LEWIS THOMAS IVES LITTLE GIRL STORYBOOK OIL PAINTING

Lewis Thomas Ives
American, 1833 - 1894
The Storybook
Signed: L.T. Ives 1889 (lower center left);
Oil on Canvas (relined)
25 x 30 inches
Condition report: Very good to excellent; 97% original surface paint. 3% in-paint. Very minor crazing throughout, yellowing to varnish. Otherwise excellent.

Additional Notes: Housed in a contemporary hand craved gilt wooden frame.


PROVENANCE:
Skinner Inc. Marlborough; 11/18/05; Lot: 149 with a presale estimate of $800 – 1,200 USD – SOLD: $1,175.00 USD

ARTIST BIO:
Lewis Thomas Ives (1833-1894), portrait artist in Detroit from 1852-94, was born August 3, 1833, at or near Rochester, New York to Eardly and Ann (Wood) Ives.

Lewis Ives was an attorney who painted in his spare time and eventually left the practice of law to devote all his time to art. He studied in Paris and Rome under Willian Page. He married Margaret Leggett, 1860, in Detroit, and they had two sons, Percy Ives, who became an artist, and Dr. Augustus W. Ives,

Lewis Ives painted many portraits of dignitaries from Detroit, Michigan and Massachusetts. He was commissioned to do a portrait of Grover Cleveland, but died before its completion The painting was later finished by his son, Percy Ives. A room at the Detroit Institute of Art is named after Lewis Ives who died in Detroit on December 13,1894.

Exhibition venues include Detroit's first art exhibition, held in 1852, the Western Art Association in 1870, the Detroit Art Association of 1875-1876 and 1893, the Detroit Museum of Art in 1887, 1889 and 1891 and the Michigan State Fair 1851, 1854, 1878-1880.

Submitted February 2005 as a bulletin to AskART by Marcia and Tom Wigginton. Source: Peter Falk, 'Who Was Who in American Art'

Very good to excellent; 97% original surface paint. 3% in-paint. Very minor crazing throughout, yellowing to varnish. Otherwise excellent. Housed in a contemporary hand craved gilt wooden frame.