Triumphant Grace: Important Americana from the Collection of Barbara and Arun Singh
Triumphant Grace: Important Americana from the Collection of Barbara and Arun Singh
EZRA WOOD, THE PUFFY SLEEVE ARTIST | GROUP OF THREE SILHOUETTE PORTRAITS: GENTLEMAN WITH YELLOW VEST AND UMBRELLA; LADY IN GREEN DRESS WITH YELLOW FICHU AND SPRAY OF FLOWERS; FULL-LENGTH BABY IN RED DRESS WITH MINIATURE LOCKET AND SPRAY OF FLOWERS
Auction Closed
January 25, 06:44 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
EZRA WOOD, THE PUFFY SLEEVE ARTIST
(ACTIVE 1830 - 1831)
GROUP OF THREE SILHOUETTE PORTRAITS: GENTLEMAN WITH YELLOW VEST AND UMBRELLA; LADY IN GREEN DRESS WITH YELLOW FICHU AND SPRAY OF FLOWERS; FULL-LENGTH BABY IN RED DRESS WITH MINIATURE LOCKET AND SPRAY OF FLOWERS
hollow-cut silhouettes with watercolor on paper mounted over black
circa 1830
Each 5 ¼ by 4 ½ in.
the baby inscribed on the reverse Clarisa Anna Munson, Brattleboro, VT, each set in a pressed brass frame
Lillian and Jerry Grossman, New York;
Sotheby's New York, Important Americana, January 22, 2011, sale 8710 lot 255.
Lita Solis-Cohen, "Sotheby's Americana," Maine Antique Digest, March 2011, p. 41-A.
In a ground breaking article "Unmistaken Identity," published in Magazine Antiques, July/August 2014, Michael R Payne, Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Samuel Herrup argue that the actual identity of the early 19th-century American folk portraitist nicknamed 'The Puffy Sleeve Silhouette Artist' was Ezra Wood of Buckland, Massachusetts. Wood was born in 1798 and likely learned the art of making silhouettes from his father-in-law, the silhouette artist Josiah Fuller.