Lot 434: John Roderick Dempster MacKenzie

John Roderick Dempster MacKenzie (American/Alabama, 1865-1941), "Scene in Benares, India", 1904, oil on panel, signed, inscribed and dated "Benares 1904" lower left, 6 in. x 3 3/4 in., in a period cove-molded giltwood and gesso frame. Note: Born in London, artist and muralist John Roderick Dempster MacKenzie spent part of his youth in a Mobile, Alabama orphanage, and went on to study at some of the finest schools in the United States and France. He later spent much time in India. He returned to Mobile, where he executed a widely acclaimed series of pastel drawings and paintings of the steel mills in Birmingham, Alabama. During his lifetime he was considered one of Alabama's most important artists. In 1892, MacKenzie and his wife traveled to India at the request of art dealers in Calcutta who wanted him to paint pictures of tigers and jungles that were popular at the time. They spent the next fourteen years in India, and MacKenzie received commissions for state and ceremonial portraits and elab rately staged hunts. He painted and made prints of the peoples and sights of India including market scenes, temples and the Taj Mahal. The editors of Men and Women in India labeled him the best artist in Asia in 1905 The 1904 work offered here depicts a scene along the river in Benares. Softly rendered in muted tones, figures sit on a wall along the river while boats are active on the water. After MacKenzie's return to Europe in 1906, these works created in India were exhibited in London and Paris. The Mobile Museum of Art presented a retrospective exhibition of his work in 1997 Reference: John Roderick Dempster MacKenzie (1865-1941): A Retrospective, Mobile Museum of Art, 1997 www.encyclopediaofalabama.org.