Old Home, Warwick, New York, 1884

Provenance

Ortgies & Co., New York, March 20, 1885, lot 67
Grand Central Art Galleries, Inc., New York, by 1944
IBM Collection, New York, 1944
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, 1968
Jack Tanzer, New York, by 1969
Mrs. Mimi Bloch and Museum Art Exchange, Inc., New York, by 1970
Jack Tanzer, New York, 1970
Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, 1971
Richard York Gallery, New York, 1981
Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, by 1986
Vern Hawn, Shreveport, Louisiana, until 1989
Private collection, Minnesota, acquired from the above, 1989
Richard York Gallery, New York, by 1992
Private collection, from the above
Sale, Christie’s, New York, New York, January 23, 2026, lot 408

Exhibited

National Academy of Design, New York, Autumn Exhibition, 1884, no. 120 (as The Old Home).

Grand Central Art Galleries, Inc., New York, Painters of the United States, 1720-1920: From the Permanent Collection of the Fine Arts Department, International Business Machines Corporation, November 15-December 5, 1951, no. 27.

Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, Twenty-Five American Masterpieces, April 23-May 11, 1968, no. 17.

Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, 19th and 20th Century American Paintings from the Gallery Collection, March 22-April 1, 1972, no. 20.

Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Paintings, November-December 1973, no. 15 (as Warwick, N.Y.—Old Home).

Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, America by Land and Sea, March 9-April 3, 1976.

Richard York Gallery, New York, Inaugural Exhibition: Paintings by Americans, 1981.

Richard York Gallery, New York, Sunset to Dawn: Views of Evening by 19th and Early 20th Century Americans, October 8-November 12, 1983.

Literature

“Academy of Design,” New York Times, November 23, 1884, p. 5 (as The Old Home).

“Important Sale of Cropsey’s Pictures,” New York Daily Tribune, March 18, 1885, p. 5 (as An Old Home).

“Selling J.F. Cropsey’s Works,” New York Times, March 21, 1885, p. 5 (as An Old Home).

“Sale of J.F. Cropsey’s Pictures,” New York Daily Tribune, March 21, 1885, p.4 (as An Old Home).

“Art of the Americas: From Before Columbus to the Present Day, The Age of Romanticism,” Art News Annual, vol. XVIII, no. 1949, p. 86, illustrated (as Old Home).

Grand Central Art Galleries, and International Business Machines Corporation Fine Arts Department. P (Grand Central Galleries, 1951), n.p., no. 27.

Arts Magazine, vol. XLII, May 1968, cover, p. 2, illustrated (as The Old Home).

Advertisement, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Art Journal 27 (Spring 1968), illustrated as The Old Home.

Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, Twenty-Five American Masterpieces, April 23-May 11, 1968, no. 17, illustrated (as The Old Home).

W.S. Talbot, Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823-1900, Exhibition Catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1970, pp. 43-44, illustrated (as Old Home).

S. Talbot, Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823–1900 (PhD diss., 1977), 233, 467, no. 215 (as Old Home).

Richard York Gallery, Inaugural Exhibition: Paintings by Americans, 1981, no. 18, cover illustration.

“The Guide: Art, Galleries Uptown,” New York Times October 16, 1983, p. 20, illustrated (as The Old Home).

Gallati, “Art Reviews: Sunset to Dawn,” Arts Magazine, vol. LVIII, December 1983, p. 40 (as The Old Home).

Ratcliff, “Focus: Adventuring the World of Art and Antiques,” Architectural Digest: The 1984 Art and Antique Annual, 1984, p. 43, illustrated.

Burns, Pastoral Inventions: Rural Life in Nineteenth-Century American Art and Culture, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1989, pp. 262-63, 277, fig. 119, illustrated (as The Old Home).

Berman, “American Art Auction,” Maine Antique Digest, September 1989, p. 30-D.

A.M. Speiser, ed., Jasper Francis Cropsey, Catalogue Raisonné: Works in Oil, 1864-1884, Volume Two, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, 2016, pp. 326-27, no. 1770, illustrated.

Related Works

Landscape with Lake, 1850, oil on canvas, 5 ½ x 9 ⁷⁄₁₆ inches; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas

Greenwood Lake, oil on canvas, 38 x 68 inches, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

Note

The Old Home, Warwick, New York is a masterful composition reflecting Jasper Francis Cropsey’s unique vision of realism, informed by his assured handling of color and delicate modulation of atmosphere. Dominated by overgrown foliage beneath a fiery sunset, the work’s title is owed to the old home nestled in the landscape at center. The vivid sunset may have been influenced by a major meteorological event that took place while Cropsey was completing this painting. On August 27, 1883, the Krakatoa volcano near Java erupted in an unprecedented explosion, sending ash into the atmosphere and dramatically affecting sunsets around the world.[1]

[1] A.M. Speiser, ed., Jasper Francis Cropsey, Catalogue Raisonné: Works in Oil, 1864-1884, Volume Two (Newington-Cropsey Foundation, 2016), 327.