Constantino Brumidi (Italian/American, 1805-1880) Study for George Washington with Jefferson and Hamilton

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August Americana

By Bonhams Skinner

Aug 9, 2014 - Aug 11, 2014

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• Lot Description
  Constantino Brumidi (Italian/American, 1805-1880)
  
  Study for George Washington with Jefferson and Hamilton, c. 1872. Unsigned. Oil on canvas, dia. 14 x 12 1/4 in., unframed. Condition: Relined, restretched, varnished.
  
  Provenance: According to a January 1975 Sotheby Parke Bernet catalogue (sale 3720), this painting was previously owned by Mrs. E. Crane Chadbourne, of New York. It was offered at auction there as lot 522.
  
  Literature: Barbara Wolanin, Constantino Brumidi: Artist of the Capitol (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1998), p. 112.
  
  Note: In the late summer of 1852, artist Constantino Brumidi arrived in New York City from Italy, an expatriate artist of great skill and experience. Many of his fresco series in the classical style adorned public buildings, baroque-era residences, and churches throughout Rome, though it was to be his works in America that would define his career. Born in 1805, Brumidi began studying art at a young age, and continued his education under such 19th century luminaries (and classically trained artists) as Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorwaldsen. As early as 1840, scholar Barbara Wolanin tells us, Brumidi was doing public work at the Vatican, restoring 16th century frescoes in the Vatican's Third Loggia. Throughout the 1840s, Brumidi worked steadily, building his resume and receiving acclaim.
  
  Political winds in Italy shifted in the late 1840s, and a series of unfortunate events landed Brumidi in jail as a revolutionary. After some legal maneuverings, his sentence was commuted in March of 1852, and he left for the United States as a refugee half a year later, arriving in New York. There he worked regularly for two years, as his reputation grew. Late December of 1854 was the turning point in his career, Wolanin says, when he met Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, who was overseeing the ongoing construction and decoration at the United States Capitol building, in Washington, D.C. (Wolanin, p. 49). The Captain, knowing Brumidi's talents, gave the artist an opportunity: to paint a fresco in what was to become the Agriculture Committee's room, as a trial. Brumidi's work on that fresco was a great success by all accounts, and as a result Meigs and the design group at the Capitol employed him steadily thereafter. Over the next quarter century, Brumidi would establish and cement his reputation as the "Artist of the Capitol." Among the many works he created was a fresco in a lunette on the south wall in what is now known as the Senate Reception Room, showing the first president George Washington and his top cabinet members, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Wolanin writes of and shows Brumidi's sketches and studies for this work, which was originally intended to be one work in a series which showed each of the early presidents. Wolanin reports that the figure of Hamilton in Brumidi's slightly rearranged first efforts was instead second president John Adams. Neverthless, the Brumidi submitted an oil sketch for the current scene sometime after August 1872, which was accepted and subsequently followed closely when he executed the fresco. The present lot is very likely that sketch.
  Estimate $8,000-12,000
  
  
  The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging. Condition requests can be obtained via email (lot inquiry button) or by telephone to the appropriate gallery location (Boston/617.350.5400 or Marlborough/508.970.3000). Any condition statement given, as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Skinner Inc. shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.

  Condition

  Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Skinner Inc. shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging.
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