Ludwig Knaus

Goupil & Cie, Paris (acquired by March 1861 as Le Bâpteme)
Moritz Reichemheim, Berlin (acquired from the above in November 1862)
Goupil & Cie, Paris
John T. Martin, Brooklyn (acquired from the above in March 1889 and sold, his sale, American Art Association, New York,  April 15-16, 1909, lot 108, illustrated)
Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, Fort Tryon Park, New York (possibly acquired at the above sale)
Mr. and Mrs. William Halsted VanderPoel, New York, 1937 (by descent from the above, her father)
Benjamin Farnsworth VanderPoel, Oyster Bay, New York, 1975 (by descent from the above, his parents)
Thence by descent (from the above, her father)

Ludwig Knaus, 1829-1910, exh. cat., Museum Wiesbaden; Staaliche Kunstammlungen Kassel, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, 1979-1980, p. 11, 32, p. 33, no. 9, illustrated (the engraving after the painting, recorded as lost)

Lined. Under UV: Dots and dashes of inpainting through composition but most concentrated in shadowy areas of the composition. Additional inpainting to address frame abbrasion.
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While living in Paris from 1853 to 1861, Knaus often returned to his native Germany for visits to the village of Willinghausen, where he became a welcomed member of the community, allowing him to closely observe rural life.  Studies made on these trips informed works like Die Taufe (The Christening), in which a newborn baby is presented to members of a multi-generational family (including their dog under the table) and local villagers, who enjoy the hospitality of coffee and cake.  Every detail of the celebration is recorded by the artist, who captures this realistic scene of peasant life and the sweet sentiment and humor of the crowded gathering. 

A contemporary critic considered Knaus’ painting a “magic mirror from which the deepest soul of the German people look at us and smile” (Karl Frenzel, Büsten und Bilder, Hannover, 1864, translated as quoted in Russ, p. 32).  The artist received similar praise well beyond Germany, as Die Taufe helped earn him international fame both through its engraving by J. Ballin and, most importantly, with the promotion of the artist’s Paris dealer: the ubiquitous Adolphe Goupil.  An early advocate of Knaus’ painting, Goupil sold Die Taufe twice, first in 1861, and then in 1889 to wealthy Brooklyn businessman and powerful collector John T. Martin.  Die Taufe hung among masterworks by the most popular artists of the day, including Jules Breton, William Bouguereau, and Jean-Georges Vibert (see lot 37).  Yet, as one contemporary writer explained among all the many paintings, “some connoisseurs… hold that the jewel of Mr. Martin’s collection is 'The Christening'… that cost… $50,000… and that helped to set the standard of the artist for the future” (Henry W. B. Howard, The Eagle and Brooklyn, New York, 1896, vol. 2, p. 796).  Die Taufe's next owner was the industrialist, enthusiastic horseman, and passionate art collector Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, who hung it among works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Charles François Daubigny, and Josef Israels in Tyron Hall — the palatial estate he and his wife built north of Manhattan, high above the Hudson River (the grounds now making up New York City’s Fort Tyron Park). Though much of the Billings’ collection was auctioned in 1926, the present work has passed through three following generations, its location unrecorded for over a century.