(American/Virginia, early 19th Century)

Still Life with Watermelon, not visibly signed, oil on canvas with gold painted accents, 26 x 37-1/2 in; walnut frame, original or period, 33-1/2 x 44-3/4 x 2 in.

Provenance: Collection of Dr. James Harkrader, Richmond, Virginia

Exhibited: A Virginia Sampler, 18th, 19th & 20th Century Folk Art, Ferrum College and the Roanoke Fine Arts Center, 1976, no.11

Note:

This wonderful example of 19th Century American Folk painting has come back on the market after a long rest in a private Virginia collection. It stands on its own but it is made even more interesting when examined within the context of a group of four paintings that are likely inspired by the same source and some of them painted by the same hand. Whose hand? Possibly the African American painter, Joseph Proctor; possibly an attendee of a women’s academy. We will provide background for each of them in turn and you will find these group members identified in the detail photos below and on the Brunk Auctions website.

(1) Brunk Auctions:

“Folk Art Still Life with Watermelon”, has a history of ownership in Winchester, Virginia, where it was purchased in an estate sale by the consignor. Oral history also tells us that it was found in the Valley of Virginia outside of Richmond and had descended in a family “since painting” .

While there was an early attribution of “Folk Art Still Life with Watermelon” (1) to a member of the Hollingsworth family (Mary) of Winchester, Virginia, there does not appear to be any comparative evidence, given the attribution to her of several stylistically different paintings in the collection of Abram's Delight, Winchester, Virginia.

The alternate attribution to Joseph Proctor is supported by oral history and also Proctor’s place of birth. Joseph Proctor was born in Maryland in the 1780’s and his residence is not known again until the 1850 census in New York. It is possible that he painted in the Valley of Virginia - between the two points of residence that are known.

A painting almost certainly by the same hand is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

The original frame is of a type known to have been made in Baltimore, 1815-1840.

(2) Painting at National Gallery of Art:

“Fruit and Flowers”, presently at the National Gallery of Art can be seen in (Figure 2). It is recorded as a work from Maryland. (National Gallery of Art (U.S.). American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part I. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1954.), sold in 1947 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1966.

(3) Watermelon Painter Still Life, Private Collection

Acquired at a sale in New Orleans, with a history that it had come from a “Baltimore Family” who moved to New Orleans in the early 20th century. It was restored in the late 19th century by a Baltimore artist named Charles Volckmar (1841-1914) who used silver/lead to reline the pictures tying the picture even more closely to the mid-Atlantic region

(4) Painting at Huntington Library

“Still Life with Fruit, Flowers and Cornucopia” is one of the only pieces to be firmly attributed to Joseph Proctor. It is currently at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. According to the Huntington Library there are only a few records regarding the life of Joseph Proctor, including a birth record from Maryland in 1786, a marriage record, censuses and city directories. In the 1850 New York Federal census, Joseph Proctor is identified as a “painter”, and in the 1860 New York Federal census he is identified as an “artist”. (see documents below) After the 1860 census there are no further records. Before reaching the Huntington Library in San Marino California, the piece was previously sold at Richard A. Bourne Co, Inc, Hyannis, Massachusetts, (for the singer Andy Williams); possibly David Wheatcraft, and Skinner, Boston, Massachusetts. See (Figure 4) for reference.

As published in a note in American Naive Paintings, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, by Deborah Chotner, Julie Aronson, Sarah Cash, Laurie Weitzenkorn, p 484:

2. 41 x 44 in. Antiques 116 (July 1979), color repro. p. 2.1. I am very grateful to Betty Bagshaw of Richard A. Bourne Co., Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, for leading me to the owner of this painting. According to Ms. Bagshaw, at the time of the Bourne's sale advertised in Antiques, a Connecticut collector told Bourne that she owned a painting almost identical to this one. It was signed by Joseph Proctor who, she said, was a black artist living in New York City about 1860. No more information on Proctor has yet been uncovered.

Seen one after the other, it becomes plausible that the same artist painted all four of these still lifes. It is even more likely that these all draw their inspiration from the same, as yet unknown, original source.

There are a variety of stylistic similarities that intersect the four paintings. All the paintings have the same classic still life composition with a flower vase in the middle, a cut watermelon to the right, bunches of grapes to the left, and a variety of fruits in the middle. Figures 1 and 2 employ a virtually identical vase. In both Figure 1 and Figure 3 there is a knife shown to cut the fruit, while there are differences, they are the same shape and style. In all four paintings, the watermelons have been cut in the same way. In all four paintings, there are resemblances among the flowers, and while not all are consistent across the board, there is enough interplay to make a compelling argument for this as a group.