Lot Essay
"As a matter of gravitation" wrote his wife in her memoires of her husband, "Mowbray courted the muses , and the graces....but first, the virtues."
Henry Siddons was born August 5, 1858 in Alexandria, Egypt to English parents both of whom died before the boy was five. He was adopted by his aunt and Professor George Morday Mowbray who had just moved to North Adams, Massachusetts. Professor Mowbray was a chemist who worked in the years following the Civil War with nitroglycerine which was newly invented but highly volatile and dangerous for peace time work.
Henry's interest in art and his father's interest in the military won him an appointment to West Point but he did not remain there long. Instead, he went to Paris to study under Leon Bonnat in 1878. He entered his first picture Young Bacchus in the Salon in 1880 and, upon returning to New York, became a member of the National Academy in 1891.
In 1892, Augustus St. Gaudens arranged for Mowbray to meet the architect George Post who had been commissioned to build a residence for CP Huntington at the corner of 57th Street and 5th Avenue in New York. Post hired Mowbray to paint seven lunettes to decorate the entrance hall of the house which were to represent music, literature, tragedy, comedy, astronomy, painting and electricity.
The commission brought Mowbray into acquaintance with Thomas B. Clarke, James P. Morgan, Stanford White and Charles Follen McKim.
McKim and White, who felt that the design of a building and its decoration should harmonize, brought Mowbray into several of their ÿmportant projects giving Mowbray the opportunity to see his work accepted as fundamental to these architectural ideals. Mowbray was hired by White to design the pediment for the Madison Square Presbyterian Church and the living room of the F.W. Vanderbilt house in Hyde Park. He was also one of several painters to decorate the walls of the Appellate Court House in New York in 1896.
The creation of the White City for the World's Fair in 1893 was the greatest opportunity for American Renaissance students to work with McKim and White. "More artists" counselled McKim, "should become students and grasp the spirit that produced Rome. I think of the Borgia apartments, their perfect unity, their glory of color. Think what it would mean to have such a thing here."
McKim sponsored Mowbray on a two year trip to Rome so that he might "understand the grave richness and quiet tone of Pinturrichio" and return to decorate the ceiling of the library of the University Club House in New York. The trip coincided with the founding of the American Academy in Rome for which Mowbray served as Director while he was there. Upon his return he commenced, again for McKim, the decoration of Morgan's library on 36th Street which was completed in 1905.
President Wilson appointed Mowbray the fifth painter member of the National Commission of Fine Arts in 1921. He succeeded Francis D. Millet, Daniel H. Burnham, Edwin Blashfield and J. Alden Weir.
Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was strolling one day through the meadows picking flowers and living a fancy free life. Hades, the King of the Underworld and Zeus' brother, fell in love with and abducted the unsuspecting Persephone while under Eros' spell. Against her will, Hades insisted on his marriage to Persephone, making her Queen of the Underworld. Persephone resisted strongly and made every attempt to remain untainted by the fruits of the Underworld.
Zeus and Demeter, furious over the loss of their daughter, commanded Hades to return her immediately. But Persephone was tainted by the seeds of a pomegranate she had eaten and could not return unconditionally. In the end, a compromise was reached. Hades and Demeter struck a deal that allowed Persephone to spend six months on earth conducted by Mercury, as long as she would spend the rest of the year in the underworld as Hades' Queen. Her visits to earth take place in springtime when she walks the earth and enjoys the flowering meadows. However, she returns to her double life in the Underworld with Hades in the fall.
The frame for this painting was designed by and made for Stanford White.
Henry Siddons was born August 5, 1858 in Alexandria, Egypt to English parents both of whom died before the boy was five. He was adopted by his aunt and Professor George Morday Mowbray who had just moved to North Adams, Massachusetts. Professor Mowbray was a chemist who worked in the years following the Civil War with nitroglycerine which was newly invented but highly volatile and dangerous for peace time work.
Henry's interest in art and his father's interest in the military won him an appointment to West Point but he did not remain there long. Instead, he went to Paris to study under Leon Bonnat in 1878. He entered his first picture Young Bacchus in the Salon in 1880 and, upon returning to New York, became a member of the National Academy in 1891.
In 1892, Augustus St. Gaudens arranged for Mowbray to meet the architect George Post who had been commissioned to build a residence for CP Huntington at the corner of 57th Street and 5th Avenue in New York. Post hired Mowbray to paint seven lunettes to decorate the entrance hall of the house which were to represent music, literature, tragedy, comedy, astronomy, painting and electricity.
The commission brought Mowbray into acquaintance with Thomas B. Clarke, James P. Morgan, Stanford White and Charles Follen McKim.
McKim and White, who felt that the design of a building and its decoration should harmonize, brought Mowbray into several of their ÿmportant projects giving Mowbray the opportunity to see his work accepted as fundamental to these architectural ideals. Mowbray was hired by White to design the pediment for the Madison Square Presbyterian Church and the living room of the F.W. Vanderbilt house in Hyde Park. He was also one of several painters to decorate the walls of the Appellate Court House in New York in 1896.
The creation of the White City for the World's Fair in 1893 was the greatest opportunity for American Renaissance students to work with McKim and White. "More artists" counselled McKim, "should become students and grasp the spirit that produced Rome. I think of the Borgia apartments, their perfect unity, their glory of color. Think what it would mean to have such a thing here."
McKim sponsored Mowbray on a two year trip to Rome so that he might "understand the grave richness and quiet tone of Pinturrichio" and return to decorate the ceiling of the library of the University Club House in New York. The trip coincided with the founding of the American Academy in Rome for which Mowbray served as Director while he was there. Upon his return he commenced, again for McKim, the decoration of Morgan's library on 36th Street which was completed in 1905.
President Wilson appointed Mowbray the fifth painter member of the National Commission of Fine Arts in 1921. He succeeded Francis D. Millet, Daniel H. Burnham, Edwin Blashfield and J. Alden Weir.
Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was strolling one day through the meadows picking flowers and living a fancy free life. Hades, the King of the Underworld and Zeus' brother, fell in love with and abducted the unsuspecting Persephone while under Eros' spell. Against her will, Hades insisted on his marriage to Persephone, making her Queen of the Underworld. Persephone resisted strongly and made every attempt to remain untainted by the fruits of the Underworld.
Zeus and Demeter, furious over the loss of their daughter, commanded Hades to return her immediately. But Persephone was tainted by the seeds of a pomegranate she had eaten and could not return unconditionally. In the end, a compromise was reached. Hades and Demeter struck a deal that allowed Persephone to spend six months on earth conducted by Mercury, as long as she would spend the rest of the year in the underworld as Hades' Queen. Her visits to earth take place in springtime when she walks the earth and enjoys the flowering meadows. However, she returns to her double life in the Underworld with Hades in the fall.
The frame for this painting was designed by and made for Stanford White.