Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, 1945, oil on canvas, 30-1/8 x 25-3/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Myron Kunin Collection. Period c. 1920s-30s American Modernist frame, patinated silver and metal-gilded hand-carved wood, molding width 4-1/2 in.

The Avery portrait was one of a number of marvelous paintings G&L framed for Mr. Kunin. The gallery shot shown here is at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, who received more than 550 works on extended loan from the Kunin family in 2015. "Over a span of four decades, Myron Kunin assembled one of the most important private collections of American Modernism from the first half of the 20th century. It covers the diverse artistic styles and movements of the time, with innovative American modernists included alongside celebrated American realists. The strengths of the collection, and favorites of Mr. Kunin, are represented in these galleries: nudes, circus talent, social themes, land- and seascapes, abstraction, and portraits. That the story of American art can be told so thoroughly and so engagingly through this slice from a much larger collection is a credit to Mr. Kunin’s eye and to his irrepressible love of the chase after great art." —museum label, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Conservation in the Studio, 1943, oil on canvas, 42 x 36 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago, in a custom-made replica of a mid-20th century American Modernist painting frame; ebonized combed gesso on carved wood, molding width: 4-1/2” Painting bequest of Roy R. Neuberger, 2011.07 © 2018 Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York “Milton Avery was an American artist known for his study and usage of color, often referred to as a precursor to Color Field painters. His work frequently bridged the gap between realist and abstract art. The four figures in Conversation in the Studio have not been identified; however, meetings like these were a common occurrence in both Avery’s New York apartment and art studio. American artists such as Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb among others would often stop by to see and discuss Avery’s work, while Avery in turn would sketch the gatherings and conversations taking place around him. The artist himself addressed this tendency, asking “why talk when you can paint?” The flat color fields and textured application of thin paint layers give shape and structure to the elegantly dressed figures and their surroundings. By the 1940s, Avery was increasingly using a nonnaturalistic palette to create mood in his paintings, as the bright-blue and green faces of the men demonstrate.” — AIC, permanent collection label.

Sally with Skull, 1946, oil on canvas, 33" x 26". Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Custom-made replica American modernist frame, ebonized rough-sawn wood, geometric profile; molding width 3-1/2"

March and Sally Outdoors, 1950, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Gill & Lagodich custom-made American Modernist Sandelin-style frame; patinated 12k white gold gilded and combed wood, molding width: 4-1/4” Sotheby’s American Art Sale, 21 May 2014, est. $2,000,000-3,000,000. LOT SOLD $5,653,000. “Painted in 1950, Milton Avery’s radiant, March and Sally Outdoors, belongs to a remarkably innovative and productive period in the artist’s nearly 50-year career. Known as a particularly reserved personality, Avery preferred the company of his family and close friends. Because of his penchant for sketching the world around him, these people figure prominently in his prolific body of work. March and Sally Outdoors is one of the most sophisticated and intimate renderings Avery executed of his beloved wife and daughter, his two most important companions and muses (Fig. 1). He married fellow artist Sally Michel in 1926, an event described by scholars as, “the most decisive in Avery’s life and career” (Barbara Haskell, Milton Avery, New York, 1982, p. 26). Their only daughter, March, was born in 1932, and became a frequent source of inspiration for her father throughout her childhood and adolescence. While images of both women pervade Avery’s oeuvre, March and Sally Outdoors is an outstanding example of this iconic imagery, expressively capturing the close and unique bond the family shared.” —Sotheby’s catalogue notes excerpt.

Dancing Trees, 1953, oil on canvas, 32 x 48 inches. Gill & Lagodich custom-made replica of a c 1930s Modernist painting frame, silver leafed and polychrome gesso on wood, Artist Framing Co., New York, original frame maker., molding width: 3-7/8” “In the summer of 1953, Milton Avery and his family escaped the heat of New York City and spent the season at Brydcliffe, an artist’s colony near Woodstock, New York. In Dancing Trees, Avery depicts the dense blue-green forest, lemon yellow sky and pink ground as one flat plane whose layers dynamically convey a sense of the panoramic view. Though many of these works lack a specificity of place, even when based on a particular location, Avery’s “landscapes are not just any landscapes but have the bewitching quality of recalling to each observer a particular landscape” (Una Johnson, Milton Avery, Prints and Drawings, 1930-1964, 1966, p. 14).” —Sotheby’s catalogue notes excerpt.

Two Figures on Beach, 1950, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Auction estimate $1,200,000–1,800,00; Sotheby’s American Art New York, May 2019. Custom-made frame, American Modernist Sandelin-style, patinated 12k white gold gilded and combed wood finish, molding width: 4-1/4”

Migration at Sunset, ca. 1880, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Chrysler Museum of Art. Period c. 1880s American Barbizon painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament on wood, molding width: 3-1/4 in. “As the sun sets on a lush landscape, a single shepherd guides his flock home from their daily pasture. The rich earth, sturdy trees, and swirling hues of the sky form a pastoral vision and strong antidote to the urban realities of the industrializing United States. This picture of unity between human labor and the natural world was the hallmark of the American Barbizon School. Edward Mitchell Bannister was a leading figure of the movement and one of the most successful African American painters of the nineteenth century. The American school adopted much of its style and imagery from French predecessors like François Millet and Theodore Rousseau.” —museum label.

It’s Very Queer Isn’t It?, 1885, oil on canvas, 32-1/8” x 26-1/16” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Period c. 1880s-1900 American Watts-style painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament with gilded quarter-sawn oak panel. Excellent original gilding and patina. Molding width: 5-1/2”

The Fisherman, 1917, oil on canvas, 30-1/8” x 44”. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Amon Carter Museum. Period Frame, c. 1910-20 American Arts and Crafts painting frame, metal-gilded hand-carved wood, molding width 5-1/4” “As one of the artist’s last masterworks of the sea, this painting represents Bellows’ passion for fishing as a physical and spiritual sport. Created during a trip to Carmel, California, the artist suggests the timeless struggle between man and nature through the lone fisherman casting his line into the powerful surf at Point Lobos. The artist’s exuberant brushstrokes and brilliant palette amplify the contrasting motions of the ocean and angler. Bellows probably modeled the fisherman after himself. As a solitary figure trying to maneuver his fishing pole against the crashing waves, he is a metaphor for the artist, who considered the sea one of the most challenging themes to capture on canvas.” —Amon Carter Museum, permanent collection label.

The Milliners, 1921, oil on canvas, 40- 1/4 × 50-1/4 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago. Custom-made replica c. 1920s American Arts and Crafts frame, Newcomb-Macklin New York/ Chicago makers, metal-gilded hand-carved wood with ebonized frieze, molding width: 5-3/8 in. “In The Milliners, Theresa Bernstein explored the aesthetic qualities of community and concentration, depicting a group of women sewing accessories on hats. The window at upper left suggests that they are in a city apartment, and therefore undertaking piecework at home to earn extra income. An important voice in early American modernism, Bernstein celebrated the vibrancy and dignity of immigrant and working-class experiences in 20th-century New York. Born in Krakow, she trained at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, a noted center for female professionalism in the arts. Bernstein pursued a dynamic style of realism throughout her long career, working well past the age of 100.”—Art Institute label. Painting through prior bequest of Arthur Rubloff.

Canvassing For A Vote, 1852, oil on canvas, 25-1/4" x 30-1/2", museum period frame cleaned and restored by Gill & Lagodich for the Nelson-Atkins Museum. Painting purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust.

The Song of the Lark, 1884, oil on canvas, 43-1/2” x 33-3/4”, 19th-century Barbizon  frame; molding width 6-7/8".  Art Institute of Chicago. Period frame from Gill & Lagodich. Painting Henry Field Memorial Collection.

Yellowstone Falls, 1881, oil on canvas, 22 x 14 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Colby Museum of Art. c. 1900 European painting frame, ebonized wood, gilded liner, molding width 3-1/8 in. “Born to free black parents in 1841 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Brown moved to California as a young man where he began a career as a lithographer and taught himself to paint. He worked in Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks between 1886 and 1893. In Yellowstone he regularly painted the park’s ‘Grand Canyon,’ depicting the gushing waters of Yellowstone Falls and the glistening golden-brown rocks of the canyon walls, pictured here. The recently completed Northern Pacific Railroad had made the park a destination for tourism. Brown exhibited his art in area hotels and received promotional support from Norther Pacific. Today he is known as the first African-American painter of the national park system, but other African-Americans interpreted the parks for the public as well. At this time the U.S. Army managed the parks and assigned African-American regiments to many of them. These soldiers acted not only as guards but also as guides, offering visitors their interpretations of the parks’ natural history.” —museum label. Painting: Museum purchase from the William A. Oates, Jr. Fund for American Western Art and gift of Marjorie M. Fisher

Pull For The Shore, 1878, oil on canvas, 34-1/8" x 56-1/8" framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Chrysler Museum of Art, in a second-half 19th century painting frame, stained wood outer molding element with applied solid mahogany; gilded applied composition ornament and sand on wood. Molding width: 4-5/8” "In this ideal of teamwork, old and young row in unison to bring their tiny craft home through swelling seas. John George Brown based Pull for the Shore on sketches made on Grand Manan Island off the far northern coastline of Maine. Each face is a portrait of a local fisherman whom Brown met and sketched, but this epic New England battle of man against nature also may address American politics of the Reconstuction era. Following decades of sectional conflict and the violence of the Civil War, North and South struggled in the 1870s to heal the nation's wounds and work together toward prosperous future." — permanent collection label. Painting gift of Walter P. Chrysler 71.552

Free Women of Color with Their Children and Servants in a Landscape, ca. 1770-1796, oil on canvas, 20 x 26 1/8 in. (50.8 x 66.4 cm). Period frame from Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum: 19th century French, gilded carved wood and applied composition ornament, molding width 2-7/8 in. “Here, on the grounds of a Caribbean sugar plantation, two luxuriously dressed mixed-race sisters enjoy a walk with their mother, children, and eight African servants. After the Seven Years’ War (1754–63), the British government sent the Roman painter Agostino Brunias to Dominica, one of its newly acquired Caribbean territories. Although Brunias was originally commissioned to promote upper-class plantation life, his paintings soon exposed the artificialities of the region’s racial hierarchies.” —Museum label. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Carll H. de Silver in memory of her husband, by exchange and gift of George S. Hellman, by exchange, 2010.59

Olga E. Gardner, 1888, oil on canvas, 63 x 43-1/2 inches, c. 1880s American Barbizon frame, gilded cast and applied ornament on wood, molding width 9 inches. Period frame from Gill & Lagodich.

Frankie, The Organ Boy, 1907, oil on canvas, 48-1/4" x 34-1/4" framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; period c. 1900 American Roman-gilded Whistler-style frame, molding width 5”. “In Frankie, the Organ Boy, George Bellows painted a young sitter who hailed from the sordid streets of lower Manhattan. Committed to portraying the dynamic and rough aspects of urban American life, the artist likely recruited Frankie from the neighborhood around Bellows' Broadway studio. Painted on a large scale and dressed in a suit, Frankie appears out of the inky-black background like a youthful, energetic monarch perched on a modest throne. Even so, his gangly awkwardness prevails. Bellows included a round, nickel-plated badge on his lapel, the sign of a youth who has a work permit, most likely selling newspapers, which was a common "profession" for working-class boys around the turn of the century.” —museum gallery label. Painting purchase: acquired through the bequest of Ben and Clara Shlyen.

Pueblo Tesuque, No. 2, 1917, oil on canvas mounted on plywood, 34-5/8" x 44-5/8" Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, c. 1915-20 American Arts and Crafts frame, metal-gilded hand-carved wood. Painting, Gift of Julia and Humbert Tinsman.

The Fisherman, 1917, oil on canvas, 30-1/8” x 44”. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Period Frame, c. 1910-20 American Arts and Crafts painting frame, metal-gilded hand-carved wood, molding width 5-1/4” “As one of the artist’s last masterworks of the sea, this painting represents Bellows’ passion for fishing as a physical and spiritual sport. Created during a trip to Carmel, California, the artist suggests the timeless struggle between man and nature through the lone fisherman casting his line into the powerful surf at Point Lobos. The artist’s exuberant brushstrokes and brilliant palette amplify the contrasting motions of the ocean and angler. Bellows probably modeled the fisherman after himself. As a solitary figure trying to maneuver his fishing pole against the crashing waves, he is a metaphor for the artist, who considered the sea one of the most challenging themes to capture on canvas.” —Amon Carter Museum, permanent collection label.

Summer Day, 1911, oil on canvas, 36-1/8 x 32-1/8 inches, framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, custom-made replica c. 1911 American Arts and Crafts painting frame; lemon-gilded hand-carved and cast ornament on wood; molding width 7” Note: original frame: hand-carved signature verso: 19 M 11 / Carrig-Rohane/ Thulin-Murphy Co./Boston / #926. Replica commissioned by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. “As the Gilded Age drew to a close, American artists experimented with the palettes of their frames as well as their canvases. With its unusual pale gilding and wide undulating profile [this] frame … was designed to complement the light effects captured in the lush garden pigments of an American Impressionist painting. Light-karat, greenish lemony gilding is a modern specification rooted in the silver finishes of European nocturne frames. … the artist might have chosen lemon gold to continue the hints of sunlight in a summer scene where a higher-karat yellow or red gold would clash. Paler gold could simulate filtered sunlight around a landscape, a continuation of the painted canvas. … Combining forms of different countries, the frame has a synthesis of motifs that in lesser hands would have become a pastiche, but here was transformed by the masters of Carrig-Rohane into a new kind of American design.”—T. Gill, Beaux Arts & Crafts: Masterpieces of American Frame Design 1890–1920, p. 34."'Summer Day' can be seen as Benson’s affectionate comparison of his young daughters’ radiance and beauty to that of nature itself, an assertion of their essential equivalence to summer’s warmth, light, and air. The sunny outdoor scene depicts eighteen-year-old Elisabeth and thirteen-year-old Sylvia casting their eyes toward the high horizon line, where the boundary between sea and sky nearly dissolves. The billowing sails on and just below the horizon reinforce a sense of gentle movement, as do the girls’ cascading gowns, loosely arranged hair, and decorative ribbons, all of which are enveloped by soft ocean breezes. Benson’s broken brushwork appears lightly but quickly stroked, and his high-keyed palette of whites and white-inflected blues glinting off the summer sea is a ravishing display of Impressionist technique perfectly tuned to his ephemeral, sun-shot subject." —Crystal Bridges label

Children In The Woods,  1905, oil on canvas, 32” x 30” framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, custom-made replica American Arts and Crafts painting frame, c. 1907, Hermann Dudley Murphy/Carrig Rohane, Boston maker; gilded hand-carved wood. “Benson began to experiment with plein-air painting in the late 1890s, often depicting his own children out of doors. This canvas portrays his three daughters near the family’s summer retreat at North Haven, Maine. Eleanor, the eldest, recalled: “When we were in North Haven, Papa would often have us put on our best white dresses and then ask us to sit in the grass or play in the woods. We thought it was silly and the maids made such a fuss when they saw our clothes afterwards.” Benson permitted his children to read or play cards while posing but disguised these diversions in his final compositions.”

Mount Whitney, c.1877, oil on canvas, 68-7/8 x 116-5/8 inches; Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, New York. Reframed by Gill & Lagodich in a custom-made replica c.1870s American frame; gilded applied ornament over wood with incised star-and-fret pattern frieze; molding width 11-1/4 inches. Painting credit: Rockwell Foundation, 78.14

Pioneers of the Woods, California, ca. 1863, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 19 x 26 inches. Framed for the High Museum of Art by Gill & Lagodich: Period c. 1860s American Neo-classical Hudson River school painting frame, gilded applied ornament and sandwork panel on wood, original gilding and patina, molding width 5-1/2 inches. Painting Gift of the Exposition Foundation 71.27.

Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877, oil on canvas, 83-1/2 x 108-3/4 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago, May 2000, in period 19th-century French gilded wood molding frame, molding width 6.5 in. This iconic Impressionist painting was recently cleaned and restored to its original appearance. Commentary and interactive images of the recent dramatic restoration are documented here in the Wall Street Journal . "In his masterpiece, "Paris Street; Rainy Day", Gustave Caillebotte brought an unusual monumentality and compositional control to a typical Impressionist subject, the new boulevards that were changing the Paris cityscape. The result is at once real and contrived, casual and choreographed. With its curiously detached figures, the canvas depicts the anonymity that the boulevards seemed to create. By the time it appeared in the third Impressionist exhibition, held in April 1877, the artist was 29 years old, a man of considerable wealth, and not only the youngest but also the most active member of the Impressionist group. He contributed six of his own canvasses to the exhibition; played a leading part in its funding, organization, promotion, and installation; and lent a number of paintings by his colleagues that he owned." —AIC wall label. “This complex intersection, just minutes away from the Saint-Lazare train station, represents in microcosm the changing urban milieu of late nineteenth-century Paris. Gustave Caillebotte grew up near this district when it was a relatively unsettled hill with narrow, crooked streets. As part of a new city plan designed by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, these streets were relaid and their buildings razed during the artist’s lifetime. In this monumental urban view, which measures almost seven by ten feet and is considered the artist’s masterpiece, Caillebotte strikingly captured a vast, stark modernity, complete with life-size figures strolling in the foreground and wearing the latest fashions. The painting’s highly crafted surface, rigorous perspective, and grand scale pleased Parisian audiences accustomed to the academic aesthetic of the official Salon. On the other hand, its asymmetrical composition, unusually cropped forms, rain-washed mood, and candidly contemporary subject stimulated a more radical sensibility. For these reasons, the painting dominated the celebrated Impressionist exhibition of 1877, largely organized by the artist himself. In many ways, Caillebotte’s frozen poetry of the Parisian bourgeoisie prefigures Georges Seurat’s luminous Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884, painted less than a decade later.” —AIC permanent collection label. Painting: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection

In 2011, the painting was taken off view for conservation, and the empty frame was left as a placeholder in the gallery — an invitation to visitors to pose for their own masterpieces.

Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Petit-Gennevilliers, 1893, oil on canvas, 38-5/8” x 23-1/2” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum. Custom-made replica frame, c. 1890s Degas-style painting frame, molding width 3-7/8” “Although Caillebotte was a lifelong gardener, his interest in floral subjects did not develop until the 1880s. This work of 1893 depicts flowers that he cultivated on his property at Petit-Gennevilliers, a small town on the Seine just northwest of Paris. Chrysanthemums were hugely popular in France, celebrated for their resplendent colors and associations with East Asia, whose arts and cultures were greatly admired by Europeans. This unusual, close-up view of densely packed blossoms has been related to Caillebotte’s project for dining room doors ornamented with images of plants—a conception akin to the decorative series that his friend Monet based on his own garden at Giverny.” —Met Museum label Painting Gift of the Honorable John C. Whitehead, 2014.

Girl in Red Hat with Dog, 1882–83, oil on canvas. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for The Met. Period 19th-century Degas painting frame, antiqued gesso finish on wide fluted cushion profile; molding width 4-1/2” Painting Gift of the Estate of Maxine Leff Myers, 2020

Le Village de Gardanne, 1885-1886. oil and conté crayon on canvas, 36-1/4" x 28-13/16".  Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum. 16th-century Spanish  frame; gilded hand-carved wood, cassetta profile with punched decoration, molding width 5-1/2"  "Cézanne juxtaposes the blocky geometries of the townscape with the curling organic forms of rolling hills and vegetation. The shifting planes of the angular roofs and subtly shaded façades anticipate the experiments of the Cubists in the early twentieth century. Cézanne investigates tone as well as form, matching the warm ochers, oranges, and reds of the architecture with the cool, smoky blue-green of the foliage. An unfinished work with large visible expanses of a cream base coat, this picture provides insight into Cézanne’s working process, with traces of graphite underdrawing and tentative squiggles of black paint." —Brooklyn Museum, Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund and Alfred T. White Fund, 23.105

La Route Tournante en Sous-bois (Bend in the Road Through the Forest), 1873-75, oil on canvas, 21-3/4 x 18-3/8 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Custom-made replica 18th-century Roman molding; hand carved and gilded wood, molding width 3-1/2 in. Painting: partial gift, George Tetzel in memory of Oscar Homolka and Joan Tetzel Homolka, 1980

Self Portrait in an Open Dressing Gown, ca. 1916 - 1918, oil on canvas, 36-1/8 x 28-7/8 inches. Custom-made replica c. 1920 painting frame, silver-leaf over red bole, stepped Art Deco profile; molding width: 4-3/4 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for The Fralin Museum of Art at The University of Virginia.

Artist Sketching on Greenwood Lake, 1869, oil on canvas, 20” x 32-3/4” Framed by Gill & Lagodich, c. 1870s American Hudson River School painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament on wood; fluted ogee profile. Molding width: 6-1/4”     Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center — Vassar College; Painting Gift of Georgia Potter Gosnell, class of 1951, and Elizabeth Gosnell Miller, Class of 1984; 2005.28

John Brown, 1939, oil on canvas, 69" x 45".  © John Steuart Curry.  Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum. Custom-made replica, Early American molding frame, first-quarter-19th-century, beveled wood profile with worn ebonized patina and gilded flat liner. Molding width: 6-1/2” "Throughout the 1930s, Kansas-native Curry was closely associated with Benton as a member of the artistic movement known as Regionalism. John Brown reprises the subject of Curry's mural in the rotunda of the Kansas State Capitol. One of the most controversial figures in nineteenth-century American history, Brown opposed the extension of slavery in the 1850s into the Kansas Territory. Curry depicted Brown larger-than-life in an open, stark landscape besieged by a tornado—a meteorological symbol of the conflict—with a slave at his side. The abolitionist's crazed expression and animated hair and beard suggest the messianic fervor that fueled his opposition to human bondage." Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1950 (50.94.1) —Metropolitan Museum permanent collection label.

The Tenth Street Studio, 1880, oil on canvas, 36-1/4” x 48-1/4”. Period Frame from Gill & Lagodich for Saint Louis Art Museum. c. 1800s French Barbizon frame, gilded cast ornament on wood, molding width 9 in. “Sumptuous tapestries, exotic metalwork, imported porcelains, fine art, and elegantly adorned patrons were sure to be found in the studios of artists at the end of the 19th century. This painting depicts the studio of its artist, William Merritt Chase, one of the most successful painters of the era. Appreciating—and being seen appreciating—such exquisite finery was an important cultural and social marker for both patron and artist. An invitation to a reception at Chase’s studio (sure to be in the society news) was the most sought after in New York City.” — Saint Louis Art Museum permanent collection label

North River Shad, c. 1910, oil on canvas, 29" x 37", framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago. Custom-made replica frame, late 18th-century European, Dutch-style, ebonized carved wood with applied ornament, molding width 5-1/2" "William Merritt Chase's "North River Shad" is a striking departure from his better-known Impressionist renderings of city parks and scenes in Shinnecock, New York. Here he was primarily interested in depicting surface texture; the fish displays the artist's virtuosity with pigment and brushwork. Brilliant white brushstrokes form its iridescent scales, accentuating the weight and density of the voluminous creature. Chase painted numerous versions of fish still lifes, many of which were quickly purchased by museums across the country. Because of the popularity of these works, Chase worried that he would be remembered only "as a painter of fish." — Art Institute of Chicago, permanent collection label, Friends of American Art Collection, 1914.56

Still Life With Fish, ca. 1910, oil on canvas, 14” x 18-1/8” framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum of Art. 19th-century European painting frame; ebonized gesso and wood with gilded applied ornament sight edge, molding width: 4-7/8"

Pichincha, oil on canvas, 1867, 31" x 48-3/16". Framed by Gill & Lagodicih for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Rare period 1860s American frame, Earle Galleries, Philadelphia maker, gilded applied composition ornament, embossed paper, and stenciled sand on wood. ”Church became famous for his paintings of natural wonders like Niagara Falls, icebergs in the Arctic, and volcanoes in South America. He sketched this volcano, called Pichincha, on a trip to Ecuador in 1857, but made the painting ten years later in the comfort of his studio in New York. In the finished work, Church added palm trees that could not have grown on the high Andean plain. Although the volcano is dormant in the picture, its eruptions were frequent and dangerous. It had also been the site of a fierce battle in 1822 between Ecuadorian patriots (fighting for independence) and royalists (loyal to Spain), after which the country was plunged into uncertainty and sectionalism, much like the post-Civil War United States was facing at the time Church made this painting.” —museum label. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 125th Anniversary Acquisition. Gift of the McNeil Americana Collection, 2004, 2004-115-2

American Lake Scene, 1846, oil on canvas, 18" x 24", framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Mint Museum of Art, c. 1820-40 American Cole-style painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament and applied netting over wood; swept profile; cartouche corners and centers; French-Revival influenced style; molding width: 4-1/8”  Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William S. Lowndes, 1976.25

"Thomas Cole was a pioneer of American landscape painting. Seeking to raise the status of his genre, he argued that a landscape could be the entire subject of a work of art, not merely backdrop for a story: a view that can be linked to America’s growing concern with the spiritual and therapeutic pleasures of the natural world. Combining a scenic (probably invented) view with a lone Native American figure, this painting is one of a number of works that Cole created towards the end of his life that addressed the issue of the passage of time. The figure can be interpreted not as savage—noble or otherwise, a stereotype that was dominant in then-current representations of Native Americans—but rather as contemplative, pausing to consider the passage of time, symbolized here by the setting sun." 

Red Barge No. 1, 1942, oil on canvas, 27-7/8" x 39-3/4". Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, in a custom-made variation of an early 20th-century American Modernist painting frame; simple, flat artist-made construction; painted wood, antiqued gesso, stone gray patina; molding width: 6” Museum purchase funded by the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation.

Ships and Sailors, 1938, oil on canvas, 32-1/4 x 40 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Custom-made replica of c. 1930s American Modernist molding, polychrome finish on gesso on wood, molding width: 3-1/2”

Construction No. 5, 1958, oil on canvas, 36-1/8” X 26-1/8”, framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; c. 1950s American Modernist painting frame; patinated, painted wood; reverse bolection profile. “Ralston Crawford, like his senior colleague Charles Sheeler, established a critical reputation in the 1930s New York art world with crisply defined Precisionist paintings of the American industrial landscape. However, his most inventive compositions followed the emergence in the late 1940s of abstract expressionism, a movement that all but sidelined the artist’s subjective geometric work. This image dates from a pivotal moment in Crawford’s career when he was perfecting a bold abstract style characterized by a simplified cubism and restricted color scheme. Construction #5 is linked to the Diesel Construction Company (one of the era’s largest general contracting firms), which commissioned ten New York artists to interpret its skyscraper project then rising at 100 Church Street in Lower Manhattan. According to the artist’s son Neelon Crawford, he and his father visited the site on various occasions, “climbing to the highest point possible during the erection of the steel structure.” The experience inspired a series of abstract paintings (as well as drawings and photographs, two examples of which are also owned by the museum), Construction #5 being the most dynamic and pictorially complex.” —museum label

Richmond Hill in the Summer of 1862, 1862–63, oil on canvas, 54-1/4 x 96-3/16 in. Custom-made replica c.1860s American painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament on wood; molding width: 10 inches. “This is one of Cropsey’s most critically acclaimed panoramic landscapes painted in England. The view of the Thames from Richmond Hill, outside of London, was a popular destination for artists and sightseers. The subject had even greater relevance for Cropsey and his viewers in 1862. Richmond, Virginia—the capital of the Confederacy during the American Civil War—derived its name from a view on the James River that reminded its founder of his English youth. In this context and at this time, many critics read Cropsey’s painting as a comment on the sectional conflict then raging as well as a personal plea for reconciliation and unity.” —Met Museum label. Painting framed by Gill & Lagodich for Private Collection, shown here on view at the Metropolitan Museum.

Stonehenge, 1876, oil on canvas, 24-1/4" x 54-1/8", period English Watts frame. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. “Jasper Cropsey based this view of England's most famous prehistoric site on sketches he had made during a tour of Europe 27 years earlier. The painting's warm palette and relatively loose brushwork create a moody, romantic glow. Stonehenge is part of a series Cropsey executed of Old World ruins, which remained popular subjects among 19th-century American collectors. Cropsey employed a technique called pouncing so that he could use drawings as guides for a painting. Tiny holes are pricked into the paper along the drawn lines and then the paper is placed over the canvas. The pricked drawing is rubbed with charcoal, leaving transferred dotted lines on the surface below. The remnants of Cropsey's method are only visible under infrared light.”—museum label Painting, Gift of Mrs. Thomas King Baker and Mrs. George H. Bunting Jr.

Artist Sketching on Greenwood Lake, 1869, oil on canvas, 20 x 32-3/4 inches. c. 1870s American Hudson River School painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament on wood; fluted ogee profile. Molding width: 6-1/4 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College. Painting Gift of Georgia Potter Gosnell, class of 1951, and Elizabeth Gosnell Miller, Class of 1984; 2005.28

The Beach at Villerville at Sunset, 1873, oil on canvas, 30-1/4" x 55-1/2";  c. 1880s European painting frame, gilded applied composition ornament on wood; Torn paper label verso: UNION LEAGUE CLUB/ OF BROOKLYN / Owner ... / Subject ... / Artist ... / Return to ... / Bklyn Molding width: 7-1/4” Period frame from Gill & Lagodich. "Though connected to the Barbizon group, the landscape artist Daubigny spent much of his career far from the group's favored hamlet just southeast of Paris. The painting here depicts one of his own favorite spots—the remote fishing village of Villerville on the Normandy coast. With broken, summary brushstrokes and brilliant touches of yellow and orange, he casts a dramatic expanse of beach in the rosy sunset. Daubigny's rapid painting technique and passion for capturing the fleeting effects of nature's color and light directly anticipate the art of the Impressionists."   — permanent collection label.  Painting, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.635  Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA.

Electric Bulb, 1924, oil on board, 24" x 18-1/8". Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Dallas Museum of Art. Custom-made replica frame, c. 1930s American Modernist molding; wide flat cassetta profile. Hand-rubbed patinated gesso finish. Molding width: 3-1/2” Painting © Estate of Stuart Davis; Dallas Museum of Art, Fine Arts Collectible Fund. 

Still Life, ca. 1640–50, oil on canvas, 33-1/16 x 43-1/16 inches, 20th-century Dutch-style ebonized carved wood molding, reverse profile, gilded sight edge. Molding Width: 6-3/4”.  Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund. Photo: David Stover. 

Portrait Of A Lady Holding A Rose, 1912, oil on canvas, 21-1/4 x 16-1/4 inches; c. 1895-1905 American Stanford White painting frame; gilded composition ornament over wood; attached grille design, molding width: 6-5/8”, custom-made replica frame fabricated in the Gill & Lagodich studios. Frame commissioned by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Painting, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.46T  

Self-Portrait, ca. 1631, oil on panel, 6-3/16 × 4-15/16 × 1/8 in. (15.7 × 12.5 × 0.3 cm); 19th-century Dutch-style Alpine ebonized wood frame, molding width 5-12 in. Painting, gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, 32.784

Running Bird, 1910, watercolor, 22" x 15" Custom-made replica of early 20th-century American painting frame, gilded hand-carved wood; attr. Milch Galleries, NY maker; molding width: 3-3/4” Frame commissioned by the Petrie Institute of Western Art, Denver Art Museum.

Honey of the Hymettus, 1891, oil on canvas, 22-7/16 x 16-3/4 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the DeMell Jacobsen Collection. Period American late 19th-century Gifford-style painting frame, gilded applied ornament on wood, molding width 5-5/8 in. This painting was exhibited at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Chicago. “Philadelphia-born Sarah Dodson studied in the city before moving to France and England, where she developed her talent for imaginative historical figure painting. In this picture she references the famous honey that the bee-keepers of ancient Athens produced in the Hymettus mountains.” —Philadelphia Museum loan label. Exhibition images here: ‘American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection,’ Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, October 2022. This stellar exhibit is currently on view at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, TN, through April 16th, and thence to other museums.

Nude Woman Drying Herself (Femme au Tub), ca. 1884-1886, oil on canvas, 59 3/8 x 84 1/8 in. (150.8 x 213.7 cm). Custom-made replica frame made by Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum: 19th-century French Degas-designed painting frame; chemin-de-fer profile as sketched in Degas’ notebooks; milled and gilded wood with patinated gesso frieze, molding width: 4-5/8” Painting, Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, 31.813

“Portrait of Mlle Fiocre in the Ballet "La Source" (Portrait de Mlle...E[ugénie] F[iocre]: à propos du ballet "La Source"),” ca. 1867–1868, oil on canvas, 51-1/2” x 57-1/8”; 19th-century French gilded molding frame from Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum. Painting Gift of James H. Post, A. Augustus Healy, and John T. Underwood, 21.111

Portrait of A Man (Portrait d’homme), 1866, oil on canvas, 34 x 25-5/8 in. Period 19th-century French frame, molding width 5-5/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum. painting: Museum Collection Fund, 21.112

Greene Street, oil on canvas, 1946, 16" x 20" Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. c. 1920 American stained wood molding frame. molding width 3 in.

Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948, oil on canvas. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Terra Foundation of American Art. Custom-made replica c. 1900 European ebonized molding frame, molding width 2-7/8 in. “The facades, lampposts, and general activity of Greenwich Village were the focus of many works, including Untitled (Village Street Scene), that Beauford Delaney made between 1940 and 1952 while living in New York City. Delaney was captivated by the urban landscape and sought to visually interpret the energy of modern life through brilliant colors, thickly applied paint, and bold, animated lines. Untitled (Village Street Scene) represents the most successful of the artist’s numerous attempts to depict this particular intersection. Its perspective is accurate yet still evocative, while its composition is capacious in ways that allowed Delaney to assemble and reconcile the arrangement of a variety of elements and motifs, that appear frequently in other works of this period, including traffic lights, lampposts, manhole covers, and clouds. Socially, Delaney straddled two worlds. He was part of the burgeoning Harlem Renaissance movement and friendly with artists like Norman Lewis, Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage, and Romare Bearden. But desiring to pursue his own particular artistic vision, through his friendship with contemporary artist Stuart Davis, he also became tied to the avant-garde movements of Greenwich Village, where he associated with gallerist Alfred Stieglitz and artists in his circle, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, and Arthur Dove. Moving easily between various groups, Delaney developed a spirited, energetic style for his figural work and cityscapes. The prominence of yellow in Untitled (Village Street Scene) contributes to the work’s liveliness, but also holds a deeper significance: while Delaney was fond of large passages of bright color, he connected most deeply with the color yellow, which held a spiritual significance for him. Untitled (Village Street Scene) is one of the earliest works in his oeuvre that contains a large amount of yellow, covering nearly three-quarters of the canvas, and linking this work to developments later in the artist’s career. Delaney struggled throughout his life with mental health issues and social anxieties pertaining to race and sexuality; for him, the color yellow represented light, healing, and redemption, and he would use it almost exclusively in the portraits and abstract paintings he made in the 1960s and 1970s, near the end of his life.” —Terra Foundation label

Portrait of James Baldwin, 1965, oil on canvas, 25-1/2 x 21-1/4 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Chrysler Museum of Art. c. 1930s-40s American painting frame; Heydenryk, New York makers; hand-carved wormy chestnut wood, polychrome (gray wash) finish; molding width: 3-3/4 in. “Intense yellow brings a sacred and redemptive light to Beauford Delaney’s portraits of people he admired, as seen here framing the writer and Civil Rights activist James Baldwin (1924–1987). Though Delaney often exhibited with Harlem Renaissance artists, he preferred the company of intellectual circles in New York’s Greenwich Village. His abstract, colorful, and highly textured paintings found many admirers, including Alfred Stieglitz, Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Baldwin, who was only a teenager when they first met in 1940. Delaney became a spiritual mentor to the budding writer based on their mutual struggles against poverty, racism, and homophobia, and this portrait, created 25 years later, celebrates their lifelong creative friendship.” —Chrysler Museum label text.

Broom, circa 1914–1917, oil on board, 13" x 11", Colby College Museum of Art. c. 1920s American Art Deco painting frame; aluminum leaf on wood, molding width: 2 inches. Period Frame from Gill & Lagodich. Gift of the Alex Katz Foundation 2013.535

River Bottom, Silver, Ochre, Carmine, Green, oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in. Custom-made replica c. 1920s American Modernist frame; Art Deco; Aluminum leaf on gessoed wood with period patina; Molding width: 2-3/4” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Christie’s New York, 22 May 2019.

George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue Part II, 1927, oil metallic paint, and ink on paper [on Bainbridge board], 20-1/2” x 15-1/2”. Custom-made replica c. 1920s American Modernist frame, silver leaf on wood, modified geometric cassetta profilem, molding width: 2” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Christie’s New York, 22 May 2019.

Aeroplane, 1928, oil on canvas, 44" x 38", framed by Gill & Lagodich in a custom-made replica of a c.1930s American Modernist painting frame; wide reverse wave profile, water gilded in palladium leaf with light burnt sienna patina. Molding Width: 3-3/8” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Painting: Museum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund.

L’Atelier au Bouquet, 1942, oil on canvas, 25-5/8 x 31-7/8 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 18th century French Louis XV painting frame gilded carved oak; swept profile, very refined example with exquisite gesso reparure, washed original gilding. molding width: 4-3/4 in.

Red Schoolhouse (Country Scene), 1850–60, oil on canvas, 28-1/4" x 41-1/4", Metropolitan Museum of Art. c. 1850s American painting frame, gilded applied composition ornament on wood; molding width 5". Period frame from Gill & Lagodich. "Based in New Haven, Connecticut, Durrie traveled throughout the state, painting scenes of rural life. He was noted for his winter landscapes, which idealize the harsh season and effectively capture the visual effects of snow and ice. The New York lithographic firm Currier & Ives chose a number of his scenes for reproduction and distribution. In this nostalgic work, Durrie depicted a one-room schoolhouse with a blanket of unmelted snow on its roof, surrounded by children at play." —Metropolitan Museum of Art, permanent collection label.

Untitled (Autumn Foliage, Rhododendrons, Apple Blossoms, Rhododendrons), 1882, oil on wood, four panels, ~36 x10 inches. Five custom- made replica frames commissioned  by the Brooklyn Museum, circa 1890s transitional style, gilded oak. (Fifth framed panel not currently on display.)

Venice, 1880, oil on canvas, 22-5/8" x 37-5/8", framed by Gill & Lagodich for Greenville County Museum of Art. Period frame, c. 1880s French Barbizon painting frame, gilded applied ornament on wood, reverse profile. Molding width: 7-1/4 inches.

Gypsy Boy, pastel, 1885, 17-1/2" x 13-3/4", Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. 19th-century Italian gilded hand-carved wood frame from Gill & Lagodich.  (Collection of Jane Joel Knox, promised gift to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in loving memory of Irving Joel. )

Riva Degli Schiavoni, Number One, 1882, etching on Chine Colle paper, 8-9/16" x 13-1/16"; framed by Gill & Lagodich for Greenville County Museum of Art; c 1890s American Whistler style painting frame. Roman Gilded cast and applied ornament on extruded gesso on wood. Molding width: 5-5/8”

“View Near Rutland, Vermont,” 1837, oil on canvas, 29-1/4 x 36-1/4 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum, Atlanta, GA. Custom-made replica c. 1840s American frame, molding width 4-3/8 in. “Among the first American painters to dedicate himself to landscape, Asher Brown Durand was best known for his detailed renderings of America’s natural bounty. His early work as a watchmaker and engraver accounts for his fine, linear style. This quiet picnic scene boasts a romantic and lyrical spirit: the precisely rendered foliage and expansive vantage point express the beneficence of nature, a common theme among nineteenth-century landscape painters.” —museum label. Painting: Purchase with funds from Mrs. J. Mack Robinson.

Welch Mountain, 1863, oil on canvas, 20-3/4" x 30-1/4" Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Nelson-Atkins Musuem of Art: period American frame, gilded applied composition ornament on wood, . “Asher B. Durand evoked the philosophical idea of the Beautiful in the harmony, serenity and loveliness of this pastoral landscape of Welch Mountain, New Hampshire. He achieved these qualities by depicting the foreground with a fine brush to give remarkable detail, rendering the middle ground more sketchily and incorporating a number of flat, broadly painted areas of soft lavenders and blues in the background. Bright light and shadow play across the entire view, which is enveloped in a hazy atmosphere. A successful engraver, Durand did not turn to painting as a career until he was 40. After Thomas Cole's death in 1848, he became the acknowledged leader of the group of American landscape painters commonly called the Hudson River School.” —museum label. Painting Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust.

First Harvest in the Wilderness, 1855, oil on canvas, 31-5/8 x 48-1/16 in. Original 1850s American frame, gilded applied composition ornament and stenciled sandwork on wood, restored by Gill & Lagodich. “Although not a scene of the American West, this painting can be interpreted within the context of the artistic perpetuation of the notion of Manifest Destiny. Here the American wilderness yields to progress as a lone farmer reaps his first harvest in a field, still dotted with the stumps of recently cleared trees. A boulder resting by the side of the road identifies him by name as “Graham.” Using funds bequeathed by one of its founders, Augustus Graham, the Brooklyn Museum commissioned Asher B. Durand to paint this work in 1855, thus officially establishing its collection of American art. Durand’s dramatic landscape pays tribute to Graham’s efforts as a cultural pioneer.” —museum label

The Irish Question, 1880s, oil on canvas, 12 x 10 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago; period 19th-century American Folk Art frame, beautiful hand-painted faux bois burl pattern, beveled profile, original condition; molding width 2-1/2” Painting Restricted gift of Carol W. Wardlaw and Jill Burnside Zeno; Roger and J. Peter McCormick Endowments, 2004.3

Street Corner, 1936, oil on canvas mounted to board, 29-15/16” x 50-1/16”, framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Virginia Musuem of Fine Arts: Period 20th-century polychrome on wormy chestnut wood frame, molding width 4-3/16 in. VMFA: J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art, 2010.4

 “Diana at the Bath”, 1922, oil on canvas, 98-1/2" x 69-3/8"  Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum. Custom-made variation of c. 1930s American Modernist painting frame, wide reverse wave profile, water gilded and patinated palladium leaf on wood. Molding Width: 3-3/8”   "Like many 1920s figure painters, Lorser Feitelson attempted to interpret the ideal, or perfected, human form in a distinctly modern way. In this mythological subject, he based the exuberantly contoured figures and complex, dance-like composition on the style of sixteenth-century Italian Mannerism and its nineteenth-century French heir, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Working in Paris, Feitelson no doubt was aware that Picasso had already moved in this classical direction, creating beautifully outlined figures inspired by classical sculpture and Renaissance painting. Although the painting’s chalky, fresco-like colors also refer to Renaissance art, the figures are lithe, athletic, and unmistakably modern. By the time he presented this painting to the Museum in 1924, Feitelson lived on Prospect Place in Brooklyn." — Brooklyn Museum, permanent collection label.

Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1870s-1890s, oil on canvas, 84 x 144 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Museum of the American Revolution. Custom-made replica second-half 19th-century frame, stained bass wood with solid mahogany wide flat cap and wide scotia; gilded inner molding, applied composition ornament, sand panel, molding width 6 in. “American artist Harrington G. Fitzgerald painted this version of General George Washington’s famous 1776 crossing of the Delaware River about 100 years after the Revolutionary War. Instead of showing the actual crossing of the Delaware, Fitzgerald shows the Continental Army soldiers on the New Jersey side of the river as they regroup and prepare to march on Trenton. Fitzgerald spent much of his life working for a family-owned newspaper, but he found relief from the stresses of his professional life in painting. He studied painting under several notable American artists, including Thomas Eakins and John Singer Sargent. Fitzgerald is best known for his works depicting the landscape of Valley Forge.” —museum didactic label

Valley Forge Winter, The Return of the Foraging Party, 1880–1900, oil on canvas, 84 x 144 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Museum of the American Revolution. Custom-made replica second-half 19th-century frame, gilded applied ornament and sand, mahogany and bass wood, molding width 6 in. “The 1777-1778 winter encampment at Valley Forge became synonymous with hunger, deprivation, and cold, all feelings expressed in this painting by American artist Harrington G. Fitzgerald (1847-1930). This bleak scene shows a foraging party of Continental Army soldiers returning to camp after searching the countryside for food and other necessities. Fitzgerald spent much of his life working for a family-owned newspaper, but he found relief from the stresses of his professional life in painting. He studied painting under several notable American artists, including Thomas Eakins and John Singer Sargent. Fitzgerald is best known for his works depicting the landscape of Valley Forge.” —museum didactic label

Blue Interior: Giverny (The Red Ribbon), ca. 1912-13, oil on canvas, 32 × 32 in. Period c. 1910-15 American Arts & Crafts painting frame; Foster Brothers, Boston, makers; gilded hand-carved wood; Neo-classical design, molding width 5-1/4 in. "I try as much as possible to make a mirror of the canvas,” Frieseke commented in 1914, two years after his impressionist interiors, garden scenes, and figure studies first captured the attention of American collectors. Living in the little French village of Giverny, made famous by Monet and his garden, the Michigan-born Frieseke was admired by Europeans before he became one of America’s best-known artists. By the end of his life, however, the prevailing winds of abstraction had swept him aside. Yet Blue Interior contains the seeds of that very abstraction. By dragging a dry brush over the canvas, Frieseke created a vibrant surface of pattern, color, and form tempered by a cool luminosity. He controlled the difficult square format, a hallmark for modernist thinking in the early 20th century, by placing his subject just off center and animating her with a slight twist.” —museum didactic label Painting: J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art.

Haere Mai, 1891, oil on burlap, 28-1/2" x 36", framed by Gill & Lagodich in a custom-made Primitivist frame, hand-carved mahogany with antiqued-gesso flat wood liner. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978, 78.2514.16

Good Harbor Beach, 1919, oil on canvas, 21 x 30 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Mint Museum, period c. 1920 American Arts and Crafts painting frame, Newcomb-Macklin, New York/Chicago makers, metal-gilded hand-carved wood, molding width 5 in.

Symphony No. 1 in Gold and Green (A Mexican Symphony), 1925-1926, oil on canvas, 31-1/2 × 41 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Chrysler Museum of Art. Period American Modernist frame; patinated and aged 6-karat white gold on wood, high profile; variation is replacement of old linen liner with a 3/4” patinated gesso flat and hollow liner; molding width 3 in. “Mexican Symphony was created while Glintenkamp was living in Mexico. The painting shows multiple scenes on canvas. The sun illuminates its rays from the top left of the canvas, presenting local farmers working in their fields, and engaging with each other in their town, which dominates the left side of the canvas. The right side of the canvas alludes to the country’s native history, with depictions of masks and reliefs and pyramidal temples.”—museum description. Gift of Pamela Glintenkamp in memory of Rik van Glintenkamp © Estate of H. Glintenkamp.

"Range Riders," 1921, oil on canvas, 30-1/4" x 24-3/16". Early 20th-century American Arts and Crafts frame; hand-carved wood, Foster Bros. Boston makers, dark wood finish with gilded sight edge; Molding width: 4-1/2”  Period frame from Gill & Lagodich. Petrie Institute of Western American Art – Denver Art Museum.

Dinnertime, 1880, 21-5/8 x 15-1/16 inches, framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum of Art, c. 1880s American Barbizon painting frame; gilded applied ornament on wood, bright original gilding, molding width: 6-3/8 in.

Sun Bath, 1914, oil on canvas, 36-1/8 x 30-1/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Chrysler Museum of Art. Period c. 1915 American Arts and Crafts painting frame; Frederick Harer, PA maker.; gilded hand-carved wood; incised signature on verso HARER; added flat gilded liner; molding width: 4-3/8 in. “Drenched in light, the pale dresses of these two young women erupt with rainbows of yellow, orange, purple, and blue. Despite their casual poses, the surrounding flower garden suggests that their feminine beauty is carefully nurtured—the product of a sophisticated education. Philip Leslie Hale and his Boston patrons believed that the pursuit of knowledge and beauty were moral duties for both sexes. Hale’s wife, Lillian Westcott Hale, and his sister, Ellen Day Hale, were also painters, while his cousin Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent writer and feminist.” —museum label.

Blessed, 1898, pastel on board. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum of Art. Period c. 1880s American Aesthetic-style frame, gilded applied composition ornament on wood. “The first work May Hallowell exhibited at the Paris Salon was a pastel portrait of a little girl, a medium that she used throughout her career. The inherent fragility of pastel pigments contributes to the ethereal mood of this picture, while the stable composition lends mass and weight to the figure. The model’s features are specific, as in a portrait, yet she is crowned with a halo. That detail, together with her solemn expression, the timeless style of her blue robe, and the vagueness of the setting, suggests an identification with the Virgin Mary, yet Hallowell leaves the meaning of the image open.” — museum label. Purchase with funds from the Lawrence and Alfred Fox Foundation for the Ralph K. Uhry Collection.

Still Life with Bust of Dante, 1883, oil on panel, 10-5/16 x 13-13/16 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum of Art. Custom-made hand-carved replica frame, 17th-century Spanish, reverse profile with gilded hollow sight edge, molding width 3-1/2 in. “In this jumble of old books and sheet music, William Michael Harnett illustrates moral and immoral behavior through careful literary juxtapositions. Most provocative is a pairing of Dante’s Divine Comedy, whose saintly Beatrice guides the search for salvation, with the scandalous Juliette, the Marquis de Sade’s lustful book about a young woman’s sexual improprieties. Such moralizing reflected an American preoccupation with social codes and conduct. Harnett animates the display with objects perched in unstable positions: the whole arrangement appears ready to collapse like a house of cards.” —museum label

Still Life with Violin, 1885, oil on panel, 21-5/8 x 17-5/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Sotheby’s New York, Nov. 19, 2019, Lot 43, sale price $500,000. Period 19th-century American painted wood frame with period gilded flat-and-hollow liner, molding width 4-3/8 in. "In 1885, William Michael Harnett worked briefly in Paris, where he is known to have completed a version of After the Hunt and at least two still lifes on panel. … In the present work, Harnett alludes to objects related to his travels abroad, including the dated vellum book of Dante's Divina Comemedia. Writing on the importance of the objects that the artist included, John Wilmerding explains that Harnett "presented objects from contemporary experience that had been subjected to use and wear, thereby linking the past to the present" (William M. Harnett, New York 1992, p. 153). The delicate balance struck between the old and the new—the European tradition and the American experiment—echoes the sentiment of the age and is infused with subtle social commentary.” —Sotheby’s catalogue note.

"The Rendevous," 1928, oil on canvas, 30" x 30". c. 1910 American Arts and Crafts painting attributed to Yates, Bucks County maker; lemon gilded hand carved wood, reverse cushion profile. Molding width: 3-3/4” Period frame from Gill & Lagodich. Petrie Institute of Western American Art - Denver Art Musuem.

Penn’s Treaty With The Indians, c. 1830-1840, oil on canvas, 17-5/8” x 23-5/8”. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Rare c. 1830-40s American Hicks style painting frame, faux-painted wood, flat top edge and wide scoop profile with corner blocks; molding width 2-3/4”  Credit Line: The Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Alice C. Simkins in memory of Alice N. Hanszen; with frame acquired with funds provided by Miss Ima Hogg, by exchange

Church By The Barrens, Indian Harbor, Maine, 1940, oil on board, 22 x 28 inches. Framed in an original c. 1948 Yasuo Kuniyoshi frame from the Gill & Lagodich collection; wormy chestnut, dimensional reverse profile; various markings verso: Downtown Gallery label, rubber stamp: Butler Art Institute, Molding width 4-7/8”  LOT 14, SOTHEBY’S AMERICAN ART, NEW YORK 23 MAY 2017  Lot Sold $852,500

The Last of New England—The Beginning of New Mexico, 1918/19, oil on cardboard, 24 x 30 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago: period c. 1930s-40s American Modernist frame, House of Heydenryk, New York maker, wormy chestnut wood with polychrome patina; silver leaf with painted gesso flat liner. Label on Verso: a HEYDENRYK frame / HHJR / THE HOUSE OF HEYDENRYK / 141 WEST 54TH STREET / NEW YORK 19, N.Y.  "In 1918 Marsden Hartley went to New Mexico in search of an appropriate subject for an authentic American modern art. In the artist’s 18 months there, the Southwest inspired him to reengage with nature and more realistic representational modes. Hartley described the scenery to his dealer, Alfred Stieglitz: “I like the country very well for it is big and clean and true, and there is nothing dirty standing between one and the sunlight, as there is in the east.” In The Last of New England—The Beginning of New Mexico, Hartley celebrated leaving the exhausted East for the unspoiled landscape of the Southwest, which he felt offered weary Americans an opportunity for rejuvenation in nature." — Art Institute of Chicago, Permanent collection label. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.546

Motif From African Textile I and II,  1925, oil on board, 29-1/2" x 9-3/8", Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Colby College Museum of Art. Matched pair of custom-made replicas of first-quarter 20th -century American frames, black-painted patinated wood; molding width 2”.  Gift of the Alex Katz Foundation Accession Number: 2013.533

Portrait of Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1938, Oil on Masonite, 28” x 22". Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Period c. 1930s American Modernist painting frame, House of Heydenryk, New York makers; silver-gilded beveled sight edge, wormy chestnut reverse profile, molding width: 4-3/8”  c. 1930s American Modernist painting frame, House of Heydenryk, New York makers; silver-gilded beveled sight edge, wormy chestnut reverse profile, molding width 4-3/8 in. Previously on view at the Met Breuer in the stellar exhibit “Marsden Hartley’s Maine”, March 15 – June 18, 2017, and at Colby College Museum of Art, July 8 – November 1, 2017. “Having painted a series of dark landscapes inspired by the work of Albert Pinkham Ryder in 1909, Hartley returned to his American artistic hero late in his career. This highly imaginative portrait of Ryder is Hartley’s posthumous tribute to the painter, whose isolated, melancholy existence and financial poverty struck a sympathetic chord in him. In the portrait, Ryder appears frontal and isolated, like a saint or an icon. Hartley also composed a poem and several essays about the artist, including one in which he describes Ryder’s eyebrows as ‘lichens overhanging rocks of granite.’” —Met Museum label

Church At Head Tide, Maine, 1938, oil on panel, 28" x 22". Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Colby College Museum of Art. Period c. 1930s-40s American Modernist painting frame, hand-carved pickled wormy chestnut, patinated gesso on wood flat-and-hollow liner. Molding width: 4-7/8” Painting bequest of Adelaide Moise; Colby Museum accession number: 1986.021  was on view at The Met Breuer, New York City, in the stellar exhibit “Marsden Hartley’s Maine”, March 15 – June 18, 2017 (continued Summer into Autumn at Colby College Museum of Art, July 8 – November 1)

New Mexico Recollection No. 6, 1922, oil on board, 25-1/4” x 35-1/2”. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Petrie Institute of Western Art, Denver Art Museum. Custom-made replica of c. 1930s-40s American painting frame, notch-carved vintage wormy chestnut with polychrome wash finish, patinated gesso painted flat and bullnose liner, molding width 5” Painting: William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection 2001.455

Evening Storm, Schoodic, Maine, 1942, oil on masonite, 30” X 40”  Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Museum of Modern Art exhibition loan. CUSTOM-MADE REPLICA of a period frame from the Gill & Lagodich Collection:  c. 1930s-40s American painting frame; notch-carved wormy chestnut with polychrome wash finish; gesso painted flat and bullnose liner.  Molding width: 4-7/8”   was on view at The Met Breuer, New York City, in the stellar exhibit “Marsden Hartley’s Maine”, March 15 – June 18, 2017 (continued Summer into Autumn at Colby College Museum of Art, July 8 – November 1)

Kennebec River, West Georgetown, 1939, oil on board, 22” X 28” CUSTOM-MADE REPLICA c.1930s-40s American Modernist frame style, period chestnut, reverse profile, with taupe flat-and-bevel liner. Molding width 5” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for a Private Collection, New York.   was on view at the Met Breuer, New York City, in the stellar exhibit “Marsden Hartley’s Maine”, March 15 – June 18, 2017 (continued Summer into Autumn at Colby College Museum of Art, July 8 – November 1, 2017.)

Mt. Kathadin (Maine), Autumn, No. 2, oil on canvas, 30-1/4" x 40-1/4” PERIOD FRAME c. 1930 American Modernist frame, House of Heydenryk, New York makers, hand carved, paint-finished wood. Molding width: 5” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Was on view at The Met Breuer, New York City, in the stellar exhibit “Marsden Hartley’s Maine”, March 15 – June 18, 2017 (continued at Colby College Museum of Art, July 8 – November 1)

Brilliant Autumn, Landscape #28, c. 1930, oil on canvas, 25" x 31-1/4". Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Colby College Museum of Art. Period c. 1931 American Modernist painting frame, gilded carved wood over red bole; patinated gesso flat-and-hollow liner; molding width 3-3/4" Painting Gift of C. David O'Brien '58, Colby Museum Accession number 1983.006

French Peasant Girl, c. 1883, oil on canvas, 21-5/8” x 13-7/8”, period 1870-80s American frame, gilded applied composition ornament over wood; reverse profile, acanthus patterned ogee with original wood outer edge; molding width: 5-3/8”  "Said to be one of Childe Hassam’s earliest paintings in oils, French Peasant Girl shows a young woman in profile, leaning on a stick as she gazes into the distance beyond the right edge of the composition. Seen from slightly above, the figure is embedded in the land, with only her neck and head rising above the horizon line. The soft brushwork and muted palette (range of colors) of this outdoor image, as well as the peasant subject, show the influence of a group of French painters of rural life and landscape known as the Barbizon school. Hassam gained first-hand knowledge of their work during his first visit to Europe, in 1883; French Peasant Girl probably was painted soon after his return to his native Boston, where the Barbizon school’s naturalistic portrayal of humble country life was championed and emulated by painter William Morris Hunt. Hassam never returned to the theme of peasant life, but the solitary female subject and the problem of juxtaposing near objects against a distant background would continue to preoccupy him for the remainder of his long career." Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1989.21

Paris At Twilight, oil on canvas, 1887, 25-1/2" x 21-1/4", framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; period American Whistler-style gilded wood frame.

Peach Blossoms — Villiers-le-Bel, 1887–89, oil on canvas, 21-1/2" x 18-1/8". Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. c. 1890s American frame, gold leaf and Roman-gilding, applied ornament, on wood; very fine Whistler-inspired reeded design, molding width 7 inches. "Hassam studied in Paris from 1887 to 1889. During the summers, he and his wife visited friends at Villiers-le-Bel, about ten miles north-east of the city, in the Oise River valley. There, Hassam painted a series of deligthtul garden scenes that reflect his life liong interest in the subject. Although he produced few simple landscapes in the French countryside, this canvas is an exquisite exception. The unruly, overgrown peach tree in an orchard is delectably dynamic, especially in contrast to the controlled vision of nature in the manicured garden that usually preoccupied Hassam at Villiers-le-Bel." — Metropolitan Museum, permanent collection label. Gift of Mrs. J. Augustus Barnard, 1979, 1979.490.9

Washington Arch, Spring, ca. 1893, oil on canvas 26-1/8 x 21-5/8 inches; framed by Gill & Lagodich for The Phillips Collection — Smithsonian Institution; c. 1890s American Hassam exhibition painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament, reverse profile, original gilding; molding width: 3 in. “A prolific artist and enthusiastic traveler, Hassam painted a variety of outdoor locations: picturesque coastal towns and cities such as New York, Boston, and Paris. Washington Arch, Spring is an example of one of Hassam's most celebrated and distinctive themes—the city. Like the French impressionists, Hassam enjoyed the challenge of capturing the bustling activity of the street as well as the charm of tree-lined avenues. Even in his early career, before embracing impressionism, he painted city scenes in which light and atmospheric effects played an important part. By the 1880s he was using a higher-keyed palette and looser brushwork to paint the spectacle of Paris boulevards. When he returned from Europe in 1889, he began making paintings and etchings of New York. Hassam saw New York as a place of comparable beauty and excitement to the French capital in the fashionable neighborhoods along Fifth Avenue and at Washington Square. In focusing on the more elegant side of New York life, Hassam equated the city physically to the picturesque capitals of Europe, while also, as Duncan Phillips explained, reflecting the city's "awakening cosmopolitanism…." The arch, sited on Washington Square at the southern end of Fifth Avenue, made clear Hassam's reference to a similar monument, the Arc d'Triomphe in Paris. The New York arch, designed by Stanford White, commemorated the one-hundredth anniversary of George Washington's inauguration. Hassam's residence at was just north of the Square, so he was able to watch the progress of construction, first a temporary wood and plaster structure, finished in 1889, followed by a permanent marble arch completed in 1892. Hassam chose a vantage point at street level. Partially blocked by trees; the arch could be seen in the near distance at the end of Fifth Avenue, shown at a diagonal that sweeps into the composition. Although he employed an asymmetrical design and a light palette, as favored by his French impressionist predecessors, Hassam, like most of his American counterparts, preferred not to sacrifice structure and solid form to the fragmenting effects of broken color. He still sought the momentary and fleeting, however, remarking on his interest in watching the bustle of people on the streets as they went about their daily life. Hassam included several pedestrians in Washington Arch, along with a street cleaner and a horse-drawn carriage. He remained a detached observer, however, focusing on the larger, overall view, and capturing a genteel, sunny, picturesque world.” —museum didactic label

Seascape--Isle of Shoals, 1902, oil on canvas, 29-1/8 x 37-1/2 inches, framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; c. 1900 Stanford White-style American painting frame, gilded carved wood, attributed to Milch Galleries, New York frame makers.

Flags On The Friar's Club, New York City 1918, oil on canvas, 26-5/8 x 24-3/8 inches, framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Mead Art Museum, Amherst; c. 1910-20 American Arts and Crafts painting frame, gilded hand-carved wood, attr. Milch Galleries, New York maker; molding width: 3-3/4

“Flags on the Waldorf," 1916, oil on canvas, 36-1/4” x 31-1/4”. Early 20th-century American Hassam flag painting exhibition frame; gilded applied composition ornament on wood; reverse profile; original gilding.   "Hassam recorded the changing patriotic display along Fifth Avenue during World War I, when New York City regularly flew the flags of the allied nations, the armed services, and the American Red Cross." — Amon Carter Museum, permanent collection label. Note: Hassam’s frame preferences are well-documented. This frame is the type specified by Hassam for exhibition of his flag paintings. “Hassam’s concern with the aesthetic impact of frames is evident in his treatment of his Flag paintings. An installation photograph [below] of the first exhibition of the series, at New York’s Durand-Ruel Galleries in November 1918, shows the canvases uniformly framed (fig. 346). That strategy encouraged gallery visitors to view the works as an ensemble, promoting Hassam’s ultimately unfulfilled dream that the entire group would be acquired by New York City or an American museum. The style of the handsome frame is deceptively simple, with many light-catching surfaces that enhance the paintings’ lively colors and broken brushwork.” — Susan G. Larkin, ‘How Hassam Framed Hassams’, in Childe Hassam, American Impressionist, H. Barbara Weinberg, New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) 2004, pp. 325–342.

Mexican Girl with Oriental Scarf, c. 1916-22, oil on canvas, 23-15/16 x 20 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Period c. 1928 American Arts and Crafts frame; Walfred Thulin, Boston maker; gilded hand-carved wood; hand-carved signature on verso THULIN WT 1928 #1994 #1995; molding width 2-5/8in. “Robert Henri painted sitters from many races, portraying them with his signature keen analysis of character and masterful brushwork. A 1914 trip inaugurated his long-standing fascination with the Southwest and the region’s ethnically diverse people. This interest was further fostered by multiple visits to northern New Mexico where he found subjects who reflected a blend of cultures, notably Mexican and local Native and Hispanic Americans. Henri acknowledged: “I am looking at each individual with the eager hope of finding something of the dignity of life…the humanity…. I do not wish to explain these people…. I only want to find whatever of the great spirit there is in the Southwest. If I can hold it on my canvas, I am satisfied.” —museum label Painting: Gift of Rilye (Toi) and George Ashby, 2010.39

My Friend Brien, 1913, oil on canvas, 41” x 33” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Mint Museum. Period c. 1920 American Arts and Crafts frame, gilded hand-carved wood. Molding width: 3” “Robert Henri was a charismatic and independent-minded teacher and artist, but he is best known today as the leader of the so-called “Ash Can School” of urban realists. His anti-academic stance that art should be based on the vibrant and frenetic life on the streets ruffled more than a few critical feathers, but served to unite the artists that gathered around him, such as George Bellows, George Luks, and Everett Shinn. Henri devoted much of his career to painting portraits—not only of prominent society figures, such as Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, but of people from all walks of life. Henri painted this picture of Brien O’Malley, his friend and guide, during his first visit to the town of Achill, Ireland, in 1913. With its bold brushwork and its unflinching depiction of O’Malley’s weather-beaten features, My Friend Brien is a clear testament to Henri’s belief that a painting should be as direct and frank a representation of its subject as possible. He wrote in 1915, just two years after completing this painting: “The people I like to paint are ‘my people,’ . . . people through whom the dignity of life is manifest . . . wherever I find them . . . my impulse immediately is to tell about them through my own language—drawing and painting in color.” —Mint Museum label

Fox Hunt, 1893, oil on canvas, 38 x 68-1/2 in. Recently reframed by Gill & Lagodich for Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Custom-made replica of original Homer frame chosen by the artist for other works of this period, c. 1890–1910 gilded and patinated milled wood, molding width ~7 in. This elegant modern design exemplifies the stark modernity of the composition. Painting credit: Joseph E. Temple Fund, 1894.4

Currently on view in the stellar exhibition ‘Making American Artists: Stories from PAFA, 1776–1976.’

“‘Fox Hunt’ is widely viewed as Homer’s most haunting late “naturalist” painting. ¬ Rendered in a manner that suggests a close study of Japanese woodblock prints, it dramatically embodies the recurrent theme of conflict in nature. The subject is novel for the artist, though he had been depicting scenes of hunting and fishing for years. Here, Homer has removed any trace of human presence and focused on the Darwinian struggle of natural selection in the animal kingdom: during a bleak Maine winter, an ominous flock of hungry crows become predators and a fox, desperately moving through the heavy snow drifts, the prey. That the artist appears to have painted the scene from the hunted creature’s perspective, identifying with its plight, only heightens the tension.”—Met museum exhibition label.

“After 1890, Homer frequently depicted "naturalist" subjects, such as hunting and fishing in the Adirondacks and coastal or marine views at Prout's Neck, Maine.¬ ‘Fox Hunt’ was Homer’s largest painting to date, and of a size appropriate for the depiction of natural survival and its casualties. He dramatized the brutal realities of winter on the Maine coast by showing a fox desperately bounding through deep snow to flee a flock of half-starved crows. The birds descend ominously with outstretched wings, forming a dark hovering mass above the struggling fox. That viewers witness the scene from the fox’s vantage point heightens the sense of tension and empathy. The fox’s red silhouette is splashed across a field of oppressive snow; we sense that he is cornered, trapped within the flattened white plane while the aggressive birds break its edge on descent. This striking reversal of the natural order, in which the bird becomes predator and the fox prey, has become one of the artist’s most haunting and successful images. PAFA purchased ‘Fox Hunt’ in 1893, the first of Homer’s works to enter a public collection.” —PAFA exhibit label.

Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas, 33-1/8 x 60 inches, custom-designed, gilded, and patinated frame, 9-karat gray-gold leaf over fine-combed gesso and cast ornament on carved wood; custom-fabricated in the Gill & Lagodich New York studios; combed pattern, ogee profile, and gilded patina based on original Hopper frame models. "Edward Hopper said that Nighthawks was inspired by “a restaurant on New York’s Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet,” but the image—with its carefully constructed composition and lack of narrative—has a timeless, universal quality that transcends its particular locale. One of the best-known images of twentieth-century art, the painting depicts an all-night diner in which three customers, all lost in their own thoughts, have congregated. Hopper’s understanding of the expressive possibilities of light playing on simplified shapes gives the painting its beauty. Fluorescent lights had just come into use in the early 1940s, and the all-night diner emits an eerie glow, like a beacon on the dark street corner. Hopper eliminated any reference to an entrance, and the viewer, drawn to the light, is shut out from the scene by a seamless wedge of glass. The four anonymous and uncommunicative night owls seem as separate and remote from the viewer as they are from one another. (The red-haired woman was actually modeled by the artist’s wife, Jo.) Hopper denied that he purposefully infused this or any other of his paintings with symbols of human isolation and urban emptiness, but he acknowledged that in Nighthawks “unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.” — Art Institute of Chicago, Essential Guide, 2013, p. 58

Nighthawks on view at l'exposition "Edward Hopper", Grand Palais, Paris, October 2012 – January 2013.

Chop Suey, 1929, oil on canvas, 32” x 38”. Lot offered at Christie’s, New York, 13 November, 2018, est. $70,000,000–100,000,000. “Chop Suey is one of the best pieces of American Modernism to have come to auction in generations … The $91,875,000 paid for the work set a world auction record, not only for Edward Hopper but for any piece of pre-war American art.” Gill & Lagodich originally designed and fabricated this elegant frame model for Hopper’s iconic nocturne Nighthawks (Art Institute of Chicago); patinated white gold, hand-combed gesso on ogee profile, molding width 5 inches, design based on molds and profile of original Nighthawks frame as chosen by Hopper’s dealer Frank Rehn.

Office in a Small City, 1953, oil on canvas, 28 x 40 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2021). Period American Modernist “Hopper” frame; polychrome washed patina over metal-leaf gilding on combed gesso substrate; molding width 3-7/8 in.; frame design original to a number of Hopper paintings. This frame provenance Hirshhorn Museum. Handwritten verso: REHN and various numbers. This frame bears Hirshhorn accession number 66.2507, for Edward Hopper, Hotel By A Railroad, 1952, provenance Frank Rehn Gallery, Joseph H. Hirshhorn. Gold paper label verso: MADE BY / D. MATT / HAND CARVED PICTURE FRAMES / 157 EAST 54TH STREET / NEW YORK CITY / PLAZA 8-23__ “The Metropolitan acquired this painting shortly after it was completed in late October 1953. Begun in Cape Cod over the summer and finished in New York City, it was the only oil painting Hopper produced that year. Josephine (Nivinson) Hopper, the artist’s wife and an artist in her own right, described this painting, which reprises one of his signature subjects—a solitary figure, physically and emotionally detached from his surroundings and other people—as ‘the man in concrete wall.’” —Met Museum label. Painting credit: George A. Hearn Fund, 1953.

Blackwell’s Island, 1928, oil on canvas, 34-1/2” x 59-1/2” framed by Gill & Lagodich. Replica of custom frame originally designed and fabricated by Gill & Lagodich for Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ (Art Institute of Chicago), variation is gold patination on white gold, combed gesso and bole on wood, wide ogee profile, molding width 5 in. “In Blackwell’s Island, Edward Hopper explored the intersection of nature and the urban environment at the location on New York’s East River. The painting features a wide expanse of sky above and turbulent cobalt blue water below, bisected by a shadowy skyline of buildings. In the past, Blackwell’s Island (today called Roosevelt Island) had been the site of a prison, mental asylum, and hospital, among other facilities. The island's varied architecture and seclusion appealed to Hopper.” —CBMAA label text. “The Horizontal City: Five paintings made between 1928 and 1935—Manhattan Bridge Loop; Blackwell’s Island; Macomb’s Dam Bridge; Apartment Houses, East River; and Early Sunday Morning—share nearly identical dimensions and the same panoramic format. Collectively, these paintings provide invaluable insight into Hopper’s contrarian vision of a horizontal city; as Alfred H. Barr observed of Hopper’s work in 1933: ‘His indifference to skyscrapers is remarkable in a painter of New York architecture.’ Describing his aims in Manhattan Bridge Loop, Hopper explained that the painting’s horizontal composition was an attempt to give “a sensation of great lateral extent” and bring attention to the cityscape beyond the frame; “I just never cared for the vertical,” he later quipped. His depictions of the wide spans of the city’s bridges, its industrial landscapes, and its low-slung buildings elevate the quotidian and prosaic over the iconic, offering a powerful counterpoint to the awe-inspiring views of the New York skyline celebrated in the news and in works by many of his contemporaries.” —Whitney Museum exhibition text.

Shakespeare at Dusk, 1935, oil on canvas, 17-1/4 x 25-1/8 inches. Lot offered at Sotheby’s, New York, May 21, 2019, est. $7,000,000–10,000,000. Gill & Lagodich originally designed and fabricated this elegant frame model for Hopper’s iconic nocturne Nighthawks (Art Institute of Chicago); patinated white gold, hand-combed gesso on ogee profile, molding width 4-1/4 inches. Sotheby’s catalogue entry “Shakespeare at Dusk captures the visual poetry of twilight in a large city, when the cacophonous noise of streetcars and elevated trains begins to acquiesce to the stillness of night. This Central Park scene belongs to Hopper’s celebrated series of New York cityscapes—subject matter he explored early in his career while studying under Robert Henri and continued until his death in 1967. A lifelong lover of poetry and prose, Shakespeare at Dusk is among the only major works in Hopper’s oeuvre that overtly references the profound influence of literature on his emotional response to specific times of day, particularly the evening. The poems that he quoted, often as explanations for his own art, frequently focus on the mood of dusk—its sense of mystery, anxiety, and eros born out of the varying effects of light and shadow. … [the painting] depicts two statues cloaked in shadow near the deserted southern end of the Central Park Mall, which is illuminated by the vibrant afterglow of sunset on the horizon behind the shadows of high-rises at the western end of the park. The inclusion of identifiable modern skyscrapers is exceedingly rare in Hopper’s oeuvre and the work is one of only a few New York scenes where the exact physical location is clearly apparent. … Hopper radically rethought his art following his 1933 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Painted in 1935, Shakespeare at Dusk can be seen as a metaphor for the new direction of his work, one that would be less populated and increasingly existential.”

Tables for Ladies, 1930, oil on canvas, 48 1/4 × 60 1/4 in. framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2022). Replica of custom frame originally designed and fabricated by Gill & Lagodich for Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ (Art Institute of Chicago), variation is polychrome patination on metal-leaf gilding, combed gesso and bole on wood, wide ogee profile, molding width 4-1/2 in.

“Throughout his career Hopper made intimate yet detached observations about everyday life and human relationships. His record book gives a detailed description of the restaurant interior (“cherry stained woodwork and tiled floor”), food display (“grapefruit … black menu cards … blue plate with 2 raw chops”), and restaurant patrons and staff (especially the “fine looking waitress”). Upon seeing this painting at the Museum in 1935, Hopper reportedly said that he had wanted to capture ‘the vulgar color of cheap restaurants.’”

“In Hopper’s Tables for Ladies, a waitress leans forward to adjust the vividly painted foods at the window as a couple sits quietly in the richly paneled and well-lit interior. A cashier attentively tends to business at her register. Though they appear weary and detached, these two women hold posts newly available to female city dwellers outside the home. The painting’s title alludes to a recent social innovation in which establishments advertised "tables for ladies" in order to welcome their newly mobile female customers, who, if seen dining alone in public previously, were assumed to be prostitutes.” —Met Museum text.

Painting credit: George A. Hearn Fund, 1931.

The Finding Of The Saviour In The Temple, 1867, engraving from the original print signed by Hunt in original hand-carved gilded wood frame (Gill & Lagodich Collection). The carved and gilded oak frame is original to the engraving; outside dimensions 33-3/8 x 42-3/4 in.; paper label verso: HASSE, / CARVER AND GILDER, / Printseller and Picture Frame Maker, / FINE ART GALLERY, / 31, COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. The engraving is signed by both the artist and the engraver, Auguste Blanchard. “This frame was designed for the engraving of The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, which Ernest Gambart published in 1867. It was adapted from the frame of the painting, by Frederic George Stephens, a close friend of Hunt's and former studio assistant, who discussed the frame in a pamphlet of 1860. When the oil painting went on view in London in the spring of 1860 the critic of the Manchester Guardian noted that 'the symbols have overflowed the picture, and expended themselves all over the frame'. The frame for the engraving is less elaborate than that of the painting, but both include the crescent moon and blazing sun carved in the centre of the top rail to suggest the passing of the Old (Testament) Dispensation and the resplendent New Dispensation of Christ. Both also include in the top left-hand corner a snake entwined around a cross, alluding to the brazen serpent of Mosaic law (Numbers 21: 8-9). At the time this would have been interpreted as a type (or prefiguring) of the Crucixion. The carver of the frame is unrecorded, but it is almost certainly an employee of the firm of Joseph Green, who was responsible for the frame for the painting.” —Christie's London auction notes, 4 May 2007

The original painting c. 1854-56 (with a more elaborate version of the frame) is in the Birmingham City Art Gallery, UK [shown here below our engraving frame details].

The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, 1854-1855, oil on canvas. Original frame. “The Young Christ Is Seen With His Parents On The Right, Surrounded By The Rabbis To Whom He Has Been Giving Instruction In The Temple.” Collection Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, UK. Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust, licensed under CC0

Twilight On The Campagna, Evening, 1851-1852, oil on canvas, 38" x 53-5/8", period 1850s American frame, gilded applied composition ornament and stenciled sand on wood. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “Unburdened by narrative—a major shift for the young Inness—Twilight on the Campagna experiments instead with mood. The artist later declared that his primary goal was “not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion.” The twisting, tortured trunks of the trees at right, silhouetted by the waning light, are melancholic and resonate with the dramatic scenes of Baroque master Salvator Rosa (1615–1673). Painted soon after Inness’s arrival in Italy, Twilight on the Campagna anticipates the poetic dimension that became the artist’s signature in the last decade of his life.” — museum label The Alex Simpson, Jr., Collection, 1945, 1945-5-1

Summer in The Catskills, 1867, oil on canvas, 20 x 30-1/2 inches, c. 1860s American painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament on wood, molding width 5-3/4 inches. Edward B. Butler Collection, 1912.1837

The Old Veteran, 1881, oil on canvas, 35-3/8 x 45-3/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Chrysler Museum of Art. Period c. 1880s American painting frame, gilded applied composition on wood, molding width: 6 in. Painting Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Looking Over The Hudson At Milton, 1886 – 88, oil on canvas, 27-1/16" x 22", period 1880s American Barbizon frame, gilded applied and cast ornament on wood. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. “George Inness painted Looking Over the Hudson at Milton from memory in Montclair, New Jersey, five years after he had stopped spending his summers in Milton, New York. It shows the grand view beyond the back garden at the country home of a good friend of the artist. The steamboat in the middle ground and the ferry on the far bank of the river are reminders that, by the 1880s, Milton, like many other Hudson River towns, increasingly was being used as a vacation spot. Although Looking Over the Hudson at Milton was not painted directly from nature, its rich color, flickering light and vibrant brushwork recall French Impressionism, which was increasingly available to audiences in the United States in the late 1880s.”—museum gallery label Purchase: Nelson Trust, 33-87

Emma Van Name, ca. 1805, oil on canvas, 29" x 23".  Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Period c. 1790s American painting frame; gilded wood with carved and applied ornament. Molding width: 3-1/8” "This compelling portrait of a Maryland toddler is widely regarded as an icon of American folk painting. Included in numerous international exhibitions since its discovery in the late 1950s by New York’s primary folk and modernist dealer, Edith Halpert, it is now accepted as an important work by Joshua Johnson, the earliest known professional African American painter. Son of a white man and an unidentified enslaved mother, Johnson apprenticed to a blacksmith before achieving his freedom in 1782, becoming part of Baltimore’s large free black population. Emma Van Name is arguably his most ambitious and engaging portrait of an individual child. Distinguished by a bravura demonstration of the presumably self-taught artist’s talent and imaginative flair in its nuanced palette, compositional complexity, deft handling of details, and surreally scaled goblet that incongruously comes to the subject’s waist, the work suggests the particular appeal of historical folk painting to early 20th-century modernists." —Metropolitan Museum permanent collection label.

Mrs. Andrew Bedford Bankson and Son, Gunning Bedford Bankson, 1803/1805, oil on canvas 38 x 32 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago, period early 19th century American gilded wood scoop molding frame, molding width 3-1/2 inches. "Joshua Johnson was the nation’s first professional African American painter of prominence. Listed in the 1816 Baltimore city directory as a “free householder of Colour,” he was born into slavery and freed by his owner (and father) shortly after 1782. Through his ties to abolitionists, Johnson attracted local patrons from the city’s artisan and middle-class families, such as the Banksons. The emphasis on fashion in this painting is characteristic of much of Johnson’s portraiture. When permitted, the artist preferred to bedeck his female sitters with jewelry. Mrs. Bankson’s hair is bound with a double circlet of light glass beads that accentuates her brown hair and gray eyes. The child’s clothes are equally elegant; he sports a high-waisted, white-muslin gown and holds a brightly colored strawberry, a delicacy that Johnson often included in his portraits.” — AIC permanent collection label.

Camel’s Hump from the Western Shore of Lake Champlain, 1852, oil on canvas, 31-3/8 x 45-3/16 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum of Art. Period frame with custom replica liner element, c. 1850s American painting frame, attr. Goupil, New York; gilded applied composition ornament on wood, molding width ~6 in. “Kensett, one of the leading American artists of the 1850s, trained as an engraver before studying painting in Europe. Deeply attracted to the landscapes of New York and New England, he frequently depicted famous scenery, such as this view of Vermont’s Green Mountains from the New York shore of Lake Champlain. The picturesque conjunction of the undulating mountain range and New England’s largest lake accounted for its popularity with artists and tourists alike.” —High Museum label. Painting: Gift of Virginia Carroll Crawford

The Vanity of the Artist's Dream, 1830, oil and graphite on canvas, 35-1/8" x 29-1/2"  c. 1820-30 American painting frame; gilded carved wood; wide cove back edge, flat top edge, wide bevel to bevel sight edge, unusual frame model; molding width: 5 inches.  Period frame gifted, in part, by Gill & Lagodich to Harvard Art Museums.   “In this humorous still life, King pokes fun at popular taste and laments the plight of the arts in America. A masterful example of trompe l’oeil illusion, the painting depicts a cupboard filled with the possessions of an ambitious and well-educated but financially unsuccessful painter. Brushes, drafting tools, treatises on art, and a cast of the head of the Apollo Belvedere, the celebrated antique sculpture, are crammed in next to stacks of unpaid bills, letters from parsimonious patrons, and a “last prize” medal. Behind the loaf of bread, a fictitious news report complete with typographical errors ridicules the unsophisticated tastes of the era, and makes clear that America was a difficult place for painters like King who wanted to emulate the arts culture of Europe in the new republic: The exhibition of a Cats Skin in Philadelphia/produced TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS,/totally eclipsing its rival the splendid portrait/of [Benjamin] WEST by Sir T. LAWRENCE, the/later we regret to state, did not produce enough/to PAY ITS EXPENSES. OH’ ATHENS OF AMERICA.” —Harvard gallery label.

Night Feast ( Nächtliches Fest ) , 1921, oil on paper, mounted on cardboard painted with oil, mounted on board; sheet: 14 1/2 x 19 5/8 inches (36.9 x 49.8 cm); mount: 19 3/4 x 23 5/8 inches (50 x 60 cm). Custom pyramid-profile frame based on original Klee design, made by Gill & Lagodich for Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Carnival Scene, circa 1918, 18 x 22 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Mint Museum. Period late 19th-century Alpine frame, ebonized toned gesso on wood, molding width 4-1/4 in. “Like other artists of the Ashcan School George Luks made a name for himself by creating paintings of the people and neighborhoods of lower Manhattan. Luks was, perhaps, the member of the group whose paintings of this subject matter were the most coarse and unflinching. He was known to have been lively and cantankerous, a drinker and a carouser who found the hardscrabble lives of immigrants and loners more stimulating than those of the upper classes. In 1918 Luks painted Blue Devils on Fifth Avenue, a scene of French veterans on parade in New York (now owned by the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.), for an exhibition of paintings in support of Allied efforts in World War 1. The Mint Museum’s Carnival Scene, which includes figures clad in similar blue military garb as well as French flags, is likely a related work.” —Mint Museum label. Painting Gift of the Mint Museum Auxiliary. Period frame acquired in 2018 with funds generously donated by Betsy and Alfred Brand.

Portrait of Mademoiselle Duhamel, c. 1910-20s, oil on canvas, 32-1/8 x 25-7/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Chrysler Museum of Art. Period c. 1920s French Art Deco frame, reverse stepped profile, polychrome faux bois finish on wood, molding width 2-3/4 in.

Pavonia, Jersey City, (Street Scene, Twelfth Avenue), 1928, oil on canvas, 20-1/8 x 30-1/4 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, period gilded and polychrome oak frame, original distressed finish, cassetta profile; molding width: 3-1/4 in. “Reginald Marsh's Pavonia-Jersey City shows casual activity in an industrial district in New Jersey. An attractive woman strides along the sidewalk of Pavonia Avenue and catches the attention of two men. Her allure is suggested by not only their gawking, but also the locomotive's whistling smokestack. Her rich red dress and position at the corner of the composition, where the entire weight of its design accumulates, ensure that she is the painting's primary focus. Born in Paris, Marsh began his career in magazine illustration and worked among the initial staff of The New Yorker. A train enthusiast, the painter often crossed the Hudson River from his Manhattan studio to Jersey City, which had served as a transportation hub since the 19th century.” —NAMA gallery label. Painting Purchase: acquired through the generosity of the Union Pacific Foundation, Mrs. Herbert O. Peet, and the Nelson Gallery Foundation.

 In the Auvergne, 1866/69, oil on canvas, 32-1/6 x 39-1/4 inches framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago, in a period French Barbizon painting frame, gilded cast ornament on wood, molding width 7-3/4". 

Afternoon Tea, Giverny, 1910, oil on canvas, 39-1/2” x 32”. Custom-made replica frame, gilded cast ornament on wood; molding width 7-1/4” Replicated from an original period Stanford White frame in the Gill & Lagodich Collection for the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Three Boys Bathing by a Canal, 1901, Wurmsche Tempera on cardboard, mounted on wood, 54.3 × 39.4 cm (21-3/8 × 15-1/2 in.). Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Worcester Art Museum. Worcester Art Museum. Mid-19th century American molding frame, faux bois painted wood, bolection profile, gilded liner, molding width: 3-1/4 in. “Modersohn-Becker’s earliest work focuses on the rural landscape of northwestern Germany. Along with other artists and writers—among them her husband Otto Modersohn, poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and his wife Clara Rilke-Westhoff—she found inspiration in a pre-industrial peat-farming community in Worpswede. During several visits to Paris beginning in 1899, however, she encountered the work of Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin. This painting, created shortly after her return to Worpswede, demonstrates the influence of these artists, specifically the vivid palette, asymmetrical composition, and experimentation with new paints and surface texture. Most importantly, this painting shows her engagement with the nude and introduction of figures into her landscapes. Due to the scarcity of models in Worpswede, she looked to the local population—here, three malnourished boys. Her unique approach to painting—often called proto-Expressionist—was tragically cut short, when she died at age 31 shortly after giving birth.” —Worcester museum label Painting: Stoddard Acquisition Fund

“Bar-Room Scene”, 1835, oil on canvas, 22” x 27” c. 1840s American painting frame; gilded applied ornament on wood; molding width 4-3/4” Period frame from Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago. “William Sidney Mount specialized in scenes of everyday life, known as genre paintings. He was one of the earliest American artists to do so, and his compositions, including Bar-room Scene, were rich in narrative and humor and engaged with the complex cultural, political, and racial circumstances that defined antebellum society. Here Mount portrayed a boisterous group of patrons in a country tavern. The seated men encourage the drunken dance of the central figure, whose tattered clothes and inebriated state suggest a less fortunate position. Standing in the back corner is an African American figure, who, as a free black man in 1830s New York, was able to frequent the public tavern, but, as Mount makes clear visually, did not participate fully or equally in this community.” — AIC permanent collection label

Portrait of Mary Lavinia Brooks Owen, née Mary Lavinia Brooks, at the age of 5, 1849, oil on canvas, 34 x 27 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Museum of the City of New York. Period c.1860 American painting frame, gilded applied composition ornament on wood, molding width 5-1/2 in. “Mary Lavinia Brooks (1844–1901) was the daughter of Edward Sands Brooks and Adeline Matilda Cremer Leveridge Brooks, who married William Henry Owen, an episcopal priest and noted coin collector. The young girl holds a copy of a Victorian gift book titled Birth-Day Gift or The Birth-Day Present expressly for the purpose of promoting gift-giving.” —MCNY exhibition label.

Houses in Riegsee, 1909, oil on pressed board, 32.9 × 40.8 × 0.2 cm (12-15/16 × 16-1/16 × 1/16 in.) Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Worcester Art Museum. Worcester Art Museum. Custom-made replica first-quarter 20th-century frame; Paul Klee inspired design, ebonized rough sawn wood, molding width 2-1/4 in. “This is a rural scene of houses (Häuser) in Riegsee, a small German village in the Alpine foothills. It was painted two years before Münter joined fellow German and Russian expatriate artists to form “Der Blaue Reiter” (The Blue Rider), a German Expressionist movement based in Munich that was marked by spiritual and symbolic uses of color. In the early 1900s, Münter studied at Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky’s avant-garde Phalanx School in Munich, where she was encouraged to experiment with her technique. During that time, her practice was also informed by the bold colors of Gauguin and the Fauves as well as Bavarian folk art and reverse-glass painting. Here, Münter’s daring is in full effect, with the cardboard support visible in between fields of jewel-toned color, whose application ranges from thin washes to thick, textural patterning.” —museum label, Painting: Stoddard Acquisition Fund.

Trumpet Flowers, 1919, oil on canvas, 18-1/8” x 13-1/8” Period Frame, c. 1920s American artist-made painting frame, reverse stepped profile, original paint on wood, molding width 1-5/8” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, N.C.

Chinese Pipe And Tulips, 1926, oil on canvas, 20-1/8" x 16-1/16", period American Arts and Crafts Newcomb-Macklin frame, aluminum-leafed hand-carved wood. J. Harwood & Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art, 2011.24 Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Fish (Still Life), 1864, oil on canvas, 29” x 36-3/8” framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago in a period 19th-century French Neo-classical painting frame. “This imposing view of carp, red mullet, eel, oysters, lemon, stockpot, and knife is one of numerous still-life subjects that Edouard Manet painted in 1864, the year of his most intense engagement with the genre. Although the French translation of still life is nature morte (literally, “dead nature”), Manet’s painting seems very much alive. He achieved a sense of immediacy by strategically positioning elements—especially the precariously balanced knife and still-slithering eel—along the diagonal of the tablecloth, so that they seem to slide forward into the viewer’s space.” —Art Institute of Chicago, permanent collection label

Bullfight, 1865/66, oil on canvas, 19 x 23-3/4 inches, framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago; period 19th-century French Neo-classical painting frame, molding width 5-1/8 inches. “Edouard Manet’s trip to Spain in the fall of 1865 lasted only about 10 days, though it had a profound impact on him. In a letter to his friend the poet Charles Baudelaire, he described a bullfight he attended in Madrid as “one of the finest, most curious and most terrifying sights to be seen.” He made quick sketches there that informed several later canvases, including this one. Here he presented the moment of truth, as bullfighter and bull face one another, a gored horse lies dead or dying on the sand.” —Art Institute of Chicago, permanent collection label.

Before the Mirror (Devant la glace), 1876, oil on canvas, 36-1/4 x 28-1/8 inches; late-19th-century Continental ebonized painting frame; dimensional molding with carved ripple and gilded hollow at sight edge; molding width: 6-5/16” "In 1865 Edouard Manet shocked Parisian audiences at the Salon with his painting Olympia (1863), an unabashed depiction of a prostitute lounging in bed, naked save for a pair of slippers and a necklace. While not an unpopular subject in 19th-century French painting, the courtesan had rarely been portrayed with such honesty. The artist provoked a similar scandal when his painting Nana (1877)—depicting a coquettish young woman in a state of partial undress powdering her nose in front of an impatient client—was exhibited in a shop window on the boulevard des Capucines. Manet’s attention to a motif conventionally associated with pornography reflected his desire to render on canvas the truths of modern life. It was a theme that symbolized modernity for many late-19th-century artists and writers, including Edgar Degas and Emile Zola, who devoted their work to realistic portrayals of the shifting class structures and mores of French culture. Images of courtesans may be found throughout Manet’s oeuvre; Before the Mirror is thought to be one such painting, related iconographically to Nana, but more spontaneous in execution. The artist’s vigorous brushstrokes lend an air of immediacy to the picture. As in Nana, the corseted woman represented here admires her reflection in a mirror; but this particular scene is extremely private—the woman, in quiet contemplation of her own image, is turned with her back to the viewer." —Nancy Spector. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978

Woman in Striped Dress, ca. 1877–80, oil on canvas, 69 1/8 x 33 3/16 inches (175.5 x 84.3 cm), framed by Gill & Lagodich, custom-made replica variation of c. 1900 French reverse profile painting frame gilded and toned to harmonize with painting: patinated 18.4 karat French Dauvet vert fonce gold leaf on varied bole and gesso substrate on applied cast ornament; patinated mahogany reverse; molding width: 5-1/4” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978 “In 1865 Edouard Manet shocked Parisian audiences at the Salon with his painting Olympia (1863), an unabashed depiction of a prostitute lounging in bed, naked save for a pair of slippers and a necklace. While not an unpopular subject in 19th-century French painting, the courtesan had rarely been portrayed with such honesty. The artist provoked a similar scandal when his painting Nana (1877)—depicting a coquettish young woman in a state of partial undress powdering her nose in front of an impatient client—was exhibited in a shop window on the boulevard des Capucines. Manet’s attention to a motif conventionally associated with pornography reflected his desire to render on canvas the truths of modern life. It was a theme that symbolized modernity for many late-19th-century artists and writers, including Edgar Degas and Emile Zola, who devoted their work to realistic portrayals of the shifting class structures and mores of French culture. Images of courtesans may be found throughout Manet’s oeuvre; Before the Mirror is thought to be one such painting, related iconographically to Nana, but more spontaneous in execution. The artist’s vigorous brushstrokes lend an air of immediacy to the picture. As in Nana, the corseted woman represented here admires her reflection in a mirror; but this particular scene is extremely private—the woman, in quiet contemplation of her own image, is turned with her back to the viewer. Manet’s endeavor to capture the flavor of contemporary society extended to portraits of barmaids, street musicians, ragpickers, and other standard Parisian “types” that were favorite subjects of popular illustrated literature. Since the subject of Woman in Striped Dress is unidentified—conjecture that she might be the French actress Suzanne Reichenberg remains purely speculative—it is tempting to view this portrait as Manet’s rendering of one such type: the fashionable Parisian bourgeois woman, complete with Japanese fan. Both paintings exemplify Manet’s use of seemingly improvised, facile brushstrokes that emphasize the two-dimensionality of the canvas while simultaneously defining form and space. From our vantage point, it is less Manet’s choice of subject matter than the tension between surface and subject, in which the paint itself threatens to dissolve into decorative patterns, that defines his work as quintessentially Modern.” —Nancy Spector

Liserons et Capucines (Morning Glories and Nasturtiums), 1881, oil on canvas, 38-1/2 x 22-3/4 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the McNay Art Museum. Custom-made frame, milled from thick soft maple, mitered construction with hollow on back edge, hand stained and oxidized finish; molding width 3-1/2” This frame is a darker variation on two frames in Musée d’Orsay on Henri Cross, L’air du Soit, and Matisse, Luxe, Calme et Volupté, and on the version we made for Guggenheim NY, Georges Braque, Landscape Near Antwerp, (without upper spandrel corners). Painting: Gift of Margaret Batts Tobin

“Afternoon Among the Cypress,” ca. 1905, oil on canvas, 26-3/16 x 30-3/16 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2002). Custom-made hand-carved and gilded replica frame with period patina to replicate light Roman Gilded surface per Mathews’s aesthetic: copy of c. 1905 design, per photograph in Arthur Mathews Furniture Shop period scrapbook archived at Oakland Museum of California, that shows MMA painting in original frame (now lost). Painting: Gift of Mrs. Henrietta Zeile, 1909. “Mathews was not only a painter but an architect and a designer of interiors, furniture, and decorative objects. Through his publications and teaching, he did much to popularize his variation of Art Nouveau, sometimes referred to as the California decorative style. Mathews's landscapes celebrate California's distinctive topography, plant life, and tawny, golden tonalities. In "Afternoon among the Cypresses," he silhouettes the bent limbs and wide flat crowns of the Monterey-peninsula cypress trees to achieve a strong decorative effect. Heavy foreground shadows and the darkened copse contribute to the moody, slightly mysterious impression.” —Met Museum label.

Period scrapbook page: Arthur Mathews Furniture Shop, archived at Oakland Museum of California, that shows The Met’s Mathews painting in original frame (now lost).

Camille at the Window, Argenteuil, 1873, oil on canvas, 23-3/4 x 19-5/8 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 18th-century French Regence frame; gilded hand-carved wood, sand panel; molding width: 4-3/8”

The Islets at Port-Villez (Les Iles à Port-Villez), 1897, oil on canvas, 32-3/16 x 39-3/4 in. One of four Monet paintings framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum, 19th-century gilded wood frame, molding width 4-7/8 in.

"Houses of Parliament, Sunlight Effect (Le Parlement, Effet de Soleil)," 1903, oil on canvas, 32” x 36-1/4” One of four Monet paintings framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum. 17th-century French Louis XIII gilded hand-carved wood frame. “Intrigued by the challenge posed by the play of water and light, Monet tested himself further by painting the transformative beauty of London’s fog and smoke in several works executed along the banks of the Thames during three winter painting campaigns from 1899 to 1901. Monet stationed himself on the balcony of Saint Thomas’ Hospital, across the river from his subject, substituting one canvas for another—nineteen in all—as changing weather and light conditions dictated. Their neo-Gothic spires blunted by the mauve gloom of late afternoon, the Houses of Parliament emerge as a massive silhouette. Rays of pale sunshine break through the murk in the upper right corner of the canvas and burst across the shimmering waters in overlapping strokes of pink, salmon, and yellow. The painter later reworked the canvas in his Giverny studio in 1903 in preparation for an exhibition the following year.” — Brooklyn Museum, permanent collection label.

Indian Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico, 1905, oil on canvas, 20-5/16 x 30-1/2 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Denver Art Museum, Petrie Institute of Western Art; custom-made replica c. 1890s American gilded oak frame, gilded cast ornament on wood, molding width: 6-1/2 in. “Created from Moran’s memories and sketches, this painting encapsulates multiple layers of Southwest history. In the foreground, women of the Pueblo of Laguna bake pots with traditional techniques used for centuries by the people who lived in the region. Pueblo architecture occupies the middle ground of the painting and leads the eye to a Spanish Mission church on the right. Spanish colonists were the first to bring the tradition of retablos, small paintings that show devotion to holy figures associated with the Catholic Church, to the Americas.” —museum label.

Salvator Rosa Sketching the Banditti, 1860, oil on canvas, 40 x 66-7/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Chrysler Museum of Art. c. 1860s American frame; William Schaus label; gilded applied composition ornament & sand on wood. Molding width: 8-1/8” “In the cave at the center of this rocky valley, armored highway bandits hide out with their stolen treasures, as well as their captive, the Italian Old Master painter Salvator Rosa (1615–1673). According to legend, Rosa later used sketches of these fierce brigands and their wild mountain domain as the basis for his paintings. By making this tale the subject of a large exhibition picture, Thomas Moran publicly declared his ambition to follow in Rosa’s footsteps as a painter of sublime landscape scenery.”—museum label text

Snowy Mountain Range (Path of Souls, Idaho), 1896, oil on canvas, 15” x 27” Custom-made replica, c. 1880s American painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament with gilded oak panel; molding width: 5-1/4” Frame commissioned by the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art Museum, The Roath Collection, 2013.109

Sunset, Green River Butte, 1915, oil on canvas, 10-1/4 x 12-1/4 in. Frmed by Gill & Lagodich for the Denver Art Museum, Petrie Institute of Western Art. c. 1910 American Arts and Crafts painting frame; Foster Bros. Boston makers; gilded hand carved wood, molding width: 3-1/8 in. The Roath Collection, 2013.110

Valley of the Catawissa in Autumn, ca. 1862, oil on canvas, 39-5/8" x 63-3/4". Custom-made replica of a 19th-century American Hudson River School painting frame; Neoclassical Revival style; gilded cast ornament on wood with sand panel. Molding width: 7” Frame commissioned by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. “Thomas Moran painted this colorful panoramic view of trees and rolling hills after visiting the small town of Catawissa, Pennsylvania, on assignment to create illustrations for a Harper’s Monthly article about the Catawissa Railroad. Notably, in the painting, Moran rendered the valley devoid of human presence or the railroad, which should be visible in the hills. Despite the importance of the railroad as a vital element of northern Pennsylvania transportation, Moran’s artistic vision eliminated the modern technology.” —museum label text

Grand Canyon Lodge, n.d., oil on canvas, 4-5/8" x 8-1/4". Period Frame, 19th century Flemish/Dutch style reverse profile, ebonized wood frame; molding width: 3-5/8" Framed for the Petrie Institute of Western Art, Denver Art Museum; The Roath Collection 2013.108

Union Refugees, 1865, oil on canvas, 40-1/4 x 54-1/4 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (2012). Custom-made replica of Rare c. 1860s American frame. Earle Galleries, Philadelphia maker, outer wood molding, scrolling foliate stenciled sand pattern on ogee profile, molding width 7-1/2 in. “This Civil War scene presents the faces of men and women, young and old, black and white, who display hope, sadness, and defiance. The issue of Union refugees— people fleeing the Southern states—was frequently discussed in Northern newspapers during the war and became the subject for this Philadelphia painter. Who would take them in? What would be their fate? The subject remains relevant today, as refugees displaced by wars worldwide leave loved ones and belongings behind to seek a better life.” —museum label.

Woman With Pink Ribbons, painted circa 1833, oil on canvas, 31-3/4 x 27 in. Custom-made replica early 19th-century American molding frame: ebonized wood, wide flat profile with gilded bead at back and sight edges; molding width 3-1/2” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Christie’s New York. Painting: The Collection of Peter and Barbara Goodman, January 20, 2022, Lot 133, Estimate USD 800,000-1,200,000 Price realized USD 3,870,000

Composition With Masked Forms, 1941, oil on canvas, 28-1/8 x 50 in., custom float frame, ebonized walnut exterior and top edge, interior float space light-absorbing matte black. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Colby Museum of Art. Gift of the Barsalona Family, Museum purchase from the Jere Abbott Acquisition Fund, and gift of Peter and Paula Lunder, The Lunder Collection.

Charles Ethan Porter, Chrysanthemums, ca. 1881, oil on canvas, 10 x 16”, framed by Gill & Lagodich in a custom-made variation of an 1880-90s American painting frame; gilded applied ornament on wood, Japonesque chrysanthemum pattern frieze; molding width: 4-1/2”. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, James Barton Payne fund.

(Cracked Watermelon), c. 1890, oil on canvas, 19-1/8” x 28-3/16”. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum; c. 1890s American painting frame, gilded hand-carved wood, molding width 4-7/8” MMA Purchase, Nancy Dunn Revocable Trust Gift, 2015  “The largely Connecticut-based, New York- and Paris-trained Porter was among the first African American artists to exhibit his work nationally. "Untitled (Cracked Watermelon)" is one of his largest and most impressive still lifes. Its subject—originally an African gourd brought to the New World by seventeenth-century Spaniards and cultivated by colonists—is also significant. Porter chose to paint what had been an earlier symbol of American abundance—and during the Civil War period one particularly associated with free blacks—when it was increasingly defined by virulent stereotyping. By reclaiming the "American" subject in artistic terms (and with a French stylistic flavor), Porter challenged a contemporary racist trope.  A tour de force of the artist’s mature style—perfected in Paris under the influence of the work of Henri Fantin-Latour and Edouard Manet—"Untitled (Cracked Watermelon)" reveals Porter’s bravura handling of paint as well as his skills as a colorist in the composition’s dramatic light-dark contrasts of complementary colors. After decades of success painting still lifes of fruit and flowers—with the support of patrons such as Samuel Clemens and Frederic Edwin Church—Porter died in poverty and obscurity. A resurgence of interest in his work dates to the late 1980s.”

New England Village, c.1918–1923, oil on canvas, 18" x 20-3/4"; framed in a custom-made replica of original Prendergast frame in the Gill & Lagodich Collection; c. 1909 American American Arts and Crafts artist-made Prendergast painting frame; original frame for Maurice Prendergast watercolor, St. Malo.  Gilded hand-carved wood with punchwork. Rare artist-made frame. Molding width: 2-1/4” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Wintermann Collection of American Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. David R. Wintermann

The Place du Havre, Paris, 1893, oil on canvas, 23-1/2 x 28-3/4 inches. Frame by Gill & Lagodich in an 18th-century French Louis XIV frame, gilded hand-carved wood, molding width 4-7/8 in. The museum has published extensively on this painting and frame, Pissarro Paintings and Works on Paper at the Art Institute of Chicago, with painting technical report and detailed frame description, Cat. 13. “After a period of experimentation with the Neo-Impressionist style developed by Georges Seurat, Camille Pissarro returned to the loose, multidirectional brushstrokes that he had used in his earlier Impressionist works. He also revisited an Impressionist subject that his colleagues had all but abandoned by the 1890s—the modern city. This bustling scene, alive with the noise and movement of traffic and pedestrians, was the view from his window at the Hôtel Garnier in Paris, where he stayed for a few weeks early in 1893. The building at the left edge of the canvas is the Gare Saint-Lazare.” —museum label

The Royal Palace at the Hermitage, Pontoise (Paysage a Pontoise), 1879, oil on canvas, 21-3/8 x 25-7/8 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Period 19th-century French Regence-style painting frame; gilded hand-carved wood; added patinated gesso on wood, flat-and-hollow liner; molding width 4 in. “Nicknamed the “Royal Palace,” the building partially depicted here is situated in L’Hermitage, a neighborhood in the northwestern Parisian suburb of Pontoise. In 1872, Pissarro settled in Pontoise, where over the next decade, he executed some of his most radical landscapes often while painting side by side with Paul Cézanne.”—VMFA label. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover.

The Climb, Rue de la Côte-du-Jalet, Pontoise (Chemin montant, rue de la Côte-du-Jalet, Pontoise), framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Brooklyn Museum. Custom-designed replica c. 1870s French frame, adapted Camille Pissarro design, gilded applied cast ornament laurel-and-berry motif top edge with banded corners and centers; stained wood stepped profile; patinated white gesso flat and hollow liner, molding width: 4-1/4” The process of designing this frame was covered in detail by The New Yorker magazine, March 27, 2006.

Composition With Masked Forms, 1941, oil on canvas, 28-1/8 x 50 in., custom float frame, ebonized walnut exterior and top edge, interior float space light-absorbing matte black. Custom frame fabricated by Gill & Lagodich for Colby Museum of Art. Gift of the Barsalona Family, Museum purchase from the Jere Abbott Acquisition Fund, and gift of Peter and Paula Lunder, The Lunder Collection.

Flower Garden (Jardin de Flores), c. 1913, 39-1/2" x 39-1/2", oil on canvas. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Phoenix Art Museum. Period c. 1910 American Arts & Crafts painting frame; Newcomb-Macklin makers; gilded carved wood, molding width 5-1/4 inches "An American who studied traditional, academic art in Paris, Ritman turned his attention to modernism, becoming part of the third-wave of Impressionist artists. He worked in the scenic area of Giverny, France, painting in the gardens made famous by Claude Monet. Ritman’s paintings combine the decorative pattern of the Post Impressionists with the atmospheric effects of light that preoccupied the Impressionists in a style often called “decorative Impressionism.” This particular work is believed to have been displayed in the 1913 annual exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts." — Painting, gift of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Redfield, Jr., 1996.259.

La Ofrenda (The Offering), 1931, oil on canvas, 48-3/4” x 60-1/2” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Art Bridges. Custom-made replica, c 1940s American frame, matte black painted finish on wood, molding width 5-3/8” “Amid a backdrop of verdant botanical life, three figures gather at an altar to honor the dead. Rivera’s scene depicts el Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), a Mexican celebration in which the deceased are invited to commune with the living through an altar set with welcoming offerings. The composition of La Ofrenda creates an implied ring that connects the figures to the altar, suggesting the circle of life that unites the living with the dead. After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), Rivera was invested in Mexico’s cultural revitalization. The artist’s passionate respect for the splendor and resilience of Indigenous Mexican culture is evident here. A garland of marigolds, omnipresent in Día de los Muertos celebrations, and symbolic of life’s exquisite fragility, is draped across a nopal cactus, which represents survival and appears on Mexico’s coat of arms. La ofrenda reflects the beauty and cultural endurance of post-revolution Mexico, demonstrating Rivera’s belief that “the artist is a direct product of life ... and a reflector of the aspirations, the desires, and the hopes of his age.”” —Art Bridges didactic label Credit line: Art Bridges AB.2017.19

“An Abundance of Fruit”, 1860, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches. Framed for the Art Institute of Chicago by Gill & Lagodich. Period c. 1850s American painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament on wood; molding width: 5 inches. AIC Americana Fund, 2004.2

“In the Enemy's Country,” 1921, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art Museum. Period frame, c.1910 American Arts & Crafts frame, Newcomb-Macklin makers, hand-carved wood, original Roman-gilded finish, molding width 5-3/4 in. “Russell tried to keep himself separate from modernization as it crept into Montana, and he lamented the loss of the heroic Old West. His primary interest in art was the celebration of what he called “The West That Has Passed.” The scene in this painting is imaginary, inspired by a nostalgic vision set well before Russell’s time. To make the image look and feel real, Russell relied on his personal experience and observations from his early years in Montana. He also made annual trips to Indian reservations in Montana to brush up on his techniques and refresh his imagery. Russell’s paintings often bear evidence of a story—hints about what might have happened before or what might follow. When this painting was first exhibited, it was described as a group of Kootenai Indians crossing into another tribe’s territory to hunt buffalo. Because they have entered a hostile area, the Kootenai must travel carefully to avoid conflict. The men walk beside their horses and place buffalo hides, fur side up, on the horses’ backs. When viewed from a distance, the group looks like a small band of buffalo, which kept them from being bothered.” —museum label. Painting Gift of the Magness Family in memory of Betsy Magness

The Essex Canal, c. 1896, oil on canvas mounted on board, 16-5/16 x 20-1/4 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago. Period c. 1880s-90s American painting frame, gilded applied composition ornament on wood, wide gilded oak frieze, molding width 6-3/8 in. "Albert Pinkham Ryder was one of the most innovative artists of the late 19th century, creating reductive, yet expressive compositions out of thick, slowly worked paint, combined with glazes, varnishes, and unconventional materials. In The Essex Canal, a waterway faintly meanders from the green-hued foreground to a skim of blue along the horizon, with an expansive sky beyond. A younger generation of American artists celebrated Ryder as an important early modernist, who pushed toward abstraction and focused on the arduous process of painting itself as instrumental to one’s creative vision. Ryder’s reclusiveness only added to his intrigue and mythic status as an artist ahead of his time.” — AIC permanent collection label. Painting Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Geist, 1980.279

Portrait of Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1938, Oil on Masonite, 28 x 22 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. c. 1930s American Modernist painting frame, House of Heydenryk, New York makers; silver-gilded beveled sight edge, wormy chestnut reverse profile, molding width 4-3/8 in. Previously on view at the Met Breuer in the stellar exhibit “Marsden Hartley’s Maine”, March 15 – June 18, 2017, and at Colby College Museum of Art, July 8 – November 1, 2017. “Having painted a series of dark landscapes inspired by the work of Albert Pinkham Ryder in 1909, Hartley returned to his American artistic hero late in his career. This highly imaginative portrait of Ryder is Hartley’s posthumous tribute to the painter, whose isolated, melancholy existence and financial poverty struck a sympathetic chord in him. In the portrait, Ryder appears frontal and isolated, like a saint or an icon. Hartley also composed a poem and several essays about the artist, including one in which he describes Ryder’s eyebrows as ‘lichens overhanging rocks of granite.’” —Met Museum label

Norman Rockwell Visits A Country Editor, 1946, oil on canvas, 33 x 63 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Christie’s, custom-made replica Early 20th-century American Arts & Crafts frame. Original Maxfield Parrish frame design, c1909 from Jack-the-Giant-Killer. Milled and polychromed wood. Molding width: 5 in. AUCTION 18 NOV 2015 Price realised USD 11, 589,000. “Norman Rockwell painted Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor for the May 25th, 1946 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. By 1946, not only had Rockwell’s myriad covers of The Post captured the imagination of the nation, but the artist was becoming a celebrity in his own right. Perhaps just as importantly, Rockwell’s work adopted a new sense of earnestness in order to more accurately reflect the realities that many faced in post-War America. While Rockwell’s classic sense of idealism remained intact, his imaginative images confronting issues of the present allowed the public to identify with his interpretation of life in America. Christopher Finch writes, “The period from the mid-forties until the late-fifties was perhaps Rockwell’s time of greatest achievement.” (Norman Rockwell’s America, New York, 1975, p. 31) Conceived during this important era of his storied career, Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor is a nostalgic tableau of a small country town and its local newspaper, which captures the spirit of America adapting to life after World War II. American illustration holds a special place within the context of American art. Before television entered the American home, newspapers and magazines were the primary news sources for the nation. They were also the barometer of public opinion, and naturally, the artists who illustrated these periodicals had a great deal of influence on the perception of their nation. Norman Rockwell did more than simply fulfill his commissions; rather, he understood his advantageous position and put his best efforts into his work. He stated, "No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He's got to put all of his talent, all of his feeling into them. If illustration is not considered art, then that is something that we have brought upon ourselves by not considering ourselves artists. I believe that we should say, 'I am not just an illustrator, I am an artist.'"(as quoted in J. Goffman, The Great American Illustrators, New York, 1993, p. 122) As artists often do, Rockwell drew inspiration for his illustrations from his own life and experiences. While he largely retained an unsentimental view of his childhood, he affectionately recalled his family’s summer trips to the Adirondack Mountains, which provided a welcome escape from life in New York City: “In the city we kids delighted to go up on the roof of our apartment house and spit down on the passers-by in the streets below. But we never did things like that in the country. The clean air, the green fields, the thousand and one things to do…got somehow into us and changed our personalities as much as the sun changed the color of our skins.” (N. Rockwell, Norman Rockwell: My Adventures As an Illustrator, New York, 1988, p. 34) In these rural settings, Rockwell discovered an idealized form of life that suited his disposition and held his fascination for years to come. Everyday scenes and people, first appreciated by the artist at a young age, manifested themselves in his most iconic works and allowed his paintings to become both universal and relatable. While Rockwell’s characteristic view of American life had its basis in his childhood, in 1939, he sought new surroundings that would inspire further development in his work, having grown restless in New Rochelle, New York. The small town of Arlington, Vermont, with its distinct New England feel appealed to Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons, and his arrival precipitated an improvement in his creativity and motivation. Shortly thereafter, he also began actively travelling the country for inspiration. Between 1943 and 1948, he toured as far south as Georgia and as far west as Missouri to capture the lives of everyday Americans in an eight part pictorial series for The Post. Through these eight images the readers of The Post learned what it was like to spend a night on a troop train with paratroopers (A Night on a Troop Train, 1943, unlocated); wait to see the President of the United States (So You Want to See the President, 1943, Office of the White House, Washington, D.C.); appeal to a ration board (Norman Rockwell Visits a Ration Board, 1944, Private Collection); register to vote at a polling station (Norman Rockwell Paints America at the Polls (Election Day), 1944, Cedar Rapids Art Museum, Cedar Rapids, Iowa); observe the daily operation of a small town newspaper (the present work); watch a lesson in a rural classroom (Norman Rockwell Visits a Country School, 1946, Private Collection); visit a family doctor in a Vermont town (Norman Rockwell Visits a Family Doctor, 1947, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts) and travel with a county agricultural agent as he performs his duties (Norman Rockwell Visits a County Agent, 1948, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska). Through wars, depression, and civil strife, Rockwell portrayed subjects inspired by ordinary, everyday life and this series was a perfect representation of his contribution. In regards to this painting and the others from the series, Rockwell described, “During the 1940’s I did a series of pictorial reports for the Post, variously entitled ‘Norman Rockwell Visits a Country School,’ ‘Norman Rockwell Visits his Family Doctor,’ and so on. Each report consisted of a full page spread, and two pages of black and white sketches…I usually spent two days at the scene of the report. During the first day I tried to get the feel of the place and rough out in my mind the story I wanted to tell. The second day I made sketches, decided on the subject and setting of the painting, and had photographs taken. Back in my studio I did the painting and made the finished sketches. I enjoyed doing these reports. They were a pleasant and stimulating change from my regular work…and gave me a chance to travel about the county and meet a lot of people.” (as quoted in R. Schick, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, New York, 2009, p. 51) In Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor, Rockwell captures the office and daily operation of the Monroe County Appeal, a local newspaper founded in 1867 and based in the small town of Paris, Missouri. The focal point of the picture, seated at the central typewriter and set before the office window, is longtime editor of the Appeal, Jack Blanton. The Post captioned the painting: “Blanton is shown batting out a last-minute editorial. That picture above his desk is one of his father, who founded the Appeal. The gold-star service flag hangs beneath the picture of a grandson of Blanton’s, who would have succeeded him as editor if he hadn’t lost his life in the Army Air Force. Peering over Blanton’s shoulder is the Appeal’s printer, Paul Nipps, whose experienced eye is gauging the number of printed lines the editorial will take up.” (The Saturday Evening Post, New York, 1946, p. 25). At the left side of the painting, a young boy, aware of the looming press deadline, races through the office under the watchful eye of a young female reporter. At the right side of the image, two local residents are purchasing a subscription to the Appeal, while a seated customer with legs extended intently reads the paper, reporting the untimely passing of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ron Schick notes, “The lead story ‘End Comes to President’ and photographs of FDR and his successor, Harry S. Truman, are visible on the front page.” (Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, p. 51) Meanwhile, Rockwell himself strides through the door with a portfolio wedged under his arm and a trademark pipe jutting from his mouth. Painted with an acute attention to detail, every element of the painting was carefully considered and rendered with a high degree of clarity. The extraordinary detail in every vignette of Rockwell’s best works from the 1940s, such as Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor, is a result of a profound shift in his working methods around the time of the artist’s move to Arlington. In New Rochelle, Rockwell relied upon professional models, enlisting them for hours until he achieved the desired effect in his paintings. Then, around 1937, Rockwell began to incorporate photography into his creative process. This method meant he could stage elaborate tableaus as subjects and capture the various expressions of his sitters in an instant. Rarely satisfied with a single photograph, the finished illustration was often a composite of many. Indeed, nearly one hundred preparatory photographs were taken for the present work. David Kamp writes of this exhaustive creative system, “First came brainstorming and a rough pencil sketch, then the casting of the models and the hiring of costumes and props, then the process of coaxing the right poses out of the models, then the snapping of the photo, then the composition of a fully detailed charcoal sketch, then a painted color sketch that was the exact size of the picture as it would be reproduced, and then, and only then, the final painting.” ("Norman Rockwell's American Dream," Vanity Fair, November 2009, p. 5) This new approach, coupled with towns around the country full of fresh faces willing to pose for the celebrity artist, meant a flurry of artistic inspiration. "While Rockwell found the perfect settings for works such as Homecoming Marine and Shuffleton's Barbershop close to home, he was willing to travel any distance for his location photography. He went to New Mexico to photograph a train station for Breaking Home Times, the White House for So You Want to See the President!, the offices of a Missouri Newspaper for Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor, and New York City to shoot a Times Square restaurant intended for Saying Grace. In so doing, Rockwell gained more than photographs of a background that met his demand for genuineness." (Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, p. 98) Covering a sweeping range of topics, including the difficult subject of war, Rockwell helped forge a national sense of identity through his art. Finch writes, “World War II played a very strange role in Rockwell’s career. Rockwell is far from being a warlike person; he is, on the contrary a gentleman in the literal sense of the word. Yet the war brought out the best in him and turned him toward the naturalistic portrait of home-town America which he put to good use in the decades that followed. His immediate contribution to the war effort on the home front was quite considerable. What is most important about his period, in relation to his career as an illustrator, is the fact that he was given an opportunity to prove to himself and to others that he was capable of dealing with serious subjects without abandoning the human touch which had always been his trademark.” (Norman Rockwell’s America, p. 200) Norman Rockwell's portraits of America are both a faithful historical record of, and a tender tribute to, American popular culture. "His subject was average America. He painted it with such benevolent affection for so many years that a truly remarkable history of our century has been compiled. Millions of people have been moved by his picture stories about pride in country, history, and heritage, about reverence, loyalty, and compassion. The virtues that he admires have been very popular, and because he illustrates them using familiar people in familiar settings with wonderful accuracy, he described the American Dream." (T.S. Buechner, Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective, New York, 1972, p. 13) The scope of Rockwell’s appeal continues to grow as new generations live through the same quintessentially American types of experiences that he so faithfully depicted in his art.” —Christie’s Lot Essay

Amor Caritas, 1898, bronze, 40-3/8 x 17-3/8 x 3-1/4 in. Signed lower left: AVGVSTVS / SAINTGAVDENS / MDCCCXCVIII Edition of 23 casts; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; museum purchase, the Barbro Osher Sculpture Garden Acquisition Fund. Shown here in the Gill & Lagodich Gallery, New York, 2016. Tabernacle frame, carved Honduran mahogany with selectively oxidized patina; custom replica made by Gill & Lagodich of the Stanford White frame model on the Saint-Gaudens Amor Caritas bronze, Art Institute of Chicago.

above: Amor Caritas bronze in Gill & Lagodich Stanford White tabernacle frame replica, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Amor Caritas, 1898 (cast later), gilded bronze, 40-1/8 x 17-3/8 x 4-5/8 in. Tabernacle frame, carved Honduran mahogany with selectively oxidized patina; custom replica based on the Stanford White model on the Saint-Gaudens Amor Caritas bronze, Art Institute of Chicago. “Amor Caritas features a winged figure in a loose robe holding a text consisting of the Latin words for love and charity. The female figure is an example of the melancholy type Augustus Saint-Gaudens favored. In this case, the grave expression reflects the figure's origin as part of a tomb monument Saint-Gaudens designed. The artist created multiple versions of this subject, eventually marketing it as an independent piece.” — Saint Louis museum label “This angelic figure by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a foremost sculptor of the Gilded Age, is the culmination of his portrayals of allegorical women. He made similar designs for the tomb of Edwin D. Morgan in Hartford, Connecticut, and the mantelpiece in the house of Cornelius Vanderbilt II in New York. Like many other late 19th-century artists, Saint-Gaudens often modeled angels to symbolize the traditional virtues of women. Amor Caritas (Love [and] Charity) probably depicts Davida Clark, the artist’s mistress. Saint-Gaudens brought a level of naturalism to his ideal figure, particularizing the facial features and rendering the drapery so that it suggests the human form beneath.” —Art Institute Chicago label (original frame model)

detail of Saint Louis Art Museum, Amor Caritas, and Gill & Lagodich replica frame, above.

Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife, 1885, oil on canvas, 20-1/4 x 24-1/4 inches, 18th-century Italian painting frame, gilded and polychrome reverse cassetta profile with extensive punched corner foliate corner decoration, molding width: 3-1/4” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art.

Venetian Glass Workers, 1880/82, oil on canvas, 22-1/4" x 33-1/4"; custom-made replica of a 17th-century Northern Italian painting frame; gilded and polychrome hand-carved wood; molding width 4-3/8” Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago. "Illuminated with swathes of light against a dark background, bundles of thin glass rods are sorted by laborers in John Singer Sargent's Venetian Glass Workers. The woman in the right foreground is using a zocco, or cutting tool, to slice glass tubes into uniform lengths that will be placed in a metal drum with a mixture of lime, carbonate, sand, carbon, and water. When the drum is heated and turned, the mixture smoothes the edges of the cut glass and forms rounded beads. In the 1880s, Sargent painted many genre scenes featuring workers. Yet this image is noteworthy for its unusual composition, in which the lightest forms are grouped along the edges, and its dramatic brushwork. The latter shows the influence of Baroque painters such as the Spaniard Diego Vélazquez and the Dutchman Franz Hals. The glass rods have become nearly abstract dashes of color, suggesting the effect of Venice's intense light as it penetrates the space. During frequent visits to Venice, Sargent completed over 100 paintings and watercolors of the city. Devoted to music and a fine pianist, Sargent traded this and another Venetian work to a piano-maker in exchange for a piano in 1886." —museum label.  Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection. 1933.1917

The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy, 1907, oil on canvas, 28-1/8" x 22-1/4", custom-made replica, 17th-century Italianate frame, gilded hand-carved wood with punchwork frieze. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago."As one of the most sought-after and prolific portraitists of international high society, American expatriate John Singer Sargent painted the cosmopolitan world to which he belonged with elegance and a bravura touch. Born to American parents residing in Italy, Sargent spent his early adult life in Paris, moving to London in the mid-1880s. The artist traveled frequently, and it was during these trips that he experimented most extensively with painting en plein air, or outdoors. Set in a sunlit garden in the central Italian town of Frascati, this charming double portrait depicts Sargent’s friends and fellow artists Wilfrid and Jane Emmet de Glehn. The painting is filled with light, displaying Sargent’s characteristically dazzling surface articulated with thick impasto and virtuoso brushwork. Jane described the work as a “most amusing and killingly funny picture” in a letter to her sister Lydia. She continued: “I am all in white with a white painting blouse and a pale blue veil around my hat. I look rather like a pierrot, but have a rather worried expression as every painter should who isn’t a perfect fool, says Sargent. Wilfrid is in short sleeves, very idle and good for nothing, and our heads come against the great ‘panache’ of the fountain.'” — Art Institute of Chicago, Essential Guide, 2013, p. 47.

In the Alps, 1911, oil on canvas, 20 x 28 in., 19th century Italian painting frame; gilded hand-carved wood; molding width 5-1/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. “Although John Singer Sargent was American, he spent most of his life abroad. His artistic training encouraged rapid painting rather than the execution of countless studies , and this expressive canvas showcases Sargent’s quick brushstrokes. Painted in Simplon Pass in the Oberland Alps of Switzerland, this painting’s rocks and flowers emerge fro its thick texture. Having gained fame as a portraitist, Sargent was able to suspend new portrait commissions after 1907 and devote his time to watercolors and landscapes.” —museum permanent collection label. Painting purchased with funds from the Cummer Council. Period frame: Gift of Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen. Here’s a link to a museum video about the painting.

Poppies (A Study of Poppies for “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose”), 1886, oil on canvas, 24-3/8 x 35-7/8 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Sotheby’s New York, Period c. 1650-1700 Spanish frame, gilded and polychromed carved wood, reverse cushion profile, molding width 5” Sotheby’s New York American Art Sale 18 MAY 2016 Estimate 4,000,000 — 6,000,000 USD / LOT SOLD. 6,858,000 USD

Wildflowers, c. 1875, oil on canvas, 25-3/4 x 19-7/8 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 18th-century French Louis XIII painting frame; gilded hand carved wood, molding width: 4-1/4”

The Home Of The Red, White, And Blue, c. 1867 – 1868, oil on canvas,  24-1/8 x 30-1/8 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Terra Foundation of American Art. c. 1850s-60s American painting frame; gilded applied composition ornament over wood. "With its acquisition of Lily Martin Spencer‘s Home of the Red, White, and Blue of about 1867, the Terra Foundation enhances its rich holdings in nineteenth-century genre painting and adds to the many works in the collection by women. The painting joins a group of works thematically related to the Civil War, including Frederic E. Church’s Our Banner in the Sky, Winslow Homer’s On Guard, and William Sydney Mount’s Fruit Piece: Apples on Tin Cups. Spencer’s scene of a family picnic combines national politics with the artist’s favorite theme, the domestic gathering. Here, generations of family members are joined by several obvious outsiders in a metaphor for the gravely fractured nation at its crucial moment of reunification, symbolized by the tattered flag under repair in the foreground. Now considered one of the leading genre painters of the antebellum period, Spencer created narrative works in which women are uniquely central. Since her rediscovery beginning in 1974, scholars and art enthusiasts have come to value Spencer’s images for the important insights they offer into middle-class domesticity, the cultural politics of gender roles, and the turbulent state of the American nation in the mid-nineteenth century. "Home of the Red, White, and Blue"  is featured in the exhibition Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North, co-organized by the Terra Foundation and The Newberry, on view Sept. 27–Mar. 4, 2014." http://www.gill-lagodich.com/past-projects/#/new-gallery-55/

New Mexico Still Life, 1919, oil on board, 21” x 25” Custom-made replica of an early 20th-century American Arts and Crafts painting frame; Philip N. Yates, attr. PA maker; pale 18-karat-gold leaf over red bole on hand-carved wood. Gentle reverse profile, molding width: 5-5/8”  Frame commissioned by the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art Museum.

Le Bain de la Princesse, 1898, oil on canvas, 44 x 71 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Chrysler Museum of Art, period c.1890s American Degas-style painting frame with patinated gold leaf finish, textured gesso panel, molding width: 5 in. “Who is the princess? Is there more than just a bath going on here? Why is there a little alligator to the right? These mysteries were part and parcel of the symbolist movement in French art that linked Paris-born Sérusier to painters working in Pont-Aven on the Brittany coast who called themselves the “Nabis” (Hebrew for “prophets”). Sérusier and the Nabis were inspired by Paul Gauguin, whose equally disturbing and enigmatic Loss of Virginity is also in this gallery. The Nabis replaced the unmediated realism of their Impressionist forebears with flat, outlined shapes and unrealistically bright colors. The distant view to the right is an example of how Sérusier converted the broken painterly Impressionist brushstroke into an atmospheric device that heightened the dazzling mysteriousness of his confounding composition. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2725” —label text

Quaker Nell (Helen M. Taylor), 1916, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches, Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Period c. 1915-20 American Arts and Crafts (Ashcan) painting frame; metal-gilded carved wood; cassetta profile; molding width: 3-1/2” Painting gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Hirschl.

Gray and Brass, 1907, oil on canvas, 22 x 27 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for The Metropolitan Museum. Period early 20th-century American Arts & Crafts “Ashcan” “Bellows-style” frame; gilded hand-carved wood, Newcomb-Macklin, New York/ Chicago makers, molding width: 3-1/4 in. “Gray and Brass dates from the most dynamic year of the former newspaper artist’s career as an urban realist painter. John Sloan was the last of his Philadelphia friends, later dubbed "Ashcan" artists—Robert Henri, William Glackens, George Luks, and Everett Shinn—to relocate to New York, in 1904. Initially supporting himself as a freelance illustrator, Sloan—a self-described "spectator of life"—enthusiastically embraced his new environment, producing both paintings and prints of the city’s many attractions and mix of urbanites. In Gray and Brass, he contrasts the self-satisfied attitudes of nouveau-riche passengers in the flashy "gray and brass" motorcar with a loosely painted grouping of New York’s lower classes at rest. The scene is set on the Fifth Avenue edge of Madison Square Park, where diverse New Yorkers co-mingled—an ideal subject for the socially progressive artist. Gray and Brass belongs to the group of vital urban scenes painted by Sloan in 1907—the only one to juxtapose socio-economic difference in a single image. Here, as in all of his work, Sloan captures the vibrant culture of looking and being seen that characterized the contemporary urban spectacle.” —Met Museum label Credit: Marguerite and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr. Fund, 2018 © 2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

In Exaltation of Flowers, 1910–1913, tempera and gold leaf on canvas, seven panels: two canvases: 120 × 100 in., five canvases: 120 × 55 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for Art Bridges. Custom-made frames, adaptations of Joseph Urban-designed frame molding for Thomas Hart Benton, “America Today” murals, patinated burnished black Japan finish on stained milled wood, molding width 3-5/8 in. “American photographer Edward Steichen was also a painter of rare talent. From 1911 to 1914, he produced a mural for the Park Avenue townhouse of Eugene Meyer and his wife Agnes Ernest Meyer. Rendered in a cool tempera palette and dazzling gold leaf, the mural celebrates the couple and their circle of cultural sophisticates. The depicted figures include art patron Charles Lang Freer, the soprano Mercedes de Cordoba, the artists Katharine Rhoades and Marion Beckett, and the dancer Isadora Duncan. Steichen bred flowers in the garden of his French country house, and had a precise understanding of botanical forms. In Exaltation of Flowers was partially inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1907 book The Intelligence of Flowers, and each of Steichen’s subjects is paired with a flower thought to echo their character. The style of the mural is distinctive, exhibiting costumes and poses that mirror Steichen’s foundational fashion photography, while merging portraiture with aspects of Art Nouveau and Symbolist painting.” —Art Bridges didactic label. Credit Line: Art Bridges AB.2016.2

Boca Raton Museum of Art Assistant Curator Kelli Bodle describes the exhibition, Edward Steichen: In Exaltation of Flowers with Duane Smith. This exhibition is made possible with the support of Art Bridges, our Leadership Donors, Fiduciary Trust International, and Neiman Marcus.

The Young Sabot Maker, 1895, oil on canvas, 47-3/8" x 35-3/8", period American Barbizon frame, gilded applied and cast ornament on wood. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. “Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Young Sabot Maker depicts a man and boy, likely a father and son, carving traditional (sabots) wooden shoes in Brittany, France. Such images of rural folk engaged in old customs were popular in the fast-changing world of the late 19th century. Tanner's painting also evokes Christian associations as, according to biblical tradition, carpentry was the trade of Joseph, Jesus' father. Fittingly, Tanner presented the painting as a gift to his mother and his father, Benjamin Tanner, who, for a time, served as bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Kansas.” —Museum Label. Painting Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund and partial gift of an anonymous donor

A Jerusalem Type, ca. 1908, oil on canvas, 18-1/8 x 15-1/8 in. Period c. 1920 American Arts and Crafts frame, Newcomb-Macklin, New York/Chicago makers, gilded hand-carved wood, reverse cassetta profile, molding width 3-1/2”

Gateway, Tangier, c. 1912, oil on canvas, 18-7/16 x 15-5/16 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Saint Louis Art Museum. Period American Arts and Crafts frame, Walfred Thulin, Boston maker, gilded hand-carved wood, hand-carved signature verso THULIN 1254 19W24. “The blue tones and loose brushwork of this painting typify Henry Ossawa Tanner's most successful experiments with color composition and application of paint. Tanner, an African American artist, traveled to the Mediterranean region four times, and these trips had a profound effect on his style and subject matter. During a 1912 trip to Tangier, Morocco, Tanner became fascinated with this gateway—the entrance to the casbah, or the historic city area and fortress—and he proceeded to paint the gateway from many perspectives and vantage points.” — museum didactic label. Painting credit: Friends Fund, Museum Minority Artists Purchase Fund, and the Judy Glick Fund.

A View of Fez, ca. 1912, oil on panel, 9 x 12-1/2 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the High Museum. Period c. 1915-20 American Arts and Crafts frame, Newcomb-Macklin Co., New York / Chicago makers, metal-gilded hand-carved wood, molding width 2-1/2 in. Painting Credit Gift of Dr. Richard A. Long.

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, 1929–30, tempera and varnish on cardboard, 20-3/8 x 36 inches. Period c. 1930–40s American frame, molding width 4-1/2 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for High Museum. “Famous for his biblical paintings, Henry Ossawa Tanner painted Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah after two trips to Palestine. He used his favorite hue, the distinctive greenish-blue color dominating the sky, to portray the smoky conflagration engulfing the two cities. The painting’s abstraction and simplicity of form evoke a sense of interaction between the physical and spiritual worlds. Tanner downplays the presence of Lot and his daughters, barely visible at the lower right. His blend of tempera and oil unifies the composition and imparts an almost unearthly luminosity.” —museum didactic label Painting credit J. J. Haverty Collection

—High Museum label

The Truth About Comets, 1945, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Custom-made replica of original Dorothea Tanning frame, circa 1940s, hand-painted polychrome on milled wood. Molding width 3 inches. “A self-taught painter welcomed into the respected circle of New York surrealists, Dorothea Tanning described her work as a history of her dreams. Here, the steps and arm rails, as if elevating to another world, disappear into barren tree branches. The two brightly dressed anthropomorphic figures appear unalarmed despite being displaced in this uninhabited, snowy landscape. The rightmost figure, positioned with her back to the viewer, is captivated by the natural, fleeting beauty of the comet tails.” — museum text

The Pottery Market at Nuremberg, oil on canvas, 1892, 23 x 28-1/8 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; c 1890s English Watts style frame; applied composition ornament, gilded oak cassetta; molding width: 4-3/8 in.

The Children of Martin Anton Heckscher: Johann Gustav Wilhelm Moritz (1797–1865), Carl Martin Adolph (1796–1850), and Leopold (born 1792), 1805, oil on canvas, 58 x 45 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Custom-made replica mid-19th-century European painting frame, gilded applied ornament on wood. “Sons of the Hamburg banker Martin Anton Hecksher examine a plan of the Schnepfenthal school, founded in Gotha in 1787 and considered one of the most progressive in Germany. Tischbein was at the heart of German Romanticism’s rich intellectual culture, and he depicts the young students in a natural setting that was sympathetic to Enlightenment educational reforms that swept Europe and encouraged a new vision of childhood.” —museum label. Painting Gift of the family of August Heckscher II, in his memory, 2002

Extemporaneous, 1927, oil on metal, mounted on board, 16 x 14-1/2 in. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago. Custom-made replica c. 1910 American molding frame, patinated gesso over milled wood; molding width: 2-5/8” “Helen Torr and her husband, the painter Arthur Dove, enjoyed a richly artistic and supportive marriage as they both experimented with modernist art-making techniques. Extemporaneous is one of the most unusual works of Torr’s career, and it is striking for its irregular play of narrow bands of silvery gray, which exuberantly thrust into the corners of the composition. When Torr made Extemporaneous,she and her husband lived aboard a sailboat, and some part of its structure might well have informed this work. Certain elements recall shaped metal fittings, complete with small round circles that are reminiscent of rivets or nails. But the artist deliberately abstracted any recognizable motifs, leaving an eloquent exploration of pure form and color.” —museum label.

Daisies, Arles, Summer, 1888, oil on canvas, 13 x 16-1/2 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 18th-century French Louis XVI-painting frame; gilded carved wood; molding width 4 inches.

“Roadway With Underpass (Le Viaduc)," oil on cardboard mounted on panel, 1887, 12-7/8” X 16-1/8”, Guggenheim Museum.  19th-century European painting frame; Macassar ebony and ebonized pine, molding width: 4-1/2" Period frame donated by Gill & Lagodich, 2010.  "While living in Paris, Vincent van Gogh made frequent excursions to the suburb of Asnières to escape the urban environment and paint in nature before his subject, a method he often advocated to other artists. On these trips he would usually stay at the family home of Bernard, a young painter he advised. In a letter to Bernard from Arles, Van Gogh reiterated his position on the importance of painting from experience rather than from the imagination: “I am getting well acquainted with nature. I exaggerate, sometimes I make changes in a motif; but for all that, I do not invent the whole picture; on the contrary, I find it all ready in nature, only it must be disentangled.”¹ On a late summer day in 1887, the artist set out to record one of the many now-extinct poternes, or underpass and tollhouse structures, that ringed Paris and regulated entry into the city. For Roadway with Underpass (Le viaduc), Van Gogh chose the vantage point of a traveler en route from Asnières, which is suggested by a dim glow at the end of the tunnel. The lone figure clad in black walking into the darkness midway in the tunnel lends a vague air of foreboding. Van Gogh painted this scene at the beginning of his mature period when he was exploring the technical achievements of the various stylistic idioms current in Paris. The contrasting creamy ocher impasto and chalky blue shadows on the crumbling underpass and the road suggest the heightened palette and divided brushstroke of the Impressionists. Moreover the contrasting complementary colors he employs in the energetic dots and loose dashes that imply the movement of the foliage animated by the breeze on the embankment attest to his hesitant investigations of Divisionist color theory. Roadway with Underpass foreshadows two paintings with similar compositions that Van Gogh would paint in Arles in 1888: The Trinquetaille Bridge (Le pont de Trinquetaille) and The Railroad Bridge (Le pont de Languelois). Like the present painting, these two works present a view through a tunnel from the perspective of a spectator situated diagonally to the right of the bridge; however, the more complex later canvases also include a counterthrusting pathway leading to the left."  —Jennifer Blessing 1. Vincent van Gogh to Bernard, October 1988, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, vol. 3 (Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society, 1958), B19, p. 518. 2. Vivian Endicott Barnett, The Guggenheim Museum: The Justin K. Thannhauser Collection (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1978), p. 63.

Luna, Christmas, 1882, mistletoe border by Alfred Parsons, watercolor and pastel and black and blue ink on artist’s board, 31.4 x 27.9 cm; Cover of “Harper’s Christmas 1882: Pictures and Papers, Done by the Tile Club and its Literary Friends”, New-York: Harper & Brothers. Artwork collection of Tracy Gill and Simeon Lagodich. Framed in a custom-made Vedder-style frame, patinated silver leaf on wood, from Gill & Lagodich studios.

The Fates Gathering in the Stars, 1887, oil on canvas, 44-1/2” x 32-1/2”. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Art Institute of Chicago; period c. 1880s-90s English Watts-style painting frame; gilded applied ornament top and sight edges, flat gilded oak frieze, molding width 6-3/4 inches; torn paper label verso: CHAS. A. JACKSON / Fine Art Dealer, / Carver and Gilder, / Picture Frame Manufacturer. ... "Elihu Vedder adapted this painting from an illustration he designed for an 1884 edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. An expatriate artist who lived in Rome for most of his life, Vedder was attracted to mysterious, visionary subject matter. The artist used the Rubaiyat to express his own philosophical beliefs regarding such metaphysical and spiritual questions as death and the existence of an afterlife, subjects that are at the core of Khayyam’s poetry. This image depicts the three Fates of Greek mythology—Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos—working the thread of life. Clotho spins the thread, Lachesis fixes its length, and Atropos cuts it at the appointed time of death. The Fates are symbolized by the spindle, distaff, and shears in the foreground and represent the poet’s belief that mankind has no control over destiny.” —museum label Painting: Friends of American Art Collection

Portrait of Joseph Hyacinthe Francois de Paule de Rigaud, Comte de Vaudreuil, 1784, oil on canvas, 52 x 38-7/8 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Custom-made replica, Late-18th to early 19th-century (transitional) French painting frame, gilded applied ornament on wood, molding width 5-1/8 in.

The Rajah Starting on a Hunt, ca. 1885, oil on canvas, 39-9/16 x 32 inches. Framed by Gill & Lagodich for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Period frame, rare late-19th-century Orientalist frame, gilded applied composition ornament on wood, molding width 6-1/4 inches. “Boston-born and Paris-trained, Edwin Lord Weeks was a leading expatriate painter, illustrator, photographer, writer, explorer, and collector as well as the first known American artist to visit India. This painting depicts preparations for a hunting expedition at a palace in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Likely dating from the artist’s 1892-93 trip to the country, he described the palace façade in his published accounts as ‘completely coered by tiers of projecting windows … wonderfully light and airy in effect.’ The striking period frame is not original to the painting, but suggests the ‘Orientalist’-style setting that Weeks favored for his work.” —museum permanent collection label.

This, My Brother, 1942, oil on canvas, 24" x 36", c. 1930s American Modernist molding, patinated gesso finish on wood, molding width: 2-7/8”,  custom-made replica frame fabricated by Gill & Lagodich. "Like many artists of his generation, Chicagoan Charles White believed that art could be an influential force in the struggle to promote racial equality for African Americans, stating, “Paint is the only weapon I have with which to fight what I resent.” He addressed the quest for dignity and freedom in This, My Brother, which takes its title from a poem by John Rood about a rural miner who experiences a political awakening. In the painting, the man appears to break free from a mountain of rubble, alluding to White’s hope that social change could be realized." — Art Institute of Chicago, permanent collection label.

Landscape (recto), 1911/12, oil on canvas, 23-1/4 x 19-1/4 in. Early 20th-century Modernist frame, gilded and painted beveled profile, molding width 3-1/4 in. "Marguerite Thompson Zorach was one of the first Americans to embrace abstract art, and she displayed her vividly colored canvases at some of the most important early exhibitions of modern art, including the 1913 Armory Show. Thompson spent three years (1908–11) studying in Paris, where she began painting in a Fauvist idiom and met her future husband, artist William Zorach. Although the location in this painting is unknown, Thompson might have made the brilliantly hued canvas while traveling back to the United States from Paris; her adventurous seven-month trip took her through Egypt, Palestine, India, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Korea, and Japan. The wedges of color in the painting suggest the contours of a hill, yet their interlocking forms illustrate Thompson’s desire to create compositions that were 'perfectly flat, no planes, distance, perspective, or anything.' "—AIC permanent collection label. Credit: Roger and J. Peter McCormick Endowment