Beschreibung:

JOHN LA FARGE (american, 1835-1910) "HOLLYHOCKS: ALTERNATIVE STUDY FOR GLASS FOR HOUSE OF JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN, NEW YORK" Inscribed 'No. 4/prepared for/J.P. Morgan' in upper, left and bottom margins respectively, watercolor over traces of pencil on paper. Executed circa 1881. image: 5 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. (14.6 x 7cm) sheet: 4 x 7 1/8 in. (10.2 x 18.1cm) provenance: The Artist. American Art Association, New York, sale of March 29-31, 1911, lot 864. The Collection of Otto Weir Heinigke Senior, New York, New York (acquired directly from the above). By descent in the family. The Collection of Frederick L. Leuchs, Massachusetts. Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, New York. Patricia & John Roche, New York, New York (acquired directly from the above in 1996). exhibited: "John La Farge: An American Master (1835-1910)," William Vareika Fine Arts, Newport, Rhode Island, July 14 - September 30, 1989 (exhibition no. 43). "American Artists in Japan," Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, New York, May 21 - June 29, 1996. note: In 1881, financier John Pierpont Morgan commissioned John La Farge to create a stainedglass window design for his house on Madison Avenue in New York. Based off of a painting the artist executed in 1863, the window would feature several stems of hollyhock staged in a single plane, similar to the style of Japanese woodblock prints, which La Farge himself collected. This watercolor is a variation study La Farge completed for Morgan's window. According to Hollis Taggart, the proportions and shape of this study imply that it was made for a transom, or at least the upper part of a larger screen. Although the ultimate composition of the window is unknown, it is clear from La Farge's use of shading and bold, contrasting colors that he imagined how rays of light would be cast through the window panes - an effect he knew was crucial to the window's success.