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Lot Essay
According to James L. Yarnall, Ph.D., a wood-engraved illustration of the present work appeared in the 1887 catalogue of the American Water-Color Society, and this was the last known record of the picture until it recently resurfaced in 2010.
The inscription on the old backing paper with the name H. Herkomer may suggest that the British painter Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914) purchased or otherwise acquired the work in 1887.
The watercolor follows the precise design of La Farge's 1869 now-destroyed easel painting of the same subject, entitled Sleep in early publications. The sitter for the 1869 oil was the artist's wife. In all likelihood, the present work was executed from the oil painting sometime in 1884 or 1885. The oil painting was loaned back to the artist and sent to his New York studio for photography in anticipation of its reproduction in Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer's Book of American Figure Painters, published in 1886.
We are grateful to James L. Yarnall, Ph.D. for preparing the catalogue entry for this work.
The inscription on the old backing paper with the name H. Herkomer may suggest that the British painter Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914) purchased or otherwise acquired the work in 1887.
The watercolor follows the precise design of La Farge's 1869 now-destroyed easel painting of the same subject, entitled Sleep in early publications. The sitter for the 1869 oil was the artist's wife. In all likelihood, the present work was executed from the oil painting sometime in 1884 or 1885. The oil painting was loaned back to the artist and sent to his New York studio for photography in anticipation of its reproduction in Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer's Book of American Figure Painters, published in 1886.
We are grateful to James L. Yarnall, Ph.D. for preparing the catalogue entry for this work.