Property from a Distinguished American Collection
Stephen Wilson Van Schaick
A Moment of Rest
Lot Closed
October 26, 02:15 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Distinguished American Collection
Stephen Wilson Van Schaick
American
1850 - 1920
A Moment of Rest
signed VAN S lower right
oil on canvas
Unframed: 33.5 by 59cm., 13 by 23¼in.
Framed: 63 by 88cm., 24¾ by 34¾in.
Richard York Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner circa 1993
Acquired by the present owner circa 1993
Gerald M. Ackermann, American Orientalists, Paris, 1994, p. 9, catalogued & illustrated
Inspired by a trip to North Africa and by the teachings of Gérôme, Van Schaick in the present work has depicted two men at rest. Casually seated on a Shirvan Kilim, East Caucasus carpet, one holds a pipe as the other flexes his sword, they are shielded from the burning sun by a bright yellow awning.
The life and artistic career of Van Schaick remains largely unknown. In 1872, like many of his contemporaries, he entered the atelier of Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From 1864-1904 Gérôme taught two thousand students and to gain a place was particularly difficult for foreign students. Van Schaick maintained that Gérôme was ‘unmerciful in judgement, he dominated by a singular magnetism’. (Niamh O'Sullivan and Aloysius O'Kelly, Art, Nation, Empire, 2010, p. 18). Van Schaick returned to New York and worked primarily as a magazine illustrator and portrait painter.
The life and artistic career of Van Schaick remains largely unknown. In 1872, like many of his contemporaries, he entered the atelier of Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From 1864-1904 Gérôme taught two thousand students and to gain a place was particularly difficult for foreign students. Van Schaick maintained that Gérôme was ‘unmerciful in judgement, he dominated by a singular magnetism’. (Niamh O'Sullivan and Aloysius O'Kelly, Art, Nation, Empire, 2010, p. 18). Van Schaick returned to New York and worked primarily as a magazine illustrator and portrait painter.