Richard Clague Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Richard Clague Art Value Price Guide

Apr. 07, 2024
Richard Clague Oil on Canvas
Est: $40,000 - $50,000
Richard Clague Oil on canvas 45.5" x 35" Family Portrait
1stBid
Dec. 03, 2023
Richard Clague, Jr. (French/Louisiana, 1821-1873), "Hunter and Fisherman"
Est: $50,000 - $80,000
Richard Clague, Jr. (French/Louisiana, 1821-1873) "Hunter and Fisherman, Louisiana Countryside", 1862 oil on cradled wood panel signed and dated lower right. Period gilt frame. 18" x 22", framed 28-1/2" x 33" Provenance: Private collection, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Notes: Born in Paris and baptized at the St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter, Richard Clague, Jr. lived intermittently between the two cities. A student of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Clague brought the Barbizon tradition of plein-air landscape painting to Louisiana. Accompanied by his students, William Henry Buck and Marshall J. Smith, Jr., he traveled to remote rural south Louisiana communities to paint. In this painting, Clague captured the distinctive Louisiana landscape as a hunter and fisherman in a pirogue venture out for the day.
New Orleans Auction Galleries
Nov. 16, 2023
Richard Clague, Jr. (French/Louisiana, 1821-1873)
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Richard Clague, Jr. (French/Louisiana, 1821-1873), "Street Scene at the Commons", watercolor on paper laid on board, signed lower left, "New Orleans Museum of Art" exhibition label with title on backing, sight 8 3/4 in. x 10 3/4 in., framed with faded artist plaque, overall 21 3/4 in. x 1 9 1/2 in. x 1 in. Provenance: Mrs. Theodore Dennery, New Orleans, LA; thence by descent in the family. Exh.: "Richard Clague Retrospective", New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA, Nov. 17 - Dec. 30, 1974. Note: Born in Paris in 1821, Richard Clague’s childhood and youth was divided between France and New Orleans, the home of his French Creole mother. He established a near permanent studio in the city in 1857 and had focused primarily on landscape painting by the early 1860s. The watercolor offered here is one of only a few surviving examples by the artist and was included in the seminal Richard Clague exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art of 1974, alongside a stylistically similar watercolor of “Treme Market” dated 1863. Although “Street Scene at the Commons” is not dated, the works were likely completed around the same time. The exact location portrayed in Clague’s watercolor appears to be the corner of Canal and Treme in a neighborhood that was at the time referenced as “The Commons.” The houses, buildings and view of Clague’s street scene are a near identical match to those in the pencil drawing by Alfred Rudolph Waud captioned “Cor. [sic] of Canal and Treme - N Common” (1965.90.316.2) as well as the wood engraving “Corner of Canal & Treme St.” (1974.25.11.46) delineated by Waud and engraved by Samuel S. Kilburn, Jr. for a newspaper series called “Sketches of the Flood in New Orleans.” Both of these works on paper are in The Historic New Orleans Collection, with the latter illustrated in Rouhlac Toledano and Mary Louise Christovich’s New Orleans Architecture Volume VI: Faubourg Treme and the Bayou Road. Two other known watercolors by Clague of city scenes are “Rose Nicaud’s Coffee Stand at the French Market” in the collection of the Louisiana State Museum and “Halfway House” held in a private collection. Clague rarely depicted urban architecture and seems to have found watercolor his preferred medium for doing so. The future founder of the Louisiana landscape painting tradition could not resist the allure of the New Orleans streets that have captivated so many artists over the centuries. The diagonal composition, fine line work and soft, blended shading display Clague’s French academic training, while the inclusion of figures and lone dog in the street add life to the scene. This exceptionally rare work by Clague offers a unique viewpoint into one of Louisiana’s most influential artists. Ref.: Christovich, Mary Louise and Roulhac Toledano. New Orleans Architecture Volume VI: Faubourg Treme and the Bayou Road. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 1980, pp. 63-64. Toledano, Roulhac. Richard Clague: 1821-1873. New Orleans: New Orleans Museum of Art, 1974, p. 37. 1965.90.316.2, The L. Kemper and Leila Moore Williams Founders Collection, The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA. 1974.25.11.46, Permanent Collection, The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA
Neal Auction Company
May. 21, 2023
Richard Clague, Jr. (French/Louisiana, 1821-1873), "Hunter and Fisherman"
Est: $75,000 - $125,000
Richard Clague, Jr. (French/Louisiana, 1821-1873) "Hunter and Fisherman, Louisiana Countryside" oil on cradled wood panel signed and dated lower right. Period gilt frame. 18" x 22", framed 28-1/2" x 33" Provenance: Private collection, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Notes: Born in Paris and baptized at the St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter, Richard Clague, Jr. lived intermittently between the two cities. A student of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Clague brought the Barbizon tradition of plein-air landscape painting to Louisiana. Accompanied by his students, William Henry Buck and Marshall J. Smith, Jr., he traveled to remote rural south Louisiana communities to paint. In this painting, Clague captured the distinctive Louisiana landscape as a hunter and fisherman in a pirogue venture out for the day.
New Orleans Auction Galleries
Oct. 09, 2022
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873), "Louisiana Bayou at Dusk"
Est: $50,000 - $80,000
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873) "Louisiana Bayou at Dusk" oil on canvas Initialed "R.C." lower left. Period gilt and stenciled framed. 10" x 14", framed 20-1/2" x 24-1/2" Provenance: Sold in these Galleries, May 16, 1998, lot # 407 Literature: Toledano, Roulhac, "Richard Clague, 1921-1873)", exhibition catalogue, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1974. Notes: Richard Clague, Jr. was born in Paris and baptized at the St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. His French father made his fortune in shipping, and his mother Marie-Delphine-Justine de la Roche was a French Creole born in New Orleans. Consequently, throughout his lifetime, Clague traveled with ease between France and Louisiana. As an artist, Clague was academically trained in Europe, and became recognized as bringing the French Barbizon tradition of landscape painting to south Louisiana. The French tradition dictates painting outdoors in nature, a method known as "plein aire", to accurately represent the landscape and times of the day. Instead of the Barbizon forests, Clague focused on the bayous, farms, fishermen's cabins and waterways of south Louisiana. In "Louisiana Bayou at Dusk", Clague captured the dramatic and colorful moment of the sun setting over the bayou. As night falls, a cabin nestled among the Spanish moss draped cypress trees and small boats docked by the shore can be seen.
New Orleans Auction Galleries
Nov. 18, 2017
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1816-1878)
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1816-1878), "Bay Jaune (Fishing Camp on Pilings)", oil on canvas, signed lower left, 16 1/4 in. x 24 1/4 in., period frame. Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Mr. and Mrs. Aristide Hopkins, New Orleans and Biloxi; thence by descent in the family. Note: The delicately placed fishing camp over water that Richard Clague chose to depict in the work offered here is a rare, intriguing composition that remains today enduring and timeless. The low horizon and expanse of sky direct the eye to the structure of the camp, and the viewer is drawn to the red brick chimney in the center of the painting. The attention to detail in the barrel and small figure on the porch of the camp are characteristic of the artist's best work and are contrasted against the vastness of the landscape surrounding them. Clague must have visited the camp several times to sketch and paint the scene; a study of this exact view can be found in one of his sketchbooks now in the collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art. As on many of Clague's drawings, he jotted down the location of the scene, and his notation Jaune on the study for this painting reveals the fishing camp was situated on Bay Jaune. Bay Jaune is located just off Lake Pontchartrain near the present city of Slidell, which was not founded until 1882 and would have been a small, rural community during Clague's time. Aristide Hopkins, who acquired this painting from Clague, owned homes in both New Orleans and Biloxi and was known for inviting artists to both locations; Bay Jaune is directly en route between the two cities. Ref.: Toledano, Roulhac. Richard Clague: 1821-1873. New Orleans: New Orleans Museum of Art, 1974.
Neal Auction Company
May. 13, 2017
†Richard Clague (1812-1873, New Orleans), "The Back of City Park, New Orleans," c. 1870, oil on canvas, signed lower right, presented..
Est: $60,000 - $90,000
Richard Clague (1812-1873, New Orleans), "The Back of City Park, New Orleans," c. 1870, oil on canvas, signed lower right, presented in a gilt frame, H.- 16 in., W.- 24 in. Note: A variation of this painting was exhibited in the New Orleans Museum of Art Exhibition, the "Richard Clague Retrospective," November 17- December 30, 1974, New Orleans Museum of Art, and pictured in the catalog, Item 91.
Crescent City Auction Gallery
Jan. 19, 2017
Richard Clague (1821-1873) North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain at Mandeville oil on canvas 36 1/8 x 60 ¼ in. (91.7 x 153 cm.)
Est: $120,000 - $180,000
RICHARD CLAGUE (1821-1873) North Shore of Lake Pontchatrain at Mandeville signed ‘R. Clague’ (lower left) oil on canvas 36.125 x 60.25 in. (91.7 x 153 cm.)
Christie's
Jul. 24, 2016
Richard Clague (American/Louisiana, 1821-1873)
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
Richard Clague (American/Louisiana, 1821-1873), "Louisiana Landscape with Goats near the Water's Edge", 1870, oil on canvas, signed lower right and pencil signed and dated on stretcher, 16-1/2" x 20-1/2". Presented in the original W. E. Seebold giltwood frame with framer's label en verso. Provenance: From the artist to the father of Leon Gibert of Monrepos (now Anadele's Plantation) on the Bogue Falaya River, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana; thence by descent to his grandson William Gibert and his wife Rosalie Johnston; Private collection, Louisiana, 1983; Neal Auction Company, June 6, 1998, lot 291. Exhibited: Richard Clague Retrospective, November 17- December 30, 1974. New Orleans Museum of Art. Illustrated: Toledano, Roulhac. Richard Clague, 1821-1873. New Orleans: New Orleans Museum of Art, 1974. pl. 61, p. 95. Literature: Times-Picayune . Sunday, July 30, 1972. sect. 3, p. 4. Richard Clague's landscapes of daily life, of innocuous flora and fauna, are as rich in tradition as are the families through whose hands they have passed. At the time, portraiture was paramount, and no real interest had ever been paid to Southern scenery. Though he was academically trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in France, Clague was most influenced by the plein-air realism of the Barbizon School painters, who painted the peasantry and the environs of the Fontainebleau forest in situ. As Gustave Courbet, the "father" of French realism and a contemporary of Clague, once said in mocking jest of the art academies, "Show me an angel and I will paint it." Similarly, Clague focused on the world before him, turning rustic mundane scenes into pastorals that celebrate the subtropical climate. In the painting offered here, Clague uses light to capture the quiet reprieve from a hot summer's day; the burnt umber of the shade beneath the tree where the goats rest is juxtaposed by the sun-drenched path packed down by wagon tracks, and the reflections of the trees on the surface of the water are so pristine, Clague is able to capture just how stagnate the water on a bayou or river bank can be. This painting uses goats at rest to celebrate a Louisiana summer day in a setting so prosaic that it could be found on almost any settlement, farm or plantation in the area. Indeed, it could even be from the Gibert property on the Bogue Falaya River in St. Tammany Parish where the painting hung for almost a century before it was displayed at Clague's retrospective.
New Orleans Auction Galleries
Mar. 13, 2016
Richard Clague (American/Louisiana, 1821-1873)
Est: $40,000 - $80,000
Richard Clague (American/Louisiana, 1821-1873), "Sawmill Near Madisonville", ca. 1870, oil on canvas, signed lower left, a "New Orleans Museum of Art" exhibition label en verso backing, 6-1/2" x 11-1/2". Presented in a period water-gilt frame. Provenance: The Estate of Karolyn Kuntz Westervelt, New Orleans, Louisiana. Exhibited: New Orleans Museum of Art, Richard Clague Retrospective, November 17-December 30, 1974, #68; Louisiana State Museum, Friends of the Cabildo, 250 Years of Life in New Orleans, The Rosemonde E. and Emile Kuntz Collection and the Felix H. Kuntz Collection, Exhibition Part III, May 21-June 23, 1965, #55. After the U.S. Government, in 1850, declared the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana to be a "health zone" almost completely free of the ravages of yellow fever, malaria and other diseases which flourished in the humid, densely populated New Orleans, visitors began to flock to the towns of Madisonville, Mandeville and Covington. The need for hotels, spas and resorts to accommodate these people, some of whom became permanent residents, necessitated an active building community. Madisonville, which had been for some time a shipbuilding and sawmill town, began to flourish. Transport and building had been an important part of the port town's identity from its establishment by Jean Baptiste Baham (1730-1812) in 1800, and there had been active sawmills in the region for some time. It is therefore not surprising that an artist such as Richard Clague, who was intensely interested in the landscape and industry of Louisiana, would choose to paint a scene such as the one presented here. Other works by the artist that reveal the same juxtaposition of nature and commerce include scenes of drilling rigs, farm workers, and train tracks.
New Orleans Auction Galleries
Feb. 04, 2012
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873)
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873), "Louisiana Drilling Rigs", oil on canvas, signed lower right, 16 1/8 in. x 24 in., framed
Neal Auction Company
Feb. 12, 2011
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873),
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873), "Idyllic Landscape with a Maiden and Young Man along a Path", oil on canvas, unsigned, 18 in. x 22 in., in a gilt frame. PLEASE NOTE: Provenance: Estate of the artist; to his cousin Augustus de Brueys Hughes. The pendant painting was sold in these rooms, April 14, 2007, lot 447. Note: This is an important recent discovery of a landscape by the "father of Louisiana landscape painting," Richard Clague. For 130 years, New Orleans collectors have been searching for paintings that were found in Clague's studio in New Orleans at the time of his death in 1873. The contents of that studio were acquired by the artist's cousin, Augustus de Brueys Hughes of the New Orleans law firm of Billings and Hughes, and transported to New York, as reported in New Orleans' newspapers at the time. Mr. de Brueys Hughes was a member of Clague's extended family. Clague's mother, Marie Justine Delphine de la Roche, had a sister, Josephine, who married François Desiré de Brueys. Their daughter married a cousin, Augustus de Brueys Hughes, whose legal career took him to New York. When the artist died, de Brueys Hughes acquired the contents of Clague's studio and transported everything to New York in 1873, not to have been seen since, or at least not to have been recognized as the work of Richard Clague. In 2006, a New York fine arts dealer made a fortuitous discovery of what was a lower Gulf South landscape painting in upstate New York. His research connected the de Brueys family of New Orleans and the de Brueys Hughes family of New York with the Louisiana background of the painting he had found, and voila, more than one of the long lost paintings of Richard Clague was rediscovered. That painting, "Life on the Farm: St. Tammany Parish," was sold in these salesrooms on April 14, 2007, lot 447. Now, the original source of the estate discovery has offered to Neal Auction Company the other painting from the Clague cache to sell. Clague was educated in France and Switzerland from the age of fifteen. He studied with Francois-Edouard Picot and at the ateliers of Horace Vernet and Ernest Hebert. His debt, however, is to Theodore Rousseau and the Barbizon and Fontainebleau groups with whom he painted naturalistic landscapes in the plein aire style. Clague used the traditions and discoveries of the French Barbizon artists upon his return to New Orleans, applying them to the landscape of Louisiana forests and swamps and of Mississippi and Alabama, and in teaching other Southern landscape painters, especially Marshall Smith, Jr. and William Buck. His landscape compositions, both of European and Gulf South subjects, usually have a "central view" and feature a road in the foreground or water, wedging toward a horizontal screen of trees in the central mass, often with a vernacular building or rural figures, both people or livestock, with wagons, below an expanse of sky. The landscape offered here perfectly exemplifies these precepts of Clague. The painting presented here has a curved road in the foreground juxtaposed against a reverse curved dead tree trunk. The handling of light as seen in the light line of water crossing the picture plane horizontally in the center of the canvas ties the landscape to the sky above. The tree trunks on each side of the water, hill and clouds deepen the perspective, with the water and the darker blue hill visible between the trunks. Such compositions reveal Clague's European training. The woman dressed in a low cut blouse with full long sleeves seems to be addressing the young man handling the milk cows. A more muted set of figures in the lower left also inhabit the landscape. Roulhac Toledano, author of Richard Clague, 1821-1873, 1974. Neal Auction Company would like to thank Ms. Toledano for her invaluable assistance with the catalogue entry.
Neal Auction Company
Nov. 21, 2010
Richard Clague (American/Louisiana, 1816-1878
Est: $75,000 - $100,000
Richard Clague (American/Louisiana, 1816-1878) "Portrait of a Gentleman", oil on canvas, signed "R. Clague", 30" x 25". Presented in a giltwood and gesso frame with a linen liner.
St Charles Gallery
Nov. 20, 2010
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873,
Est: $100,000 - $200,000
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873, active New Orleans 1850-73), "Spring Hill, Alabama, in Autumn", c. 1871-72, oil on canvas, signed "R. Clague" lower right, 16 1/4 in. x 24 1/4 in., in a period stenciled and giltwood frame. Provenance: Eastern Shore of Maryland Estate, the family with ties to Louisiana and Mississippi; descended in the families of reknowned surgeon Arthur Washington De Roaldes and Associate Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, Henry Carleton Miller, New Orleans. Note: The father of Louisiana landscape painting, Richard Clague depicted the rustic landscapes of south Louisiana, coastal Mississippi and lower Alabama from 1858 until 1873 In November 1871, Clague traveled to Spring Hill, Alabama, and created pencil drawings and paintings of this distinctive landscape. The painting offered here relates closely to a work in the collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Of the same size, both depict the same country road, fences, trees and architecture. Painted in the autumn, the leaves have begun to change color and fall. Clague evokes the clarity of the fall season with the rich blue sky and luminous intensity indicative of that time of year. Part of a small group of works created in Spring Hill in 1871-72, this rare painting displays Clague's skill and mastery as the best of the 19th century Louisiana landscape painters. Reference: Toledano, Roulhac, Richard Clague, NOMA, 1974, p. 52.
Neal Auction Company
May. 23, 2010
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873)
Est: $175,000 - $250,000
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873) "Early Morning View of a Louisiana Bayou Landscape with a Fisherman in a Pirogue and a Hunter Holding a Rifle, a Homestead Beyond", 1862, oil on panel, signed and dated lower right "R. CLAGUE 62", 18" x 22". Presented in a giltwood frame with a band of scrolling foliate carving. Provenance: Private collection, Natchez, Mississippi. Note: Clague is regarded as the first major Louisiana landscape painter of the 19th century and helped introduce European painting traditions, particularly those of the Barbizon School, to the area. He sought to portray nature in its more coarse and basic reality. In this painting, Clague's delicate handling of the trees and his skillful use of tonal light and color, he captures the unique atmospheric quality of the Louisiana Bayou region as a fisherman and a hunter venture out for the day. Credited with establishing the Louisiana school of landscape painting, Clague influenced and taught many artists including William Henry Buck and Marshall J. Smith. Reference: Historic New Orleans Collection, "Encyclopedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918"; Estill Curtis Pennington, "Look Away- Reality and Sentiment in Southern Art" and "DownRiver- Currents of Style in Louisiana Painting 1800-1950".
New Orleans Auction Galleries
May. 22, 2010
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873),
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873), "Cow Grazing on the North Shore, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana", oil on canvas, signed "R. CLAGUE" lower right, 16 in. x 20 in., in an antique frame.
Neal Auction Company
Jul. 12, 2008
Attributed to Richard Clague, Jr.
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Attributed to Richard Clague, Jr. (Franco-American/New Orleans, 1821-1873), "Landscape with Waterfall", oil on canvas, 19 in. x 25 in. Provenance: Phyllis Hudson, New Orleans, to current owner.
Neal Auction Company
May. 03, 2008
Richard Clague, Jr. (American/New Orleans,
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
Richard Clague, Jr. (American/New Orleans, 1821-1873) , "The Ambush", oil on wood panel, signed "R. Clague" lower left, 11 in. x 14 in. * NO RETURNS ARE ACCEPTED ON THE BASIS OF CONDITION * PLEASE READ ALL CONDITIONS OF LISTED WITH THIS ITEM * PAYMENT DU
Neal Auction Company
Apr. 27, 2008
RICHARD CLAGUE (American, 1821-1878)
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
cows under tree with Spanish moss, New Orleans sgn. l.l. R Clague o/c, 10 by 14 in., original gilt frame Est.
CRN Auctions
Feb. 07, 2008
Richard Clague (American, 1816-1878)
Est: $10,000 - $20,000
Barbizon Landscape oil on canvas signed l.l. 9" x 13" Born in Paris, France, Richard Clague is largely credited with bringing a Barbizon influence to the Louisiana region. Thanks to a large inheritance, Clague had the opportu
Cowan's Auctions
Dec. 01, 2007
Attributed to Richard Clague, Jr.
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Attributed to Richard Clague, Jr. (Franco-American/New Orleans, 1821-1873), "Landscape with Waterfall", oil on canvas, 19 in. x 25 in.
Neal Auction Company
Oct. 02, 1993
RICHARD CLAGUE, JR. (AMERICAN 1821-1873, ACTIVE NEW ORLEANS 1850-730 "Bayou Settlement", oil on canvas, s.l.r., 20 1/4" x 35 1/4". Note: Clague was the first
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
major Louisiana landscape painter of the 19th century. He is credited for establishing the Louisiana landscape school: among his pupils were N.O. artists William Buck and Marshall J. Smith, Jr. Clague was also an accomplished portrait painter and shared a studio with Paul Poincy. This painting, found in unrestored state, is one of the most superb examples of the mastery of tonal light and color that is found in the best of Clague's work.
Neal Auction Company