Description:
John La Farge (American, 1835-1910)
Nude Woman with Flowers in Her Hair
Initialed "LF" l.r., inscribed "Clarence King..." on the reverse.
Watercolor on paper, sight size 17 1/4 x 13 1/2 in. (43.8 x 34.3 cm),framed.
Condition: Light creases, mild staining and foxing, repaired tears to margins (well away from the image).
Exhibitions: John La Farge, The Union League Club, New York, February 3-28, 1995.
N.B. Geologist and explorer Clarence King, who lived in Newport, was a friend of La Farge's and convinced the artist to travel to the South Seas. In one of his letters, Henry Adams states that La Farge painted "...a sketch of Fang-alo for Clarence King."(i) While the work presented here may not be the work to which Adams was referring, the portrait relates to La Farge's Samoa pictures.
I H. D. Cater, editor, Henry Adams and His Friends: A Collection of His Unpublished Letters (Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 1947),page 217.
Estimate $4,000-6,000