Near Kennebunkport, Maine

Details

Jervis McEntee (1828-1891)
Near Kennebunkport, Maine
dated 'Oct 6.77' (lower right), inscribed with title 'near Kennebunkport' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
11 3/8 x 16 in. (29 x 40.7 cm.)
Painted in 1877.

Provenance

By descent from the artist to his executors, by whom sold at the following:
Catalogue of paintings by the late Jervis McEntee, N.A.: Ortgies & Co., New York, 30 March 1892, lot 150.
Private Collection, Darien, Connecticut, by 1980.
With Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, by whom acquired from the above.
SBC Communications, Inc., Texas, 1986-2007, by whom acquired from the above.
With Menconi & Schoelkopf Fine Art, LLC, New York.
With Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, February 2013, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

SBC Communications, Inc., American Images: The SBC Collection of Twentieth-Century American Art, New York, 1996, p. 296.

Exhibited

New York, Debra Force Fine Art, Inc., A Diary Illuminated: Oil Sketches by Jervis McEntee, 12 November - 21 December 2007.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

A prominent artist of the Hudson River School, Jervis McEntee was known for his grand depictions of nature, specifically the Catskill Mountains and various locations throughout the American Northeast. Throughout his career, he befriended many other American painters, such as Eastman Johnson, with whom he travelled to Maine for artistic inspiration. In an 1877 diary entry, McEntee wrote: “Thursday Sept. 27 I went to Kennebunkport in Maine to join Eastman Johnson who recommended me to come there for sketching…remained there until Wednesday Oct 10 when I left…I made a number of sketches of the shore in combination with the sea and did not have a bad day of weather” (The Jervis McEntee Diaries, October 15, 1877, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution). The present work reflects McEntee’s mastery in capturing the American landscape, made more true-to-life by his practice of oil sketching en plein air.

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