Waterfall in the Lienthal by Marcus Mote 

Marcus Mote (American, 1817-1898). Oil on board, housed in a gilt gesso frame. A scene depicting a waterfall rushing through a rocky landscape, with a pair of figures in the foreground and another figure and a house in the background. Signed and dated l.l. 1888 / Marcus Mote / 12 mo; verso inscribed Waterfall in the / Lienthal / after Lauderbach. / By Marcus Mote / -12 mo. 1888. / present to / Salodus M. Slinson / New Year's Gift (for favors recd) / 1889; 10.75 x 16 in. (sight).

Marcus Mote, born in Miami County, Ohio in 1817 to a Quaker cabinetmaker, showed an interest in art at a very early age, getting his first set of watercolors at age 12. He later married Rhoda Steddon and the couple settled in Lebanon around 1837. His early career was largely an itinerant one, although he supplemented his income with ornamental painting and received some early fame for drawing John Quincy Adams on his 1843 visit to the Golden Lamb. In 1850, by which time he had 4 children, he opened a studio in Lebanon, where he painted portraits, miniatures, landscapes, and produced daguerreotypes. He also taught painting and drawing. Around 1853, he painted a panoramic image based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and it was well-received. He continued to paint portraits and landscapes in Lebanon until about 1859-60, when he decided to move his family to Richmond, Indiana. In 1869, he founded the Richmond Academy of Design for Women and continued to be instrumental in the early advocacy of art education in the state of Indiana.  

Provenance: The Clarence and Mildred Long Collection of Indiana Artists
Purchased from Hart Galleries, Dec. 1976