I contacted the seller with a question, and he said he bought it at an estate auction in Frederick, Maryland this November, where seven or eight of Chester's paintings were up for sale. I checked out the auctioneer's website, and to my surprise there was one of the paintings I seem to remember hanging in Ruxton -- "Normandy Milkmaid." It was painted in the 1880s when he lived in France. I guess it was sold, along with a number of other paintings, when Grandma's house was sold, back in the late 1970s? Or could it have been at Uncle Jack's?
The other paintings in the group are listed on the Trout Auctioneer's web page if you scroll down a bit, and additional images can be seen here. Here are several more that I remember -- "Capri Girl," and a study for a stained glass window for the Presbyterian Church in Englewood, New Jersey, where Chester and Sara Dana lived:
While it's lovely to know that our great-grandpa's work is still being bought and appreciated, it's hard to see a part of our family history up for sale. But maybe that's a delayed reaction, since the paintings were originally sold off over 20 years ago. I don't know. Do you all remember these paintings or am I mixing them up with some of the studies and prints I have in his sketchbooks? What do you think?
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I don't think that the girl on the donkey was the one over the mantle. What I do know about it is that it is the one that he painted and won awards for in France. I have articles about it... might even be in French. It should be worth far more than than anything else that has sold. I don't actually remember the others as having been in the house. I do wish that when the house hold was broken up we all had been given the opportunity to save some of the stuff. Ah well... water over the damn. Sandy will be here on Tuesday. I'll run them by him too.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the woman looks vaguely like you. Wierd.
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