Lot Essay
RELATED LITERATURE
W.H. Cadbury and H.F. March, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, Artist in the Adirondacks, Newark, 1986, p. 281, no. 87.9, illus.
Amos F. Adams Shooting Over Gus Bondher and Son, Count Bonher is the second previously unknown version of this subject. This painting, having been stored away for many years and literally forgotten was recently rediscovered by the Library. The first version, of similar size, was fomerly in the collection of Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. The Frelinghuysen version was presented by Tait in May of 1887 to the Wellington Gun Club of Boston as a prize for the best Amateur Shot.
Born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts in 1842, Amos F. Adams was a successful merchant on North Market Street in Boston and an avid hunter. He was a former president of the Wellington Gun Club and is depicted in the present work hunting with two setters, Gus Bonher and the son, Count Bonher, both of which were bred by Purcel Llewellen of England. Adams owned the present version, which at the time of his death was bequethed along with other hunting trophies to the Adams Family.
As was common with many Tait paintings, prints were published further popularizing the image. The present work was reproduced as a photogravure, smaller in size, by the firm Handy Scott & Company, titled Thoroughbreds. There exists a photogravure that was finished in oil, possibly by Tait himself, and given to Mrs. Fuller of New York in 1887.
W.H. Cadbury and H.F. March, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, Artist in the Adirondacks, Newark, 1986, p. 281, no. 87.9, illus.
Amos F. Adams Shooting Over Gus Bondher and Son, Count Bonher is the second previously unknown version of this subject. This painting, having been stored away for many years and literally forgotten was recently rediscovered by the Library. The first version, of similar size, was fomerly in the collection of Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. The Frelinghuysen version was presented by Tait in May of 1887 to the Wellington Gun Club of Boston as a prize for the best Amateur Shot.
Born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts in 1842, Amos F. Adams was a successful merchant on North Market Street in Boston and an avid hunter. He was a former president of the Wellington Gun Club and is depicted in the present work hunting with two setters, Gus Bonher and the son, Count Bonher, both of which were bred by Purcel Llewellen of England. Adams owned the present version, which at the time of his death was bequethed along with other hunting trophies to the Adams Family.
As was common with many Tait paintings, prints were published further popularizing the image. The present work was reproduced as a photogravure, smaller in size, by the firm Handy Scott & Company, titled Thoroughbreds. There exists a photogravure that was finished in oil, possibly by Tait himself, and given to Mrs. Fuller of New York in 1887.