Lot 294: *LEGRAND BOTSFORD (1860-1937)

WHERE MAN HATH TOILED, TIME HATH DIGNIFIED oil on oilcloth initialed L.W.B., l.l., signed LeGrand Botsford on the reverse. Depicting the D & H canal lock at Ellenville, New York. Inscribed on the back in pencil, Where Man Hath Toiled, Time Hath Dignified. Commenced painting Thursday 4th Sept. 1897, and finished Oct. 4th 1898. LeGrand Botsford. This image was painted while Botsford was residing at the artist's colony of Cragsmoor, located in Ulster County, New York. Founded in the early 1870s by Edward Lamson Henry, William H. Beard, J.G. Brown and Eliza Greatorex, the colony provided a haven for artists who wanted to escape the heat and dirt of the cities in the summer, and word quickly spread about the natural wonders and grandeur the area provided. The sweeping vistas painted by the artists of the Hudson River School were not as popular at the time as settings where people predominated; the artists at Cragsmoor specialized in the latter, as their mountain getaway was a wonderful source of scenic beauty and local characters. Cragsmoor never attracted the traditional struggling artist with little or no recognition; on the contrary, artists of note such as Botsford, George Innes and Charles Curran, who were already prosperous, were the ones who made their summer homes among the splendor of the upstate New York scenery. Prov: Naomi and Herald Garritt, Cragsmoor, New York