ATTRIBUTED TO THE EXOTIC SCENERY ARTIST, CIRCA 1820
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN COLLECTION
ATTRIBUTED TO THE EXOTIC SCENERY ARTIST, CIRCA 1820

A SCHWENKFELDER FRAKTUR DRAWING

Details
ATTRIBUTED TO THE EXOTIC SCENERY ARTIST, CIRCA 1820
A SCHWENKFELDER FRAKTUR DRAWING
reverse inscribed Amanda Rebecca Singer
watercolor on paper
8 ¾ x 7 ½ in. (sight)
Provenance
Mary Brenneman sale, Lancaster, January 1965
Sidney Gecker, American Folk Art, New York, 1989

Brought to you by

Sallie Glover
Sallie Glover

Lot Essay


Among the more vibrant practitioners of fraktur were members of a Protestant sect called the Schwenkfelders and like other Pennsylvania Germans, the Schwenkfelders brought with them the old-country custom of illuminating documents with decorative writing and drawings as seen in the work offered here. Along with related examples featuring a similar bird and Eastern cityscape, the fraktur offered here is attributed to an artist known as the Exotic Scenery artist, who was active in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania from c.1817 to c.1830. For similar examples, see Pook & Pook, Downington, Pennsylvania, 10-11 July 2020, Lisa Minardi, Drawn with Spirit (2015) and Mary Jane Lederach Hershey, This Teaching I Present (2003).

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