Apr 06, 2017 - Sale 2442

Sale 2442 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 62,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 50,000 - $ 75,000
ROBERT S. DUNCANSON (1821 - 1872)
Untitled (River Landscape).

Oil on linen canvas, 1863. 371x587 mm; 14 5/8x23 1/8 inches. Initialed "R.S.D." and dated in oil, lower left.

Provenance: private collection, New Jersey. With a two page document of authenticity by Joseph D. Ketner II.

This beautiful landscape is an excellent example of pastoral painting from Duncanson's mid-career period. Dr. Ketner identifies this composition as one that Duncanson returned to often - one of at least five known versions, painted between 1863-67. Ketner notes how the detailed foliage, the right rocky bank and the transparency of the river's waters are all "signature elements of Duncanson's most accomplished paintings." Duncanson also skillfully adds atmosphere to this scene. Here we share an idyllic view, bathed in a warm and soft light, with the figure seated on the river bank.

This type of painting earned Duncanson both critical and commercial success - but it was interrupted by the Civil War and the subsequent upheaval to his life in Cincinnati. Duncanson most likely painted this painting before his self-imposed exile - he departed to Canada in September of that year. Duncanson stayed in Montreal for two years before traveling to the British Isles, where he toured England and Scotland until the winter of 1866-67.