 7⅛ by 12 in.; 18 by 30.5 cm

framed: 14¼ by 19⅛ in.; 36.1 by 48.5 cm

E. Patten, London
Private collection, 1984
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 3 December 1998, lot 165

Glen Falls, New York, The Hyde Collection, Elihu Vedder, Paintings and Drawings, June-August 1975, pp. 20-21.

Joshua C. Taylor, Jane Dillenberger, Richard Murray and Regina Soria, Perceptions and Evocations: The Art of Elihu Vedder, Washington, D.C., 1979, figs. 71, 72, pp. 78-79 (for another oil version and the preliminary drawings)
Regina Soria, Elihu Vedder, American Visionary, Artist in Rome, 1836-1923, 1970, p. 235, ill.

There are two known sets of The Fable in existence, with slight differences of detail in the various scenes.

1: The Miller and his son and the donkey, or the Man who tried to please everybody.

2: He starts to the market driving the donkey before him. Girls make fun of him for having an animal and not riding.

3: The son rides; the Miller overhears men finding fault with this disrespect for age

4: The Miller rides; mothers abuse him for making the youth walk

5: They both ride; workmen pity the donkey and advise them to carry rather than ride it

6: The complying Miller amid the jeering approval of the crowd tries to follow the advice

7: The donkey, struggling against the unusual treatment, breaks the pole, falls from a bridge and is killed

8: Without his donkey and with wallet still empty, the Miller returns home a poorer but wiser man

9: Moral -- in seeking to please all we please none and have our labor for our pains