Lot 169: PROPERTY OF OTHER PRIVATE OWNERS JOHN LEWIS KRIMMEL 1787-1821 GOING TO MARKET-THE DISASTER,

PROPERTY OF OTHER PRIVATE OWNERS JOHN LEWIS KRIMMEL 1787-1821 GOING TO MARKET-THE DISASTER, 1811-1821

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

(Possibly) purchsed from the artist by Zachariah Poulson, Jr. (1761-1844), Philadelphia; decended in the Poulson family.

Exerted from Milo Naeve, John Lewis Krimmel: An artist in Federal America, (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1987)

EXHIBITED

1812 (Philadelphia): Second Annual Exhibition of the Society of Artists of the United States and the Pennsylvania Academy, No. 113, Titled "The Accident", presumably owned by the artist because no owner listed.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Schwarz Gallery, American Paintings, Philadelphia Collection, LXXII, autumn, 2003 item 12
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Milo Naeve, John Lewis Krimmel, op.cit. p. 91, no.28
CATALOGUE NOTE

John Lewis Krimmel was born in Ebingen, a small ducy of Wurttenburg, Germany near Stuttgart, 1787. He immigrated to Philadelphia in 1809 at the age of 23. Krimmel's career was cut short by his early death from drowning in the Wissahickon Creek while visitng several friends in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1821. (Naeve, Milo M. & Harding, Anneliese).

Known as the "American Hogarth" because of his genre scenes of everyday nineteenth century life, John Krimmel is regarded as the first, American professional genre painter. His subjects were both humorous and moralistic and often were serious commentary on everyday experiences. (Ask.art.com, Dunbier, Robert)

"In 1812, Krimmel identified himself as a portrait painter and entered three paintings in the Second Annual Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy. The subject matter of two entries, The Contrast (No. 17) and The Accident (no. 16) cannot be identified. The third, View of Centre Square on the 4th of July (no. 1), is Krimmel's earliest painting known to survive." (Naeve, Milo M.)

Krimmel entered the artistic life of Philadelphia through the Society of Artists of the United States, which he joined in the spring of 1811. He also belonged to the Columbian Society of Artists, joining in 1813 and the Association of American Artists, 1819. It appears he joined the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, founded by Charles Willson Peale, in 1811, though no specific documentation exists other than his participation in exhibitions, which they cosponsered. (Naeve, Milo M.)

While in Philadelphia, Krimmel became a member of a sketch club, which was active in late 1812. Thomas Sully organized it, and other members included Rembrandt Peale, Charles Bird King, Gideon Fairman, William Greene, and John Clifton. They met weekly at Sully's studio. Their study included executing, within two hours, a drawing inspired by a passage selected at random from a book.

A sketch in oils on an inexpensive and convenient wooden panel completed Krimmel's studies for a composition. An example survives for a painting entitled The Return from Market. In this study and two others of the same type recorded through photographs but for which the location is unknown, Krimmel used broad and rapidly executed strokes to indicate the placement and color of every element in the composition. When a painting had been planned in detail, Krimmel proceeded to his final version in oils on canvas. Krimmel consistently used certain basic colors for oil paintings. He favored brown and light tan, dark blue and light blue, red and pink, dark green and light green, and medium yellow. (Naeve, Milo M.)

John Lewis Krimmel's Sketchbook 7 page 9, (vertical) top half: Ink over pencil composition study for the painting entitled The Return from the Market. Several recorded works by Krimmel are related to this subject. Page 17 (horizontal with page upside down) left: Pencil sketch of a man standing before a carriage with a horse, one woman standing beside the carriage either handing a basket to the man or receiving it. Sketchbook 2 pages 3,5 and 9 also contain compostitional studies for this work. (Naeve, Milo M. & Harding, Anneliese, Winterthur Books)

Krimmel's estate and artwork was rapidly disbursed. His belongings had been inventoried immediately after his death, and later in the summer most were auctioned off to pay his debts, both standard procedures for the time. The list of goods itemized in the sale advertised appeared in Poulson's Daily Advertiser, from August 7 to 14, 1821. In addition, the full listing is itemized in the biographis done by Anneliese Harding for Winterthur Books and Milo M. Naeve's, John Lewis Krimmel, An Artist in Federal America.

By Spring 1819 Krimmel was actively painting, but because buyers for his American scenes of ordinary life were few, he was also taking on portrait commissions and teaching drawing at a local school. The first of the portrait commissions may have been that of Mary Poulson, daughter of Zachariah and Susanna Poulson. According to a calendar Krimmel penned on the inside back cover of sketchbook 6, on May 27, 1819, she stopped by his studio; her parents, Zachariah and Susanna Poulson, visited the following day, probably to make financial arrangements and to inspect Krimmel's work. (Harding, Annelise, WInterthur Books)

Original Owner of Painting: Zachariah Poulson, Jr.
Born, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 5, 1761
Died: July 31, 1844
Zachariah Poulson, the younger, owner, editor, publisher, and proprietor of Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, son of Zachariah the elder was born in Philadelphia, September 5, 1761, and died at his residence, 106 Chestnut Street, July 31, 1844.

16 3/8 by 19 3/8in.<br><br>43.2 by 48.3cm