Lot Essay
This remarkable group of drawings was created during an evening of one of the several sketch clubs that flouirshed in the New York artistic community during the early and mid nineteenth century. "In these sketching associations drawing functioned as a social activity. . . members met once a forthnight on Friday evenings at another member's house and sketched for an hour on a common subject. . . After the sketching hour had passed, members joined in convivial refreshements, supplied by the host. The original rules of [the first] Sketch Club stated that refreshements were to be modest, although the guidelines were seldom followed. Libation often curtailed the intended activity, which was drawing. . . Artists prized their drawings executed in sketch clubs for invention, creativity, and spontaneity. Furthermore, the host-member received the evening's drawings as as gifts, lending such drawings special personal value." (P. Provost, "The Changing Status of Drawing in Nineteenth-Century America," in Winslow Homer's Drawings in Black and White, Ph. D. diss., Princeton University, 1994, pp. 25-26)
In light of current Romantic thought, subjects for the sketch club drawings were often taken from literature or the imagination. The subject of this group of drawings, "Extremity," reflects this practice. As the drawings are variously inscribed on the reverse "for Gray," it seems that Henry Peters Gray was the host for the convivial evening that included Mount, Durand, Edmonds, and Chapman, during which these drawings were created.
In light of current Romantic thought, subjects for the sketch club drawings were often taken from literature or the imagination. The subject of this group of drawings, "Extremity," reflects this practice. As the drawings are variously inscribed on the reverse "for Gray," it seems that Henry Peters Gray was the host for the convivial evening that included Mount, Durand, Edmonds, and Chapman, during which these drawings were created.