JOHN REED DICKINSON

(British-American, 1844-1903)

AT THE OPERA, NEW YORK

Oil on Canvas

27¼ x 22½ Inches

Initialed Lower Left "J. D."

Dated Lower Left 1876

 

A substantial, late 19th century portrait of a young woman shown seated, elegantly dressed in a blue silk evening gown and holding a floral-painted, Japanese fan.

 

A dramatic and psychologically penetrating figural study by this well-listed British-American artist who studied in Paris and Munich and exhibited with success, both at London's Royal Academy and Suffolk Street Gallery. After moving to American, Dickinson first lived in New York and exhibited there, including at the National Academy of Design, before settling in California in 1879. On the West Coast, he continued to paint landscapes and society portraits, many of which were lost when his studio burned in the Great San Francisco Fire of 1906. We are pleased to offer a substantial and lyrical work from Dickinson's New York period.

 

Displayed in an elegant and period 19th century, carved giltwood and gesso frame and titled, on gilt-wood plaque, "At the Opera".

Framed dimensions: 40½ H x 34¼ W x 2½ D inches.

 

Reference:

Dictionary of British Art Volume IV: Victorian Painters, Christopher Wood, Antique Collectors’ Club 1995, p. 140; The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their Work from its Foundation in 1769 to 1904, Volume II, Algernon Graves, (Burt Franklin: 1972), p. 321; Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 1, p. 306; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 1, p. 912; The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, J. Johnson and A. Greutzner, 1980 Edition, Antique Collectors’ Club 1976, p. 147; et al.