.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Daniel Ridgway Knight, born into a strict Quaker family in Philadelphia in March 1839, spent much of his teenage years pursuing the artistic talent he so evidently exhibited. At the age of 19, with the support of his grandfather, he enrolled in the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of Arts. With classmates such as Mary Cassatt, Helen Corson, Thomas Eakins, Augustus Heaton, Howard Roberts, William Sartain and Lucien Crépon, he was well ensconced with a generation that would individually come to influence American art history of the late 19th Century. Nevertheless Ridgway Knight, primarily inspired by Crépon's descriptions of Paris, sailed for France in early 1861 and enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as well as in the atelier of Charles-Gabriel Gleyre. He returned to America eighteen months later to fight for his native city of Philadelphia during the American Civil War only to return to France in 1871, where he remained the rest of his life.
Following his return, he began painting rural scenes inspired by peasant figures. Upon meeting Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, he decided to take up residence in Poissy. 'At the age of thirty-five he had finally found his style, and his pictures of country folk at work, or more frequently at rest, in the fields or on the banks of the river Seine, were to bring him fame and success until his death fifty years later' (R.B. Knight, Ridgway Knight: A Master of the Pastoral Genre, Cornell University, 1989, exh. cat. p. 3). One finds that Ridgway Knight's peasants are often absorbed in isolated contemplation, luminous fantasies or idyllic diversions.
Ridgway Knight not only painted these country folk, but also knew them personally. On a number of occasions he was asked to act as a godfather to the children of his models who were sure to receive a handsome gift from him if they were married. Perhaps rather sentimentally, Ridgway Knight viewed peasants as content and happy folk and truly believed that they found peace in their toil. In 1888, when accused of such sentimentality, he told George Sheldon: "These peasants are as happy and content as any similar class in the world. They all save money and are small capitalists and investors. They enjoy life. They work hard, to be sure but plenty of people do that. They love their native soil. In their hours of ease they have countless diversions; and the women know how to be merry in their hours of toil" (R.B. Knight, p. 7).
Ridgway Knight was acutely aware of the current French theories regarding outdoor figural painting. He even constructed a glass studio, separate from his house at Rolleboise, where he could position his models in direct lighting and fully capture the color nuances. Whether he was the first artist to construct a glass studio is not known today, but we do know that in this protected environment he could make best use of natural light and work entirely unaffected by climate. This allowed him to paint his models comfortably at differing times of the day and in all seasons, including the coldest days of the winter. Ridgway Knight's observation of his models, often posed in actual peasant garments, led him to arrive at subtle harmonies of tone and color most effectively seen in a series of canvases dedicated to the theme of harvesters resting, gathering flowers, and enjoying each other's company or the nature itself.
As an academically trained artist, Ridgway Knight would have produced many preparatory drawings prior to advancing further on a design, and he certainly would have done so in Tying up the Hollyhocks - a composition so carefully worked and beautifully animated. Ridgway Knight was also known to have purchased clothing from nearby villagers in which to dress his models, in order to make them appear as authentic as possible.
Howard L. Rehs will include this work in his forthcoming Daniel Ridgway Knight catalogue raisonné.
Following his return, he began painting rural scenes inspired by peasant figures. Upon meeting Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, he decided to take up residence in Poissy. 'At the age of thirty-five he had finally found his style, and his pictures of country folk at work, or more frequently at rest, in the fields or on the banks of the river Seine, were to bring him fame and success until his death fifty years later' (R.B. Knight, Ridgway Knight: A Master of the Pastoral Genre, Cornell University, 1989, exh. cat. p. 3). One finds that Ridgway Knight's peasants are often absorbed in isolated contemplation, luminous fantasies or idyllic diversions.
Ridgway Knight not only painted these country folk, but also knew them personally. On a number of occasions he was asked to act as a godfather to the children of his models who were sure to receive a handsome gift from him if they were married. Perhaps rather sentimentally, Ridgway Knight viewed peasants as content and happy folk and truly believed that they found peace in their toil. In 1888, when accused of such sentimentality, he told George Sheldon: "These peasants are as happy and content as any similar class in the world. They all save money and are small capitalists and investors. They enjoy life. They work hard, to be sure but plenty of people do that. They love their native soil. In their hours of ease they have countless diversions; and the women know how to be merry in their hours of toil" (R.B. Knight, p. 7).
Ridgway Knight was acutely aware of the current French theories regarding outdoor figural painting. He even constructed a glass studio, separate from his house at Rolleboise, where he could position his models in direct lighting and fully capture the color nuances. Whether he was the first artist to construct a glass studio is not known today, but we do know that in this protected environment he could make best use of natural light and work entirely unaffected by climate. This allowed him to paint his models comfortably at differing times of the day and in all seasons, including the coldest days of the winter. Ridgway Knight's observation of his models, often posed in actual peasant garments, led him to arrive at subtle harmonies of tone and color most effectively seen in a series of canvases dedicated to the theme of harvesters resting, gathering flowers, and enjoying each other's company or the nature itself.
As an academically trained artist, Ridgway Knight would have produced many preparatory drawings prior to advancing further on a design, and he certainly would have done so in Tying up the Hollyhocks - a composition so carefully worked and beautifully animated. Ridgway Knight was also known to have purchased clothing from nearby villagers in which to dress his models, in order to make them appear as authentic as possible.
Howard L. Rehs will include this work in his forthcoming Daniel Ridgway Knight catalogue raisonné.