(NEW YORK CITY) Roman Fekonja artist Painting of the Manhatt

Sale 2580 - Lot 186

Price Realized: $ 1,430

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(NEW YORK CITY.) Roman Fekonja, artist. Painting of the Manhattan Purchase. Oil on canvas, 26 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches to sight, framed; some craquelure, a few areas of restoration, laid down on board; signed and dated at lower right. [New York], 1906

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A dramatic imagining of the famed purchase of Manhattan Island by Peter Minuit for $24 worth of trinkets. Minuit and his men are here seen displaying a chest full of beads, textiles, and metal goods in negotiation with a group of American Indians; a deed is ready to be signed in Minuit's left hand. The source image appears to be another painting by Alfred Fredericks, which was popularized in a 1902 engraving. See Peter A. Douglas, "Illustrating the Manhattan Purchase."

The artist Roman Fekonja (1869-1910) arrived in the United States from the Austrian Empire in 1892. He made his residence in Manhattan, working mostly as a portrait painter, and became an American citizen in March 1906. That same year he completed this painting, an immigrant artist's affectionate tribute to his adopted city's founding legend.