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Important Early Petrie Oil on Canvas

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The four J.L. Petrie paintings included in this auction are the first original Petrie fish paintings to come to auction in a substantial time. Petrie is best known for his illustration of William C. Harris' ambitious late 19th century folio volume The Fishes of North America That Are Captured On Hook And Line, published in 1895. So important was the quality of the fish illustrations to Harris, that he hired a professional artist, J.L. Petrie, to accompany him around the country in order to paint the fish in a "fresh state", "before the sheen of their color tints had faded." Harris would catch a fish, lay it out for Petrie, who would immediately paint the subject. Because of the exorbitant expense of Harris' endeavor, only two of the intended volumes were ever completed. This 1890's painting of a walleye, signed by the artist in script "J L Petrie" in the lower right, conforms to the size and quality of those painted for Harris' book. Painting has age crazing and two repairable punctures in the water above the fish. The original stretcher has been mounted in a barn board frame. In pencil on the reverse stretcher, most likely in Petrie's hand is written "Wall Eyed Pike". An important and rare piece of early American angling history.

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