Harry Leith-Ross (American, 1886–1973) Golden Maple

Signed 'Leith-Ross' bottom left; also titled and signed on upper stretcher verso, and pencil signed again on bottom stretcher verso, oil on canvas
20 1/4 x 16 in. (51.4 x 40.6cm)
Executed circa 1929.

Provenance

Maison Auction Company, Wallingford, sale of September 22, 1994, lot 40.
Acquired directly from the above sale.
Collection of Dan Whitaker, Lambertville, New Jersey.

Footnote:

Exhibited

New Haven Paint and Clay Club, New Haven, Connecticut, 1929.

Literature

Erika Jaeger-Smith, Poetry in Design: The Art of Harry Leith-Ross, an exhibition catalogue, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, and University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2006, p. 115 (illustrated).

Note

The present painting depicts a local doctor who performed home visits in Bucks County on a horse-driven cart. Leith-Ross and his wife moved to the area in June 1935, following the advice of the artist's best friend and colleague, John F. Folinsbee.The artist was in awe of the beauty and serenity which the locale offered, as opposed to Woodstock in New York, which grew too noisy and crowded for him. Instead of the other impressionists who often painted in or near New Hope, Leith-Ross almost always preferred to settle his easel on the other side of the river, in Lambertville, where the present work may have been completed.

Condition report:

Frame: 31 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.

The unlined canvas in excellent original condition with no sign of inpainting as seen under UV light. With some prominent craquelure visible in the upper left quadrant of the canvas.