Winter 2016

38 www.antiquesandfineart.com Winter Discoveries John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) Portrait of John Codman III (1755–1803) Circa 1800 Oil on canvas, 42⅛ x 34 inches Courtesy of Historic New England An important portrait of John Codman III (1755–1803) by John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) has a permanent home at Historic New England’s Codman Estate in Lincoln, Massachusetts. After being on loan for nearly thirty years, the painting was recently acquired from members of the Codman family. John Codman’s improvements and expansion of his Lincoln property from 1790 until his death in 1803 transformed the estate into an active agricultural property and a country seat. He is one of the most important figures in the history and development of the Codman Estate and the painting is central to the interpretation of the house. John Singleton Copley was colonial America’s greatest painter, famous for his portraits of important figures in both America and England. Copley painted John Codman III in England around 1800, when Codman was traveling to France to handle financial issues related to his brother. The portrait shows Codman gazing out of the frame. He stands in front of a red damask curtain with a distant landscape behind the curtain in the lower left of the painting. William Trost Richards (1833–1905) New Jersey Shore at Sunrise, 1881 Gouache and watercolor on artist board, 10 x 16 inches Signed and dated lower right: Wm T. Richards 1881 Provenance: Private Collection New England Sold to a Private collector Courtesy of MME Fine Art, LLC A native of Philadelphia, the great William Trost Richards first worked as a designer of ornamental metalwork, turning to the study of drawing in 1850 with German-born artist Paul Weber. His first exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was in 1852, and by 1854 he opened his own studio in Philadelphia. He painted along with masters of the Hudson River School and spent time abroad, garnering many prominent commissions, awards and accolades until his death in 1905. Richards is perhaps best known for his seascapes. In 1866, Richards traveled to England where he turned his attention from landscape painting to marine painting. After being caught in a storm at sea, he began to study the architecture of waves, the effects of weather on the ocean and the unique light patterns of the waves as they reached the shoreline. Few artists were able to paint the sea with as much luminosity as Richards. The positively incandescent seascape of New Jersey Shore at Sunrise is a prime example of his ability to capture the breadth of the sea, the magical light and the serene peace of a sunrise along the coast. noteworthy sales