Xanthus Smith Inlet Station Creek

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McPherson Griffin Southern Collection

By Childress Gaffney Auctions

Feb 9, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-02-09 10:00:00 2019-02-09 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : McPherson Griffin Southern Collection https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/childress-gaffney-auction/mcpherson-griffin-southern-collection-3800
The McPherson Griffin Collection represents three generations of astute collectors having an avid appreciation for the English, American, and Southern fine and decorative art. Of particular note in this collection are miniatures. This collection reflects their superb eye and collecting success. Childress Gaffney Auctions info@cgauctions.com

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• Lot Description
  Xanthus Russell Smith (1839-1929) Inlet at Station Creek, South Carolina 1866 Actual: 8 x 12 in. Framed: 12 1/2 x 18 1/2 in. Oil on Canvas Illustrated in Philadelphia Collection, LXV pl. 28 RS 5669 Provenance: Charleston Renaissance Gallery, Frank S. Schwarz & Son, Philadelphia. Estimate $6,000-$8,000 Note: Similar to Xanthus Russell Smith painting, Scene on Beaufort Creek, South Carolina, 1877, in the "American Painting Collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth." Artist Xanthus Smith, the most prolific painter of Civil War maritime scenes, one of the few Civil War marine painters who actually served aboard ship during the con ict, It was his rst-hand experience in the Civil War as he served on the U.S.S. Wabash that he drew upon to complete his masterpieces of Civil War. In Inlet at Station Creek, South Carolina , Smith gives an artistically superb account of South Carolina as he saw it when he served onboard the Wabash at that location from 1862-1863. Smith would complete sketches during the war, sometimes taking a launch to the shore to complete pictures from a different perspective such as this piece. In a successful effort to depict a more calm scene with ships in the distance and smaller craft in the foreground, this oil on canvas was done in 1866 just after the war. Smith was a master at using the small canvas to capture detail, as he put it, small, compact and neat, in this case incorporating the South Carolina palmetto tree prominently in the composition. Xanthus Smith is known for his Civil War maritime work with its painstakingly minute brushwork that he is most well-known. Many credit his success to his upbringing by Russell and Mary Smith, both accomplished artists, who at age twelve took him on a European tour where he learned much from studying great art and from his sea voyage. He developed a love for the sea and at the outbreak of the Civil War enlisted as a ship's clerk where he became a chronicler of sea battles and scenes, drawing on his own experiences and from photographs. By the time of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition he was regarded as the premier painter of Civil War scenes. The artist established his reputation as America's foremost painter of Civil War naval battles and ships. He regarded the period between 1865 and 1876 as a glorious one for American artists in which domestic patronage fostered a genuine art€ that rivaled anything in existence. Xanthus Russell Smith (American, 1839-1929) Born to the artists William Thompson Russell Smith and Mary Priscilla Wilson Smith, Xanthus Smith received his first formal art education at home. The Smiths legendary stone manor house, Edgehill, was long a destination for the most ambitious collectors and earnest artists in mid-nineteenth century Philadelphia, and it was in this nurturing environment that young Smith honed his precocious skills as a draftsman. From 1851-1852, he accompanied his parents and sister on a study tour of Europe where he surveyed old master paintings, paying particular notice to the realism and naturalism of the English landscape school.Art is founded on nature, Smith would later comment, and whenever it strays from its truths and beauties it is off the track. Upon his return to Philadelphia, Smith began to paint landscapes while also attending chemistry classes at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1858, he enrolled in the antique class at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; there, his penchant for realism found resonance with English pre-Raphaelite paintings characterized by sharp focus and high finish. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Smith, a passionate loyalist, enlisted in the United States Navy. He served as captains clerk on the U.S.S. Wabash, Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont's flagship, from September 1862 until July 1863. Throughout his tour of duty, Smith was continually making small watercolor sketches and drawings he would later use as the foundations for his trademark painstakingly detailed works such as A South Carolina Coast Scene and Hilton Head, Port Royal, S.C. His drawings soon came to the attention of Admiral Du Pont, who commissioned Smith to paint ships of the eet. Smith also maintained a meticulous journal during his years of service, and his account of life on the Wabash provides a rare glimpse of the war as seen through the eyes of an artist. Relieved from duty in October 1864, Smith returned to Philadelphia where he began to exhibit his paintings of federal vessels and the South Carolina coast, drawing critical acclaim in the local press. Between 1868 and 1876, Smith executed fifteen large-scale marine paintings depicting the wars major naval engagements, culminating in the sensational display of his massive Battle of the Kearsarge and Alabama at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Though demand for Smith marine scenes waned in the 1880s and beyond, Smith continued to paint in a precise style, drawing on his site-specific knowledge of Civil War scenes. He also served as an active fundraiser for veterans organizations and pursued photographic interests. In his last decade, Smith began to refer to himself as the oldest living and practicing artist with Civil War experiences.€ Content Source: The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina www.thejohnsoncollection.com
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