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Lot Essay
Born in New York, John la Farge studied to become a lawyer until he was inspired to pursue his artistic goals following a trip to Paris. When he returned he took up the study of painting under the tutelage of William Morris Hunt (1824-1879) at Newport, Rhode Island. As well as being a prolific painter, La Farge was an innovative book illustrator and designed murals and stained glass windows.
As La Farge's first attempt to create a "great decorative ensemble" for a religious context, this part triptych occupies an important role in the artist's career. The commission unfortunately is only vaguely understood. Around 1862, La Farge was asked by Reverend William Quinn to design an altarpiece for Saint Peter's Roman Catholic Church in New York City. Saint Peter's was the first Catholic parish in New York, founded just after the Revolutionary War. Its church on Barclay Street dated from 1837 and Quinn had been pastor of the church since 1849.
The altarpiece was to take the form of a triptych representing the Crucifixion of Christ in the centre panel with Saint John the Evangelist on the right and the Virgin Mary on the left. Only the two side panels were executed. Few details are known about why the altarpiece was never completed aside from the observation of several early critics that the triptych was rejected by the Church.
In his design, La Farge drew upon Italian altarpieces of the quattrocento. The poses and attenuated silhouettes of the figures are especially reminiscent of work from the Byzantine and Sienese schools of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Unlike such precedents, however, La Farge gave the narrative a modern feeling through the introduction of an atmospheric landscape and breath-taking perspective. He set the narrative before an expansive landscape that stretches far into the distance as if giving a view from Mount Calvary. The view actually looks east from the ledge above the west side of Nelson's Pond, the body of water visible in the middle distance. Beyond the pond is a stretch of meadows and dunes and Second Beach in Middletown, Rhode Island, adjacent to where La Farge lived at the time. The figures partake of this quest for modern realism. The features of Saint John are those of William James, La Farge's companion in William Morris Hunt's Newport studio and close friend during the early 1860s (cf. a study for the head, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The features of the Virgin Mary are those of the artist's wife, Margaret Mason Perry La Farge. Many sketches for a dead crucified Christ, rendered realistically with his broken anatomy slumped over and still nailed to the cross, are found in sketchbooks and on loose sheets in portfolios dating from around this time.
We are grateful to James L. Yarnall, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island for this catalogue entry.
As La Farge's first attempt to create a "great decorative ensemble" for a religious context, this part triptych occupies an important role in the artist's career. The commission unfortunately is only vaguely understood. Around 1862, La Farge was asked by Reverend William Quinn to design an altarpiece for Saint Peter's Roman Catholic Church in New York City. Saint Peter's was the first Catholic parish in New York, founded just after the Revolutionary War. Its church on Barclay Street dated from 1837 and Quinn had been pastor of the church since 1849.
The altarpiece was to take the form of a triptych representing the Crucifixion of Christ in the centre panel with Saint John the Evangelist on the right and the Virgin Mary on the left. Only the two side panels were executed. Few details are known about why the altarpiece was never completed aside from the observation of several early critics that the triptych was rejected by the Church.
In his design, La Farge drew upon Italian altarpieces of the quattrocento. The poses and attenuated silhouettes of the figures are especially reminiscent of work from the Byzantine and Sienese schools of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Unlike such precedents, however, La Farge gave the narrative a modern feeling through the introduction of an atmospheric landscape and breath-taking perspective. He set the narrative before an expansive landscape that stretches far into the distance as if giving a view from Mount Calvary. The view actually looks east from the ledge above the west side of Nelson's Pond, the body of water visible in the middle distance. Beyond the pond is a stretch of meadows and dunes and Second Beach in Middletown, Rhode Island, adjacent to where La Farge lived at the time. The figures partake of this quest for modern realism. The features of Saint John are those of William James, La Farge's companion in William Morris Hunt's Newport studio and close friend during the early 1860s (cf. a study for the head, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The features of the Virgin Mary are those of the artist's wife, Margaret Mason Perry La Farge. Many sketches for a dead crucified Christ, rendered realistically with his broken anatomy slumped over and still nailed to the cross, are found in sketchbooks and on loose sheets in portfolios dating from around this time.
We are grateful to James L. Yarnall, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island for this catalogue entry.