Charles H. Wolf (fl. c. 1860-1875)

Inscribed recto, bottom right, ink: Drawed by Chas H. Wolf; on barn: Built by/ C.G.A. Horst /1847

Sotheby Parke-Bernet, June 30, 1984, lot 171

"A Place for Us: Vernacular Architecture in American Folk Art," American Folk Art Museum, 1996-1997
"In the Atrium: Landscapes from the Collection," New York, American Folk Art Museum, June 5-September 11, 2007

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 91, fig. 56

Overall very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

As folk artists sought to record the landscapes of their experiences, they frequently devised individual solutions to the depiction of realistic linear perspectives and spatial relationships, often with idiosyncratic results. Little is known of the artist Charles Wolf who signed this work, but he achieved spatial perspective in the farmscape by placing buildings in a precise 45° isometric grid.¹While the effect is oddly distant, suggesting an aerial vantage point that leaves the observer somewhat disoriented by its stilted positioning, this drawing of a nineteenth century Pennsylvania farm provides a great deal of information about the layout and character of early farm buildings in the region.

The number and variety of domestic and work structures included in the drawing suggest a successful and prosperous farm operation. As the domestic production of bricks for building increased throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, prices fell, and by the first quarter of the nineteenth century a larger number of prosperous farmers within both the English and the Germanic communities of the state began to prefer the use of brick in farm architecture. Sturdy and handsome, a stylish brick residence or a large brick-end bank barn, such as those depicted in this drawing, became a new symbol of success and stability within many traditional farming communities.

The relatively standard size and shape of red clay brick enabled a number of decorative applications within the bricklaying methods of common or Flemish bond courses. Earlier Swedish and English Quaker domestic architecture in Pennsylvania and New Jersey often utilized decorative glazed headers—or the short side of the brick—interspersed in the exterior end wall to produce ornamental patterns, initials, and dates. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the increased use of brick in barn construction inspired the brick-end bank barn, with decoratively spaced pierced patterns providing ornament as well as ventilation and light. These pierced patterns, produced by the local brick masons, were usually arranged along the diagonal stepped joints of the walls' successive courses and consisted of imaginative configurations of diamonds, pinwheels, triangles, and, in some cases, figures, initials, and dates. -J.L.L.

¹ A similar, unsigned drawing arranged on such a grid perspective and found near Pottsville, Pa., is in the M. and M. Karolik Collection, MFA; see Lipman and Winchester, Flowering of American Folk Art, p. 5.