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Artist
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Title | Thumbnail |
Notes old |
Media |
Signature status |
| Louis Oscar (L.O.) Griffith |
Grandma Barnes' Farm |
 |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 12/9/16 along with the following gallery comments:
L.O. Griffith was originally from Greencastle, IN and life then deposited him in Texas and St. Louis before he embarked on a career in commercial art in Chicago. During his Chicago days he was also part of Chicago Galleries Association, Palette and Chisel Club and often ventured down to Brown County to paint with fellow Chicago artists. Eventually he moved to Brown County in 1922 where he remained the rest of his life. During his time in Chicago, he worked for an engraver and became familiar with the etching process. By the time he moved to Brown County, he was an accomplished etcher (as well as painter). Griffith liked to do his printmaking in the winter months, in lieu of painting in the cold weather. Through his years in Indiana, he produced a few hundred different monochromatic and colored etchings. Today's etching, Grandma Barnes Cabin is among his most famous pieces. Wonderful -- it’s at least six colors and represents a high point in his printmaking career. AND it features the iconic Grandma Barnes cabin which artists at the time couldn’t get enough of. This piece is featured on page 96 of Lynn Lettsigner Miller’s Book The Artists of Brown County. And if you’d like to read more about Washington and Grandma Barnes, click here. |
Colored Etching on Paper |
Signed Lower Right |
| Burling Boaz |
Still Life with Squash |
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Egg Tempera on Board |
Signed Lower Right |
| Burling Boaz |
Winter Timber Haul |
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Mixed Media |
Signed Lower Right |
| Burling Boaz |
Path Between the Barns |
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Mixed Media on Board |
Signed Lower Right |
| James Topping |
Farmer in the Dell |
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Chicago Gallery Association Tag Verso |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Right |
| James Topping |
Charms of Autumn |
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Chicago Gallery Association Tag Verso |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Right |
| Louis Oscar (L.O.) Griffith |
Favorite Bypath |
 |
SOLD
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 9/23/16 along with the following gallery comments:
Louis Oscar (L.O. by way of signature) Griffith was born in Greencastle, Indiana yet moved to Texas in his youth. As a boy, he was obsessed with drawing and was an inveterate sketcher. Griffith studied under famous Texas artist Frank Reaugh and then attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and the Chicago Art Institute. He eventually settled in Chicago and was employed as a commercial illustrator. He was adept at several mediums – oil, etching and watercolor. He even created the occasional wood block print. Through his association with the Palette and Chisel club and fellow member Adolph Shulz, he became familiar with Brown County. He began visiting in 1907 and settled there permanently, to paint full time, in 1922. Though Griffith traveled a fair amount (particularly to Texas and New Orleans), most of his output was from Brown County. Today’s painting, Favorite Bypath is a very nice oil featuring a Brown County setting. It’s a slight departure from his typical landscape as it’s such a contained view rather than an expansive vista. This piece contains the original 1949 Hoosier Salon Annual Exhibition studio label, verso. Though it doesn’t tie to anything in the Hoosier Salon’s record in that period and I can only conclude that it was entered but not selected for the Annual Exhibition. The painting was recently cleaned and it’s in flawless condition. The original frame was lightly restored and complements the painting perfectly. A wonderful work by one of Brown County’s most sought after historic artists. |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Left |
| Fred Rigley |
Green Valley |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 11/18/16 along with the following gallery comments:
Fred Rigley spent most of his adult life in Nashville, IN. By chance, that… He met Ada Shulz while studying at Ringling in Sarasota, where Adolph Shulz taught for many winters. He ferried a car back up north for the Shulz’ and the rest is history. He worked in both oil and watercolor and while he did paint along the East Coast, most of his subjects are from greater Brown County. Today’s painting, Green Valley, is a nicely representative piece. It appears to be along the Salt Creek which runs through the ‘Peaceful Valley’ which also contains the village of Nashville. A happy painting by one of the later Brown County impressionists. |
Oil on Board |
Signed Lower Right |
| John A. Seaford |
Richmond Stream |
 |
SOLD
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 10/14/16 along with the following gallery comments:
John Albert Seaford was raised in tiny Spiceland, IN (about 40 miles east of Indianapolis) and studied architecture and art in Boston. He settled in Boston and was very busy as an illustrator. His Boston artistic output consisted of city and harbor scenes. Around 1900 Seaford began wintering in Richmond, IN where he had gallery representation and enjoyed creating Indiana-based landscapes. Today’s work, Richmond Stream (our title) is a nice mixed media (pastel and watercolor) autumn landscape. Typical of Seaford’s work, it’s a very lively affair with much light interplay and dashes of color appearing throughout. Nicely framed (by us) and ready to hang. |
Mixed Media |
Signed Lower Right |
| Varaldo Guiseppe (V.J.) Cariani |
Still Life with Hydrangea |
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This work was featured in our 2nd Annual Curated Sale of Historic Indiana Art, April 8th, 2018 at the Indianapolis Art Center.
Cleaned and conserved; contains in-painting. Custom-created, hand-leafed reproduction frame.
This painting was featured in our weekly email on 10/7/16 along with the following gallery comments:
V. J. Cariani lived nearly his entire adult working life in Nashville in a cabin next to Marie Goth, his life partner. They never married yet their relationship was an open (and very accepted) secret during their decades in Brown County. His output was nearly exclusively oils. His oil landscapes tend toward the loose and impressionistic. His still lifes (of which he did many) are generally tight and more realistic. Today’s work is a very nice, |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed lower right |
| Paul Turner Sargent |
The Yellow Tree |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 10/28/16 along with the following gallery comments:
Paul Turner Sargent spent nearly his entire life in Charleston, IL. In 1920 he visited Ada Shulz in Nashville and thereafter was a frequent traveler to Brown County – 130 miles east. The results of this are continually before us – many, many Brown County pieces by Sargent appear in the record. Today’s piece, The Yellow Tree comes to us with nothing to identify its locale. Like most Sargent pieces, it’s dated (1920, in fact) and it carries an old exhibition tag from the Peoria Society of Allied Arts Exhibition in 1921 where the title but not the location are noted. So we’re left to guess. It’s a beautiful work full of impasto and an eye toward the detail. Yellow Tree was cleaned and conserved and is very good condition. It’s housed in the unrestored, original frame and ready to hang. |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Right |
| George Jo Mess |
Homestead |
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SOLD
______________________________________ |
Oil on Board |
Signed Lower Right |
| Paul Randall |
Studebaker Manual Cover Illustration -- 1945 Edition |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 1/6/17 along with the following gallery comments:
K, this is a yarn… Last year a guy (actually, a guy’s kid) did a google search and turned me up as buying Indiana art and works by Paul A. Randall. The typical way things start. He forwarded me an image (below)
It was interesting but of course totally different than the Randalls that have been in the marketplace. I knew that Randall had done some commercial illustration. The signature looked pretty consistent. And it was a great painting so I bought it.
The restoration was slow and very technical. The result was beautiful! And we proceeded to frame it and hang it.
I needed research as to what year Randall painted it. But I knew that Randall passed away (quite suddenly) in 1933 so I had this as a c. 1932 illustration.
A couple different car guys were in the gallery, we talked about the painting and they’re like, ‘yeah, 1940s truck.’ And I’m all like, ‘psssht, Randall died in ’33 so it’s some ‘30s truck’.
I began one of these Friday missives writing all about this great Paul A. Randall oil illustration. Needing to square the year, I set out to research and find the truck. Or at least the vintage. As in: google-->1930s trucks-->images.
The car guys were right! Go figure!
Googling 40s trucks got me closer. But that created a critical failure. My Paul A. Randall of Richmond and Indianapolis died in 1933. He couldn’t have painted a c. 1940s truck.
Crap.
I abandoned my totally cool Paul A. Randall feature for that Friday, that wasn’t a ‘Paul A. Randall’ at all. And initiated plan B -- writing about something else. I had a big problem – this great painting that I doted over for weeks wasn’t what I thought it was at all! In fact, now I had no idea what it was. It was shelved for several more weeks.
I finally retuned, knowing it wasn’t my guy, Paul A. Randall. It was ‘Paul Randall’. Common name but no other correlating artistic listing. No nothing on ‘Paul Randall’.
Back to google in search of some site that could do a reverse image search. I found Tineye.com. Free, easy. I uploaded my Randall image and lo, back came an image of the Studebaker manual and it links me to a few Ebay sellers offering original copies.
Tineye opened everything up. What we have before us is an illustraton for a 1945 Studebaker truck manual. Halleujah.
While I got my answer as to what the art was created for (Studebaker), we’re still left not knowing anything about ‘Paul Randall’. Maybe he was an in-house artist? I’m surprised an in-house artist would sign a work like this.
While the man ‘Paul Randall’ remains unknown, his painting is right here – a bright an shining sun completely put back together. As a friend said, ‘It’s Lassie meets the Waltons all at once!’. |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Left |
| Carl Rudolph Krafft |
At the Garden Gate |
 |
SOLD
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 10/21/16 along with the following gallery comments:
Carl Krafft was born in Reading, OH and moved around with his family during his childhood, ultimately settling on the south side of Chicago. He studied art at the Chicago Art Institute and after a few years living in Chicago, moved to Oak Park, IL (about ten miles west of Chicago) where he remained the rest of his life. He’s often associated with the New Hope, PA school of artists – particular Daniel Garber -- whose works influenced Krafft. Though he did not spend much time in New Hope and most of his settings are Midwestern. He began painting in the Ozarks in the 1910s and was also a frequent visitor to Brown County along with other colleagues from Chicago’s Palette and Chisel club. Krafft participated in exhibitions and had gallery representation all over the eastern half of the United States and his work resides in the permanent collections of over 20 different museums. He has auction records up to $85,000 and it is for the type of work we are presenting today. At the Garden Gate (our title) is an exhibition size oil presenting a timeless tableau – two women talking at the garden gate. Without being overly romanticized, Krafft presents this simple expression of humanity. And it is these tableaus, typically featuring figures engaged yet natural with their surroundings, which characterize Krafft’s most powerful work. This painting ties to another published Krafft painting, Open Gate (1920) which is the same setting and features the same basic elements in today’s painting, minus the figures. It’s a stunning piece – very colorful and beautifully rendered. The painting is in flawless condition. It was recently cleaned and re-varnished and it’s housed in the original hand-carved frame. Good stuff! |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed lower left |
| Martha Hinkle Mosier |
Winter Landscape |
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Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Left |
| Denzil Omer Seamon |
Sandbar, Sugar Creek |
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Watercolor on Paper |
Signed Lower Right |
| Denzil Omer Seamon |
Sugar Creek |
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|
Watercolor on Paper |
Signed Lower Left |
| Denzil Omer Seamon |
Wabash County Lane |
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|
Watercolor on Paper |
Signed Lower Right |
| Lucie Hartrath |
Enough Sunshine |
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|
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Left |
| George Herbert Baker |
Autumn Shadows |
 |
SOLD
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 9/2/16 along with the following gallery comments:
George Herbert Baker was part of the Richmond Group of artists but existed largely outside of that assembly. He got his nose bent out of joint with the Richmond Art League and largely shunned their efforts. Baker worked in oil, pastel and watercolor and was known primarily as a colorist. Today’s works, Purple Road and Autumn Shadows (out titling on both) really highlight his infusion of hue into simple landscapes. We don’t see enough purple roads in this life – just sayin’… Both works are in great shape and housed in the original frames. We cleaned the frames up and spaced the pastels off the glass. Then put them back together with acid-free materials. Each is glazed in glare-free glass, allowing the viewer to get right inside the works. |
Pastel on Paper |
Signed Lower Left |
