$138,000
Cecilia Beaux (American, 1855-1942) Portrait of Helena Dorothea McGrew Dedicated and signed "To Helena Dorothea McGrew Cecilia Beaux" l. l. Oil on canvas, 24 1/2 x 18 1/4 in. (62.2 x 46.3 cm), framed. Condition: Repaired tears, retouch, surface grime. N.B. As editors, literary critics, socially well-connected artists, and reformers, the Gilder and de Kay families held powerful positions in New York City art, literary, and political circles of the late nineteenth century. While Jeanette and William Gilder, and Charles de Kay contributed to the city’s literary and artistic life, the more felicitous alliance was that of their respective siblings, Century magazine editor, Richard Watson Gilder, and Cooper Union trained artist Helena de Kay Gilder. Arbiters of aesthetic and literary taste in the late nineteenth century, the salons they hosted in their Stanford White renovated home drew a variety of interesting and distinguished artists, writers, musicians, architects, theater people, and politicians. Among their friends were Augustus Saint Gaudens, Mark Twain, Madame Modjeska, Joseph Jefferson, Emma Calve, and Grover and Frances Cleveland. Gilder, through the Century, published articles, essays, short stories, poetry, and art work that highlighted the breadth of the Gilded Age American scene, and nearly every important artist and author found their work reproduced and their writings printed there. Among the anointed was Philadelphia-born portraitist Cecilia Beaux whose art work a
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2003-11-21
