Lot 152: Jerome Thompson (1814-1886)

Jerome Thompson (1814-1886)
Youth
signed and dated 'Jerome Thompson/1875' (lower left)
oil on canvas
35 x 52 in. (88.9 x 132.1 cm.)

Albany, New York, Executive Mansion, on loan, 1983-1988.

L.M. Edwards, "The Life and Career of Jerome Thompson," The American Art Journal, vol. 14, no. 4, Autumn 1982, pp. 24-6, illustrated.
I.K. Savell,"Forty Rooms, View of White House," New York Alive, n.d., p. 41, illustrated.

Alexander Gallery, New York.
Gloria and Richard Manney.
Sotheby's, New York, 27 May 1993, lot 191.
Sotheby's, New York, 23 March 2005, lot 39.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE SOUTHERN COLLECTOR

Lee Edwards writes about the present work and the following lot: "In 1874 and 1875, Thompson painted a pair of allegorical pictures, Youth and Old Age, in which both the imagery and the subject matter pay conscious homage to Thomas Cole. Thompson's iconography in Youth (the angel, the pagoda in the sky, the exotic setting) is clearly inspired by comparable imagery in Thomas Cole's Youth (1840) from the Voyage of Life series (Munson-Williams Proctor Institute) which was well known from engravings. Thompson may also have seen Cole's Cross of the World series. Finished pictures from the group were exhibited in 1874 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)." ("The Life and Career of Jerome Thompson," The American Art Journal, vol. 14, no. 4, Autumn 1982, p. 26)