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Corot
to Picasso: French Paintings and Drawings
The core of
the Speed's French paintings from this period came through the
generosity of Minnie Marvin Wheeler (Mrs. Blakemore Wheeler).
An active member of the museum's Board of Governors from 1939
to her death in 1964, she knew of the growing museum's collecting
needs. About 1955, with the guidance of Paul Harris, the museum's
first professional director, and later Addison Franklin Page,
who succeeded him in 1962, Mrs. Wheeler quietly began privately
to collect art, which she intended eventually for the Speed. She
and Mr. Harris developed a list of "name" artists, and
Mr. Harris searched for examples through art dealers in New York.
The names on that list, such as Monet, Courbet, Cassatt, Boudin,
Seurat, and others, show an intention to form a representative
collection of leading modern artists. Although Mrs. Wheeler was
generous in lending works from her collection to the museum, she
always insisted on anonymity. At her death in 1964, she bequeathed
to the museum thirty-five paintings and funds for additional art
purchases.
Others continued
this legacy of connoisseurship, ambition, and generosity, in particular
board member Major General Dillman Rash. In 1998, General Rash
bequeathed to the museum several works of art, including a painting
by Pablo Picasso and a drawing by Henri Matisse, which he and
his late wife Nancy Batson Rash had collected together. The generosity
of Alice Speed Stoll's bequest in 1996 and the Accessions Trust
subsequently established in her memory, coupled with donations
from other individuals and institutions, continued the legacy
by making possible the museum's purchase in 2000 of Paul Cezanne's
Two Apples on a Table. This exhibition is an appreciation of the donors and lenders who have made so many outstanding works available to be enjoyed by the museum's visitors during Millet to Matisse: French Paintings from the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland Millet
to Matisse Drawn from Glasgow’s distinguished Kelvingrove Art Gallery, the exhibition includes 64 paintings rarely seen outside Scotland. Millet to Matisse includes works from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modern periods by such masters as Monet, Renoir, Cassatt, Cézanne, van Gogh, and Picasso. The show will be traveling to only six cities in the United States and Louisville is scheduled as the opening venue. The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts (AFA) and the Glasgow Museums. The presentation in Louisville is sponsored by The Humana Foundation.
 Organized chronologically, Millet to Matisse begins with a selection of canvases from the Barbizon School including Jean- Francois Millet's (1814-1875) monumental treatment of peasant life, Going to Work (1850-51). It also includes several important works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875). The development of Impressionism is represented in landscapes by Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), and Alfred Sisley (1839-1899). Two landscapes by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) show how both artists, though aware of Impressionism, developed their own unique styles. Van Gogh's portrait of Glasgow art dealer Alexander Reid, painted when the two men lived together briefly in Paris in the late 1880s, illustrates the role art dealers played in the formation of the collection at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Reid was one of the major figures responsible for bringing 19th-century French art of distinction to his native Scotland. Georges Seurat's (1859-1891) Boy Sitting on the Grass (about 1882) and The River Banks (about 1883) are among the notable Post-Impressionist works. Pablo Picasso's (1881-1973) The Flower Seller (1901), painted upon his arrival in Paris, and a group of works by Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940) and Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), as well as superb Fauve paintings by André Derain (1880-1954), Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), and Henri Matisse (1869-1954), take the exhibition into the early 20th century. Ticket prices for the exhibition will be announced at a later date and tickets will go on sale in the summer of 2002. Museum members will be offered a significant discount. Ed
Hamilton: From the Other Side Including works from the Speed’s permanent collection and from private local collections From the Other Side celebrates Hamilton’s career from the late 1970s to the present. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Untitled given in memory of Speed Board Member Barbara S. Miller.
Born in Cincinnati in 1947, as a child Ed moved to Louisville with his family and has been a lifelong resident. He graduated from the Louisville School of Art and incorporated Ed Hamilton Studios, Inc. in 1978. Best known for his monuments, which not only represent the heroic struggle against slavery, but also celebrate African-American pride, Hamilton first gained national public attention with the Booker T. Washington Memorial in 1984, and the Joe Louis Memorial in 1986. Since that time he has received many important public commissions, including his celebrated Amistad Memorial, in New Haven, Connecticut and his African-American Civil War Memorial, The Spirit of Freedom, in Washington D.C. Throughout his career, Hamilton has centered his practice upon the question of identity, creating work that, while reflecting his training in the traditions of European and American art, is tempered by a sense of his own African-American roots. In the 1970s and 1980s this interest manifested itself in symbolic form. Utilizing assemblage techniques, Hamilton focused the attention of his viewer’s attention on issues of injustice, exclusion, and historical amnesia. Accompanying the exhibition From the Other Side, there will be a small display of works, in the sculpture court, relating to Hamilton’s monument works.
Other Bodies is an exhibition that brings together contemporary works of art from the Speed Art Museum permanent collection, local private collections, and regional artists. It offers an opportunity to survey how contemporary artists approach the body in their work and also provokes the viewer to consider how we interpret these manifestations. Using a variety of media, the artists in Other Bodies ask the viewer to consider the body as a metaphor. In painting, sculpture, photography, and video, they variously engage us in an exploration of how signs of the body can become meaningful in many different contexts – political, philosophical, psychological and aesthetic. Alongside internationally known artists, such as Dihn Q. Le, Yinka Shonibare, Lorna Simpson, Tony Oursler, Petah Coyne, Cindy Sherman, and Judy Fox, Other Bodies will also include works by regional artists Russel Hulsey, Stephen Irwin, John King, and Louis Zoellar Bickett. Genius
in Wood: Early Kentucky Furniture Drawing on only a small part of the Noe Collection, Genius in Wood explores the diverse expressions of early Kentucky cabinetmaking. Pieces of the collection show a variety of forms and ornamental designs available to consumers during that early period. With their elegant forms and rich inlay, these masterpieces of early Kentucky cabinetmaking reflect both the state’s growing, early nineteenth-century economy and the sophisticated tastes of its wealthy consumers. Although called the “backcountry” Kentucky’s artisans and well-off consumers knew good design. From carefully constructed and inlaid sugar chests to grand tall-case clocks, Genius in Wood highlights these exemplary designs. Masterworks
from the Albertina Drawn from the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria, one of the world’s oldest and most important collections of Master drawings and prints, the exhibition includes 102 works of art by such masters as Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rubens, Rembrandt, and other Italian, French, Dutch, German and Austrian artists. Works included are from the High Renaissance through Rococo periods. The exhibition demonstrates the breadth and uncomparable quality of the Albertina's collection. Representing the German School are three drawings from the priceless Dürer folios: Study with Three Hands, 1494-95; Head of an Angel, 1506; and Virgin Mary, Anne and Christ Child, 1511. These precise and highly rendered studies are typical of the artist’s most important work. The Dutch School includes Farmhouse with a Canal, 1650-51 and Landscape with Windmill, 1650/51, both drawings by Rembrandt, and Ludolf Backhuysen’s dramatic Ship on a Stormy Sea. Also included are such Flemish masterworks as Peter Paul Rubens’ Rubens’ Son Nicholas with a Cap of1626/27 and his Study with Hands and Head of Woman and Man. Highlighted in the rich works of the Italian School are some of the greatest artists of all times. The High Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarotti is represented by Three Standing Male Figures, about 1496, and The Dead Christ Supported by Mary, about 1530. Raphael is also well represented in this exhibition by Study of Heads and Two Women with Children, a study for a fresco in the Stanza dell‘Incendio at the Vatican in Rome. The diverse styles of the French School, ranging from the classicists of the 17th-century to the Rococo period artists of the 18th-century, are also represented in the exhibition. Claude Lorrain’s Thicket with Cliffs is a magnificent work in brown ink, which creates with very frugal means the impression of trees and a cliff with a cave. Nicolas Poussin’s Tiberian Landscape with the Ponte Molle of1626 emphasizes more permanent structures both in the landscape itself and in the philosophical underpinnings of his art. Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Roman Park with Cypresses (1774), has a feathery and romantic quality and emphasizes the leisured classes going about their daily routine, a hallmark of the Rococo. Continuing
the Speed’s mission of bringing great art and people together,
Masterworks from the Albertina allows visitors an intimate
look at the Old Masters’ imagination and creative process
at work. The exhibition is organized by the Albertina and ArtReach
International. The presentation at the Speed is sponsored by Bolla
Wines of Italy. Tickets for the exhibition are $10 and are free
for museum members.
The
education of a young artist in the Renaissance included the study
of drawing on the basis of exemplary works by old masters. More
than in other workshops, Domenico Ghirlandaio and his students
focused on plasticity and modeling, achieved with cross-hatching
executed with a fine pen. Michelangelo was above all influenced
by Giotto and Massaccio, whose compositions were largely determined
by the volume and plasticity of the figures. The Louvre and the
Graphische Sammlung in Munich have such drawings by Michelangelo,
and following Vasari’s lead, art historians view the front
side of this sheet from the Albertina as a drawing after a figure
from Massaccio’s Blessing of Mary, a fresco in the
Brancacci chapel in Sta. Maria del Carmine in Florence that no
longer exists today. Alternatively, it could be a copy of an otherwise
unknown work by Ghirlandaio. Despite the weaknesses characteristic
for a young artist where the mastery of proportions is concerned
– for instance in the area of the left upper arm of the figure
on the back of this drawing – Michelangelo had already surpassed
his master in his youth. In place of silver point, Ghirlandaio’s
preferred medium, the possibilities of the reed pen allowed Michelangelo
to create very fine transitions and subtle chiaroscuro effects
by applying varying pressure and varying density in the hatching.
The
precision of line and the tonality achieved with the hardness
of the red chalk pencil make it an ideal medium for the detailed
depiction and modeling of the human figure. This study is characterized
by the subtly nuanced plasticity accomplished with the red chalk
pencil and understanding for the weight and burden of a lifeless
body. In academic literature, it is considered to be closely connected
with Michelangelo’s last sculpture, the Pieta Rondanini,
which today is in the Castello Sforzesco. The sculpture was created
between 1555 and 1564 and was never completed. But the traditional
attribution of this Albertina drawing, its intended purpose, and
date are still the subject of controversial discussion in literature.
Aside from the comparability of the figure of the dead Christ
with crucifixion groups known to be by Michelangelo in the Louvre
and in Windsor Castle, the linear draftsmanship of the figure
of Mary supporting the corpse suggests that it is a late work
by Michelangelo. Not only was his late period influenced by religious
mysticism; it is also characterized by a certain ambiguity that
was typical for his time. It remains unclear whether the drawing
is meant to depict a pieta inspired by Medieval sculptures, the
descent from the cross, or the entombment.
Raphael
was the youngest of the trio of geniuses that included Leonardo
da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Together they defined the
High Renaissance in Italy. Raphael came to Florence from Perugia
and took significant inspiration from the works of his two older
contemporaries, as documented by his drawings after Michelangelo’s
David in the Ashmolean Museum and the British Museum, and
after Leonardo’s painting Leda with the Swan in Windsor
Castle. This Albertina drawing is also a sheet of sketches on
which Raphael recorded works that to him appeared important. For
example, the half-length figure of the old man in the upper part
of the drawing was freely based on Michelangelo’s unfinished
St. Matthew from a drawing now in the British Museum that Raphael
must have seen in Florence. It could be that Raphael intended
this figure to be a man bound with a rope, but no later rendition
has been identified to date. At the same time, the other, only
sketchily indicated details on the Albertina sheet reflect Raphael’s
direct study of antique monuments or an indirect familiarity with
antique settings through contemporary engravings. This would suggest
that the sheet was reused in Rome, presumably as part of a sketchbook
he had started in Florence.
The
attribution of this Albertina drawing is sometimes disputed. It
was produced in preparation for the group of figures in the center
of the Fire in the Borgo fresco in the Vatican. In this
fresco, Raphael was describing an event from the life of the Pope
Leo IV, recalling the achievements of Pope Leo X’s namesake
on the occasion of the latter’s enthronement. Preliminary
drawings and the paintings executed after them by an artist sometimes
vary quite substantially. In this case, for instance, aside from
the lack of the kneeling figure seen from the back in the fresco,
the drawing diverges in several details such as the gesture of
the kneeling figure in the foreground from the group of figures
in the final painting. This is why some historians have suggested
that it is a copy by Raphael’s student Giulio Romano. But
the sense of physical weight in the kneeling figure, the elegant
play of lines, the union of sensitive affection between the mother
and child, and the dynamic and decisive gesture of the kneeling
figure pointing to the left clearly speak for Raphael. The natural
fall of the cloth in the figure’s garments indicate that
the drawing is a study from life. It is possible that the group
of figures in the Albertina drawing originally appeared in a different
position in the fresco; the modified gesture of the kneeling figure
would support this assumption.
The
Hundred Guilder Print, of which only two slightly different
states are known, was long considered one of Rembrandt’s
most sophisticated and complicated compositions. The fact that
this etching occasionally fetched more than one hundred guilders
is documented in a source from 1654. The representation refers
to several passages in the Chapter 19 of the Gospel of Matthew:
The healing of the sick, the blessing of the children, the punishment
of the apostles, and the story of the rich young man. The figures
are arranged in groups; their positions and gestures are carefully
balanced against each other. At the same time, they are concentrating
on the figure of Christ, who towers above them all. This composition,
defined as it is by atmospheric moods and subtle chiaroscuro effects,
reveals the entire range of the artist’s technical genius.
It is just as apparent in the richly nuanced treatment of cloth
textures as in the way the play of the lines concisely characterizes
the subject. Because of the many additions and corrections executed
in drypoint, it is assumed that Rembrandt worked on this ambitious
project for several years. In consideration of its high artistic
and technical standards, the Hundred Guilder Print unquestionably
ranks on par with the Nightwatch (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum),
which was completed in 1642.
The
three motifs on this sheet have no coherence with each other.
Only the lower portion with the two versions of a pair of folded
hands exhibits a connection with a painting. They are the hands
of the figure of Mary on the left wing of an alterpiece. The central
panel depicted the Raising of the Cross. Rubens had produced this
work in 1609/10 for the Walpurgis Church in Antwerp. In 1815,
after it had been temporarily taken to Paris, it was set up in
the Antwerp Cathedral. Stylistically, the male head resembles
a series of early Antwerp portraits of men (after 1609), while
the female head in profile has been compared with the painting
Tiberius and Agrippina (Washington, National Gallery).
Counter to a hypothesis proposed earlier (exhibition catalogue,
Vienna, 1977), the sheet probably was not cut apart until after
the studies were drawn; the minimal displacement and breakage
along the line where the pieces were separated seem to support
this assumption. This practice was nothing unusual in Ruben’s
studio, where studies were used for different projects. The sheet
may have been put back together again in the workshop or at a
later date.
Portrait drawings – among them several depictions of the artist’s family members – form the core of the Albertina’s world-famous Ruben’s collection. The identity of this portrait was determined on the basis of the unmistakable similarities with the facial features of Nicholas in the famous double portrait of Albert and Nicholas Rubens in the Liechtensteinische Gemaldegalerie in Vaduz. This portrait painting is dated between 1625 and 1627, so the boy in the drawing must have been between seven and nine years old. Carefully
executed portrait drawings like these reflecting the artist’s
private life were most likely not created as preliminary studies
but for his personal gratification. In an unequalled manner, Rubens
used the trios-crayons or three-chalk technique in order to contrast
the different surface structures that are each defined by subtle
lighting effects. He used powerful, red chalk lines to render
the heavier cloth of the coat and cap and sharp, black, wavy lines
for the curly hair. The face, in turn, is modeled with fine, superimposed
hatching in red and black and accentuated with white heightening.
Beyond the brilliant mastery of technique, the drawing demonstrates
the artist’s special talent for capturing the essence of
the persons depicted, especially when he had a close personal
connection to them.
Albrecht Durer was already highly regarded as an artist during his lifetime, and his fame never faded throughout the centuries following his death. This is why such an abundance of his drawings have been preserved. About one thousand drawings by Durer are known to us today, a number that due to the controversial ascription of numerous sheets is always subject to a certain degree of fluctuation. The largest collections of securely attributed drawings by Albrecht Durer are in the British Museum in London (approx. 130 sheets), the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin (approx. 120 sheets), and the Albertina in Vienna (approx. 130 sheets). Durer’s drawings were for the most part made in preparation for all types of works in his artistic oeuvre, including paintings, woodcuts, and copper engravings. There are rapid preliminary sketches putting ideas to paper, compositional sketches, meticulous detail studies, and fully developed preliminary drawings. Durer’s nature studies form one of the highlights among them. They were often produced without a specific purpose in mind. The scope of works by Durer in the Albertina makes it possible to present exceptional examples from the wide variety of drawings in his oeuvre. The sheet Study with Three Hands was first published immediately after it was acquired in 1932 and has been viewed in context with early, stylistically related self-portraits by the artist. A comparison with the Erlangen Self-Portrait (Universitatsbibliothek Erlangen) and Self-Portrait, Study of a Hand, and a Pillow (Lehmann Collection, Metropolitan Museum), which is dated on the back 1493, made it possible to identify the drawing as studies of the artist’s left hand and also provided the timeframe for dating it. The Vienna sheet, considered more advanced in skill and more carefully executed, is presumed to have been produced around 1494/95. The
tremendous appeal of this early self-observation of Durer is based
on an “ingenious” combination of external form and content:
they are exact studies of the artist’s hand and were rendered
with dynamic, highly valuable sequences of lines. The cutout quality
of the hands and their placement on the sheet of paper were consciously
chosen. The expressive gesture of each individual jand can be
interpreted on the basis of the pictorial language of the Middle
Ages. We see the graceful hand of a suitor holding a flower, the
pointing hand with an outstretched index finger, and next to it
one of the most recognized but also most vulgar hand movements
since ancient times.
When
Albrecht Durer left for his second trip to Italy in 1505 he had
already gained a good reputation there as a printmaker –
primarily as an engraver – but the Italians were not convinced
of his achievements as a painter. When the German community in
Venice commissioned Durer to paint The Feast of the Rose Garlands
(1506; now in the National Gallery in Prague) for St. Bartholomew’s
in Venice, it was therefore a tremendous challenge for the artist,
and he mastered it triumphantly. He prepared for this painting
with great care and in the process adopted the practice of Venetian
artists to execute detail studies on blue Venetian paper (carta
azzurra). In these brush drawings in dark gray ink with white
heightening, composed in proportion to the painting, the artist
achieved highly sensitive painterly values. The Head of an
Angel, a detail study for the angel playing the lute in The
Feast of the Rose Garlands, is perhaps the most touching work
among the many known preliminary drawings for this painting (at
least 22). Calm and pensive, the angel is turning its serenely
beautiful face up to the heavens as it listens to the music.
The design for the woodcut Holy Family shows Albrecht Durer at the height of his graphic capability and inventiveness. The Christ child is in the center; Mary is holding him out to her mother Anne. To the left behind Mary is Joseph, and above Anne’s head her husband Joachim. Other figures are gathered around him. A powerful tree trunk, symbolizing the significance and power of the delicate Christ child, is towering above the group and accentuating it. In fully confident and yet extremely sparse strokes, enlivened by areas of light and shadow, Durer mastered this group composition with utmost persuasiveness. The rhythmic interplay of the figures and the bold alterations in the proportions establish a perfect connection between the individual figures. In executing the woodcut, Durer limited himself to one pair of figures on either side of the Christ child, probably in the interest of achieving greater readability.
A Bountiful
Plenty from the Shelburne Museum: Folk Art Traditions in America From the Shelburne Museum, home to one of America’s most outstanding folk art collections, this exhibition features 85 works, including trade signs, cigar store figures, carousel figures, weathervanes, ships’ carvings, scrimshaw, decoys, quilts, furniture, paintings, and sculptures from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The exhibition
interprets the original context and function of the objects and
explores folk art’s role in the development
of modern American art. Artists represented include Edward Hicks,
Erastus Salisbury Field, William Matthew Prior, Grandma Moses,
Samuel Robb, John Crowell, Wilhelm Schimmel, and James Lombard.
A Bountiful Plenty is organized by the Shelburne Art Museum
and the Trust for Museum Exhibitions. Tickets for the exhibition
are $7 and are free for museum members. Still life
painting in America flourished in the mid-19th century when paintings
like this one were sometimes copied from prints or “how to
paint” manuals. Many still lifes share a similar composition
of a large central bowl filled with apples or pears balanced on
either side with other fruits. The inclusion of watermelons suggests
this is an American painting; watermelons rarely appear in 19th
century European paintings and were considered a uniquely American
fruit. The unknown artist’s highly stylized use of color
and line gives the painting its unique character and makes it
one of the most highly prized folk art pictures in the Shelburne
Museum’s collection.
This sign,
individualized with the optician’s name, used to hang in
Manchester Center, Vermont. It survives with its polychrome and
gilding, a reminder that most of the folk art in the Shelburne
Museum’s collection was once vibrantly painted.
Baltimore-style album quilts, made by professional seamstresses and skilled amateurs alike, are known for the excellence of their craftsmanship, their use of elegant fabrics, and the overall harmony of their design. In the mid-19th century, Baltimore was the second-largest port in America. Quiltmakers took advantage of the wide variety of printed textiles available and skillfully used them in distinctive multi-layered appliqué, such as that shown here. The two eagle blocks and the monument at the top center illustrate the use of the popular rainbow fabric to provide shading and texture to the images. The quilt
commemorates the military hero Major Samuel Ringgold. He was born
in Washington County, Maryland, in 1800 and died on May 11, 1846,
from a cannon ball wound received at the Battle of Palo Alto in
the Mexican-American War. His body was returned to Baltimore and
buried with military honors on December 22, 1846.
Purchased
from the antiques dealers Jones & Erwin, 1952 The Shelburne Museum’s carousel was originally built a hundred years ago for the Sacandaga Amusement Park at the end of the rail line in Northville, New York. It was owned by the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad Co. Railroads often established such parks to attract passengers. In Dentzel’s large workshop, several carvers worked on different parts of an animal, but the master carver in these cases, Daniel Muller, always carved the head and did much of the detailed finishing work. Daniel Muller was the most gifted of Dentzel’s carvers and designed and drew the patterns for many figures. In 1952 when
the Dentzel carousel was first offered to Mrs. Webb for the museum,
she initially feared a carousel (any carousel) might not be good
enough for the Shelburne’s collection. But, as she later
related, she had a dream about her family enjoying a carousel
ride, and purchased it so that museum visitors could enjoy the
carousel, which they do, at least visually, because it is not
ridden.
During the 19th century a rare group of chests, including this one, decorated with red buildings, were sometimes called Harvard chests because the painted images were thought (mistakenly) to be the brick buildings at that university. The colored motifs, painted on a black ground, simulate the expensive lacquer furniture from Asia that was fashionable at this time. The western technique is known as “japanning.” This chest is part of a small but impressive group of furniture that was probably made in the Boston area, where, by the early 18th century, more than a dozen craftsmen in “japanned” furniture were active. Katherine
Prentis Murphy, who gave the chest to the Shelburne Museum, was
a dear friend of Electra Webb, and a mush respected collector
in her own right. She gave the Shelburne Museum over a hundred
objects to furnish an 18th century Massachusetts house. Mrs. Webb
moved the house to the museum specifically to hold her friend’s
generous donation and named it for her – Prentis House.
This portrait was painted after its subject had died; the portraitist, Joseph Whiting Stock, recorded in his journal that he was commissioned to paint the portrait of “Henrietta Russell corpse…” for $16. This was not an unusual practice in an age when many young children died before reaching maturity. For grieving parents the portrait would be the only visual record of their child. Like many 19th century artists, Stock traveled from town to town in search of business. Paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair, he painted almost a thousand portraits of individuals from all over New England. By painting
the carpeted floor so that it appears more vertical than horizontal,
Stock seems to reject the convention of three-dimensional illusionism.
However, the rest of this highly detailed picture is painted with
a strong interest in depth and perspective.
Crowell is considered one of the most gifted American decoy makers. He worked without assistance, both carving and painting his decoys. He made three grades of birds; his best-grade decoys were carved with their wings lifted up from their bodies, as in his Black Duck. Apart from a few drawing classes, Crowell, who began making decoys when he was ten, was largely self-taught. This is an example of the best of his three grades of decoys. It was originally used for luring birds while hunting along the northeast Atlantic coast. The detailing of the tail feathers and the bird’s finely shaped head are distinctive of Cromwell’s carving. In 1914 the Boston Sunday Globe called his pieces the “best decoys produced by hand in any workshop.”
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