George Beck Oil of The Falls on the Potomac - The First Views of Washington

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lote/george beck oil of the falls on the potomac the first views of washington hrtwECT 632214514

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lote/george beck oil of the falls on the potomac the first views of washington hrtwECT 632214514

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George Beck Oil of The Falls on the Potomac - The First Views of Washington

BECK, George Jacob (1748-1812). The Falls on the Potomac, circa 1801. Oil on paper mounted on board. With a paper label inscribed by the artist Great Falls, Potomac on the reverse. 16 1/2" x 22 1/2" board. Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York. Exhibited: Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Views and Visions: American Landscapes Before 1830, traveling, September 21, 1987-March 29, 1988. Washington, D.C., The Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American Art, Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800-1915, October 19, 1983 to January 22, 1984. Literature: "Reality, Romanticism, Realism: Two Centuries of American Painting", The Kennedy Quarterly, 1967, Volume VII, Number 4, pp. 242-243. In 1796/7 President George Washington purchased two companion views of George Beck's The Great Falls of the Potomac. Although one of the paintings was commissioned from Beck by President Washington, both were purchased through Samuel Salter of Philadelphia. They are now part of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union collection. The Great Falls is a series of cascades and rapids in a 200 foot gorge in the Potomac River. This version, a closeup of the Great Falls, has a fresh, spontaneous and painterly quality absent in the Washington interpretations, and suggests that the artist painted it from nature. Beck "was one of the first individuals to push beyond the representational limits of topographical draughtsmanship" (Olsen). These watercolor gouaches of Washington is clearly a companion in style as well as subject to The Potomac River Breaking through the Blue Ridge and Great Falls of the Potomac (ca.1796-1797), combining as it does topographical detail with a Romantic atmosphere. Both of these works were purchased by George Washington in January 1797, from Samuel Salter (1768-1834) as Beck's agent, for $158.75. There were to be hung in the New Room that Washington had built at Mount Vernon following the Revolutionary War, where they can be viewed today. The original entry in Washington's account book recording the acquisition can be seen amongst the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia. George Beck and his wife emigrated to America in 1795, drawn to the newly settled wilderness, which Beck was to portray so successfully in this paintings as well as his others. They settled in Baltimore where George first painted scenes of the Potomac, and achieved immediate success. Following Washington's commission William Hamilton, "the well-known patron of English and American artists, commissioned Beck to paint a view of the Woodlands, Hamilton's elaborately landscaped estate in Philadelphia. At Hamilton's suggestion, in 1798 Beck settled in that city, then the capital of the country and its largest, most cultivated urban center; he opened drawing schools for men and women to subsidize his income, and his wife established a ladies' seminary" (Olsen). However their time in Philadelphia was relatively short-lived. Beck first appears in the Philadelphia directory of 1798 as a landscape painter at 106 Walnut Street; in 1799 and 1800 on South Fifth Street near Chestnut; in 1801, 1802, 1803, at 51 South Fifth Street; and in 1804 ad 1805 as living near 51 South Fifth Street, all in very close proximity to Samuel Salter's properties... he may well have been a tenant. The legendary beauty of the American west tempted the Becks to leave Philadelphia in 1804 and explore the western frontier: Pittsburgh, Niagara Falls, Ohio and Kentucky. "The newly settled wilderness held a great appeal for [Beck], providing the opportunity of exploring relatively unspoiled nature while living in a social milieu where he and his wife hoped to attract patrons and students. In Kentucky he developed a freer style, and his works increasingly celebrated the unspoiled richness of the frontier. They reveal his fascination with the subjective power and mystery of nature" (Roberta Olsen "Drawn by New York", pages 63-66).

Estimación:€219,600.25

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