Displaying items by tag: Hudson River School

A curator at the Dallas Museum of Art discovered an unsigned painting likely created by the American landscape painter, George Inness. The work has been in the museum’s collection for more than 80 years but had been attributed to Asher B. Durand, one of the leading figures of the Hudson River School painters. The mid-19^th century art movement had a profound influence on Inness’ work.

After experts at the museum questioned In the Woods’ attribution, American art curator Sue Canterbury decided to do some research on the oil on canvas. Canterbury explored other artists whose work fit with In the Woods’ aesthetic and stumbled upon Michael Quick’s George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonne. Within the raisonne Canterbury found a pen and ink drawing that bore a striking resemblance to In the Woods. It was then that the museum decided to reattribute the painting to Inness.

The bucolic forest scene has been renamed Stream in the Mountains by curators and will be display at the museum. It is a significant work because it is from Inness’ early years and not many of his works from this era have survived.

One of the most anticipated moments of the television show “Antiques Roadshow” is when participants come to learn that their dust-covered garage sale find or inherited household item is worth many multiples of what was originally paid for it.

A similar plot unfolded on March 5, when a Cortlandt Manor couple, who asked not to be identified, brought two paintings that they had recently inherited to an “Antiques Appraisal Day” event sponsored by the Larchmont Historical Society (LHS) and Clarke Auction Gallery.

Both paintings appeared to be signed by Jasper F. Cropsey, a 19th Century landscape painter of the Hudson River School. Cropsey's paintings have appeared in major museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art. 

When David Bahssin, co-owner of Post Road Gallery and one of the expert appraisers at the event, initially saw the couple’s paintings he was dubious, given the fact that the paintings were a pair and appeared to have been completed late in the artist’s career.

“They were painted well after the artist’s prime period,” he said. “That confused me.”

Clarke Auction Gallery Owner Ron Clarke, an eternal optimist, then viewed the paintings himself and, recognizing the quality and potential value, “decided to pursue further.”

The Cropsey paintings had all the dust and dirt of many years on them, having spent several decades hovering over a ping-pong table in the owner’s childhood home in West Hartford, Connecticut.

“It’s a sign that they haven’t been seen in public for 150 years,” said Clarke Appraiser Tom Curran, referring to the original, untouched condition of the works.

Bahssin recommended that the gallery contact the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, a Hastings-on-Hudson-based organization that is the foremost authority on the work of Cropsey to further authenticate the pieces.

It was a bit of a hard sell, confessed Clarke, but eventually the Foundation agreed to look at both paintings in person.