John Beigel* (active 1855)

Details

John Beigel* (active 1855)

Field Flowers

signed J Beigel and dated 1855, lower right--oil on canvas
24 x 20in. (61 x 50.8cm.)

Provenance

Childs Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York
Paul Magriel, New York
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York

Literature

G.C. Groce and D.H. Wallace, The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America: 1564-1860, New Haven, Connecticut, 1957, p. 42
E. McCausland, "American Still-Life Paintings in the Collection of Paul Magriel", Antiques, April 1955, pp. 324-326, illus.
R. Wunderlich, "Important American Still Life Paintings", Kennedy Quarterly, Dec. 1962, vol 3, p. 110-111, no. 174, illus.
P. Magriel, "American Flower Paintings", The American Antiques Journal, Dec. 1955, p. 8, illus.

Exhibited

New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Two Hundred Years of American Art, Jan.-Feb., 1954, n.p., no. 4, illus.
New York, Wildenstein, The Magic of Flowers in Painting: An Exhibition for the Benefit of the Lenox Hill Association, April-May, 1954, n.p., no. 84
Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art, American Still Life Paintings from the Paul Magriel Collection, Oct.-Nov., 1957, n.p., no. 1, illus.
New York, Kennedy Galleries, Inc., Important American Still Life and Portrait Paintings, Dec., 1962, no. 174

Lot Essay

Virtually nothing is known about John Beigel. Groce and Wallace and the several other texts that mention Beigel seem to confirm that this is the artist's only known work, although the skill and complexity of this composition suggest that it was not his only effort at still life painting. The painting achieved recognition primarily from the exhibitions and literature that discussed it while it was part of Paul Magriel's very fine collection of American still life paintings. The work has been in the collection of the Rosedown Plantation and Historic Gardens, St. Francisville, Louisiana since 1962.