Collector Auction, December 28, 2019
One Percent Inspiration
He heard a resounding thud. And another sound, like the squeal of a mouse. Then nothing. Elizabeth? he called. Silence. Elizabeth! He turned and stared at the open doorway. The morning sun blinded him. All he could see was an empty door frame. Elizabeth! he yelled. His voice rose. He leapt toward the opening. There, before him, lay the barn door. And, on one side, a child's hand protruded. No! No! His primal utterance alerted his wife. She ran from the house. Together they tossed the door off their daughter. Liza! Liza! cried Elise, my poor Liza. Edward cradled the girl in his arms and hurried back to the house. He lay her on a table. Not a breath. Not a blemish. Life simply extracted from her body.
Edward Redfield (1869-1965), oil on canvas.
View from the artist's studio, Center Bridge, Bucks County, PA.
Painting fragment retrieved from a canvas cutdown by Redfield. 17" x 40"
Stillness shuddered their souls. Her body glowed white. The blended primary colors of light, now lifeless. Elise collapsed. She had lost her first child in a prior marriage to a premature birth. Now this, her second. She felt herself sinking. Her thoughts unwinding. A perpetual spin downwards. She fought the emotion, but still, the room moved. She sank into a chair, muttering, into a place no human should enter. For Edward, staring at the colorless body, the weight on his shoulders was crushing. The horror, severe. An arrow pierced his heart, and would remain there his entire life.
Signed Benard Badura frames the Redfield Center Bridge landscape.
Archivist's Unite
All the trappings were familiar. Evidence of a life much appreciated. Furniture of walnut, mahogany, cherry. Oriental rugs exploding across a rainbow spectrum. Framed artwork, prints, and certificates attesting to personal achievement. Shelves loaded with memories. Stories linked to each piece. Life very much lived. Books are the best barometer. Color in the cover, sleeves, jackets tell much about a person, all noted on a human barometric scale. Despite all this enrichment, what stood out were the boxes strewn across tables, chairs, the floor. Aged cardboard, dry, darkened, disintegrating, were notes to a musician's score. In this case, a symphony.
From the Redfield studio in Center Bridge.
Best to the Harvey's, E. W. Redfield
May 12, [19]60. 7 1/2" x 9 1/2".
My parents purchased the Redfield house after his death. At the end of life, items are reviewed, retrieved, some dismissed, often discarded. On a decedent's dinner table, the first to go is the gravy, then the mashed potatoes. No one wants the peelings in the kitchen sink. These boxes had been stacked away, forgotten. A miracle they survived a dumpster. Now, surrounding us, were sketches, ledger books, art show catalogs, and the best, notes in the artist's handwriting. In short, the man.
To Edward W. Redfield from Samuel T. Shaw, 1919. A dinner to honor Henry B. Snell by Samuel Shaw, Salmagundi Club, March 6. The sponsored annual dinner by Sam Shaw was held for fifty years. Mr. Shaw, owner of Grant Union Hotel located on the southeast corner of 42nd & Park Avenue, NYC, displayed his purchased paintings throughout his facility. The dinner was just another example of his benevolence to a group he admired. At the festivities, he awarded a yearly Shaw Prize to the winner of his painting competition. The evening was a highlight for all involved.
Perhaps one of Edward Redfield's more famous acts was to cutdown his large canvases to create smaller, more appealing, landscapes. Ones that sold. Here were the patinated stretchers, with painting fragments still clinging. One could study his brush strokes, his palette choice, his genius. But what we learned was not the style in his hand, or the pigment in his paint. These have been analyzed exhaustively. No, here we find the spark. Prometheus's gift. The mystery beckoned.
Excerpt Edward Redfield's ledger book detailing his recollection of painting the Center Bridge bridge fire. The book also lists in detail paintings sent to various art galleries plus prices. Dates from 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition to 1959. Post recollections also.
Charcoal study tucked inside a paper sleeve. Written on sleeve - E.W. Redfield drawing, student work c. 1889. Edward studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia along with Robert Henri & Alexander Stirling Calder. 11" x 7 1/8".
Carpe Diem
The winter day was blustering. Edward Redfield stood before his easel. Bitter cold and a north wind could not dislodge his commitment. His credo was capturing life in the moment, conditions be damned. The better subjects were winter. Contrasting colors. White landscapes against blue skies. And all that was added in between. Fresh. Crisp. Spot on. Redfield embraced the en plein air method. Many days, year-round, he would walk from his home in Center Bridge, Bucks County, and select a subject, a perspective. From that moment, he would not leave until a painting filled his canvas. Grueling. Challenging. His paintings are remarkable. Canvas after canvas exuded vibrancy and joie de vivre few could equal. Lean years were foundation for later years when his paintings rose to cultural acceptance, selling in galleries throughout the United States. Still, despite the success, his sense of place was holding his palette in the fields and hills near his home. Magnetically, he remained in Center Bridge, surrounded by Elise and all their children.
An interesting discovery tucked away in time - Edward Redfield's tin painting kit and brushes.
Like 88 keys on a piano, colors will strike a chord. In music, as in painting, it all rests in the hands of the maestro.
Walking a Thin Line
Victor Hugo sat down at a café with his mistress, Juliette Drouet. The September breeze felt warm. Here, in southern France, the sun still carried summer, the coolness of autumn yet to enter these climes. Juliette handed Victor the daily newspaper as she ordered coffee. Merci mon amour he said without looking up. He glanced across the columns and stopped. His eyes fixed, first in focus, then in horror. Mon Dieu! He sat back reflexively. Tears burst from his eyes. Victor! Victor! cried Juliette, qui est mal? The newspaper dropped from his grasp. C'est Léopoldine. Elle est morte. He slumped as Juliette and surrounding patrons rushed to his side.
Daniel Garber painted tin. Family provenance explains this covered tin was purchased at a fund raiser for the St. Philips Chapel on River Road above New Hope. Daniel Garber's daughter attended St. Philips and offered this box to sell. My mother, Gertrude Wallwork, purchased the can at the time. The words of Gwendolyn Wallwork Grimm, recorded on paper accompanying the tin (May 25, 2014). She believes her mother bought the tin in the early 1960's.
September. 1843. The famed author had just learned about the death of his favorite daughter. Nineteen years old and life snuffed. The boat she and her newly married husband, Charles, had been riding capsized on the Seine. She sank from the weight of her garments. Charles suffered the same fate diving in after her. The personal tragedy only aggravated Hugo's political banishment from Paris and surrounds by Napoleon III. He was barred from her funeral. Here was a literary legend, known for his poems and drama, and to date, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This book made him a household name. But this would not be the work earning him adoration worldwide, far beyond political pettiness. That would come later, at a cost few would be willing to pay.
The gift of wisdom. Edward VIII sterling owl place card holders, Chester, 1905 [30.]
Parallel Universe
Both Victor Hugo and Edward Redfield were highly intelligent men. This, and their aptitude for creativity, unite these kindred souls. In the death of their respective children, we see commonality, the outpouring of injured souls. Les Misérables is a masterpiece, a message ringing across humanity. Its adaptation onto stage and screen reinforces its longevity.
Sub-Sahara Africa Qur'an, nineteenth century.
Tooled calf leather binding containing loose leafs for distribution and study.
Camel leather carry bag decorated with woven leather roundels.
Jean Valjean, the lead character, spends a lifetime evading Inspector Javert. Jean has already spent nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. His release and subsequent actions earn him Javert's unwavering wrath. The pursuit is on. Fantine, a victim of misfortune, dies leaving an orphan daughter, Cosette. Jean Valjean steps in to protect the child, all the while avoiding Javert. Years pass in this cat and mouse game. The story climaxes as revolution sweeps the streets of Paris. Now a grown woman, Cosette falls in love with Marius, a revolutionary. This all leads to the final stand at the barricade, involving all the conflicting characters. Marius, believed dead, is rescued by Jean Valjean who carries the lifeless body through Parisian sewers, thus saving his life. In Jean Valjean we see Victor Hugo. Because Victor was helpless in saving his daughter Léopoldine and her husband Charles from drowning in life, he did so in fiction, setting them in a place where they would live forever. And they have. The parallel between navigating the Paris sewers versus the Seine where his child died cannot be denied. This, and the mention Jean Valjean spent nineteen years in prison for a petty crime, the age Léopolde lost her life, underscores the author's pain. This, the license in literature.
From the African Qur'an, pen & ink text with watercolor illustrations. Very much first cousins to Pennsylvania German fraktur. Somewhere, long ago, we started as one. Shared customs and rituals unite us all as humans.
The Red Violin
Study a timeline of Edward Redfield's paintings. A curious pattern emerges. Up to and immediately following daughter Liza's death, Redfield paints a muted tonal palette. Within a year plus, his paintings take a bold step forward. They awaken, in color, in excitement, captured in short brush strokes. Edward reaches a level en plein air few artists equal. Living is in the moment. He's not just composing a melody, he is orchestrating his full symphony. Some admirers of his artwork claim they could step right into his landscapes. Perhaps somebody already has. Edward Redfield breathes life into his paintings as he couldn't into Liza's colorless body. Liza still lives, in each hue, in each burst of energy. Redfield's paintings carry the exuberance of youth. As Victor Hugo gave life back to his child, so too did Edward Redfield. In 1947, Redfield's wife Elise died. He promptly burned 700 paintings. The action of a madman? He writes the paintings did not measure up to his standards. Knowing what his standards really were, his action focuses clear.
Brochure published circa 1923-25 to raise awareness for replacing the Stockton-Center Bridge wooden structure lost to lightning on July 22, 1923. From Edward Redfield's ledger excerpt illustrated above, we learn in his own handwriting - Burning of Center Bridge, memory painted next day.
What separates one artist from another, one writer from another? It resides somewhere between how life's tragedies are handled, then ultimately manifested. Both Victor Hugo and Edward Redfield were touched by Promotheus's gift. What they accomplished was immortality.
Miniature Victorian tortoise shell photo album, for memories of your own.
Much to see on December 28th. though equally more to ponder.
Doors open at 8 AM. Auction starts at 9 AM PA AU 1265L [bb]