John George Brown (American, 1831-1913) 104 in the Shade Signed 'Copyright/J.G. Brown N.A.' bottom right; also titled on label verso, and with original preparer's stencil verso, oil on canvas 30 1/4 x 25 1/4 in. (76.8 x 64.1cm) PROVENANCE: Roughton Galleries, Dallas, Texas. Acquired directly from the above in 1990. Collection of Robert E. Moore, Dallas, Texas. By descent in the family. Private Collection, Idaho. EXHIBITED: Century Association, New York, New York, December 1889. "Third Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings," Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Summer 1890. LITERATURE: "Artistic and Autobiographic in Every Line of Pen," in New York Herald, November 24, 1889, p. 12 (pencil drawing reproduced). "Gallery and Studios," in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 3, 1889, pl. 7 (illustrated). NOTE: In the last thirty years of his career, John George Brown added a new subject to his repertoire and started capturing elderly figures - sometimes couples - in deserted rural towns outside of New York City. As the artist put it in a 1894 interview: "In the summer, when I take my vacation, I go to some country place, way back from any railroad, and paint old country couples, who never saw a city and don't know what a railroad train is like." Similar to his approach when he was painting the local fishermen and sailors of Grand Manan Island, Brown turned to elderly models to record their isolation and suggest both their singularity and their impressive moral strength. According to Brown expert Martha Hoppin, "In these paintings, Brown lavished attention on the details of country interiors, in stark contrast to his ever-sparer urban pictures." This well-documented painting was executed in the summer of 1889, a decade after Brown first started experimenting with the theme of elderly farmers. According to an article published in the November 24, 1889 edition of the New York Herald, the portrait depicts Ery Grey, a 104 year-old gentlemen who lived in Arkville, Delaware County, New York. Based on the article, "Mr. Grey was born at Kettle Creek, Fairfield County, Connecticut, on December 16, 1783, and told Mr. Brown that he recollected Washington coming to his father's house, and that the event occurred when he was seven years old." When Brown painted his portrait, the old man had lived for thirty years alone in his little house, where he tended a small garden and did his own housework. Brown was immediately struck with his subject and secured a number of sittings in exchange for some household chores. Here, the old man is shown seated at his kitchen table with all the dignity that his old age can confer. The artist conveniently put his subject in the shade and used a subtle, golden ray of light peeping from the back-window to emphasize his heavily pronounced winkles, hollow cheeks and wise gaze. Oblivious to the painter, the old man is calmly looking ahead, with no emotion. Perhaps he is meditating on his long, tormented life. As in Brown's earlier compositions, the contrast of the rumpled, rounded figure against sharp forms and repeated geometric patterns gives the composition its force, and conveys the man's vulnerability, who is officially isolated from a world forever changed by industrialism. In contrast, the rustic interior and simple way of life depicted in the work is what appealed to Brown's collectors, who largely idealized the country lifestyle with its associated simplicity and honesty. As stated in the New Herald article: "Mr. Brown has painted in the same locality contain several figures and tell good stories of country life, but no one is more interesting than this weird figure of the old man with his bony hands laid one over the other seated with his legs crossed." We wish to thank Dr. Martha Hoppin for kindly confirming the authenticity of the present work, and for her kind assistance in cataloguing it. See More