?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
FELIX O.C. DARLEY. Two Studies of Horses. One in pencil on board, the other ink and watercolor wash on paper. Each approximately 165x216 mm; 6 1/2x8 1/2 inches. The first not signed or dated; the second, signed "F.O.C. Darley," and dated 1840. Occasional soil spot, light creases to corners. The second mounted to folded folio with two inscriptions, one in ink in the artist's hand stating "From Life," the other in pencil indicating the drawing was taken out of the artist's sketchbook and signed by him at 18 years old. Matted together and framed.
Darley (1821-1888) was a self-taught artist who was among the first American artists to forge an entire career out of the Illustration Art profession. He provided drawings for the first illustrated edition of Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" in 1848. His talents were so acclaimed that his illustrations were sought after to accompany the literary works of Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. These sketches are among the earliest recorded surviving drawings by Darley, expertly accomplished in his early years. He was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2001.
