LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas

Measurements:

30.12 in. (76.50 cm.) (height) by 25.12 in. (63.81 cm.) (width)

Markings:

Signed D. Huntington and dated 1858 (ll)

Condition:

Mahogany stretchers from a London supplier. Old glue lining. Flattened craquelure. Selectively removed varnish. Occasional strokes of paint in darker passages, as though to cover craquelure but there are no tears. A small area of inpaint in the pink shawl on the young woman's proper right arm. The varnish layer at the upper right appears to be untouched. The faces and the majority of the composition appear to be free of inpaint

Exhibited:

London, UK, The Royal Academy

Literature:

The London Illustrated Times, Jul. 23, 1859, p. 57, identifies the present work as The Doubtful Note (illustrated by the engraving)

Provenance:

R. M. Olyphant, New York, by 1867 Sale: Somerville Art Gallery, Mr. Robert M. Olyphant's Collection of Paintings by American Artists, Dec. 18, 1877, no. 68 J. F. Swift, acquired at the above for $475 Henry Richards McLane, Millbrook, NY and New York Huntington McLane, Millbrook, NY, by descent, 1922 Thence by descent in the family to the present owner, 1976 Exhibited: London, UK, The Royal Academy New York, National Academy of Design, 1859, no. 257 Philadelphia, PA, 39th Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1862, no. 51 (as For sale) New York, National Academy of Design, Exhibition of Mr. Robert M. Olyphant's Collection of Paintings by American Artists, Dec. 1877 Literature: The London Illustrated Times, Jul. 23, 1859, p. 57, identifies the present work as The Doubtful Note (illustrated by the engraving) The Crayon, Sep. 1859, p. 281 Henry T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists: American Artist-Life, New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867, pp 322-3 Frederic Fairchild Sherman, Early American Painting, The Century Company, London, 1932, p. 267: "Besides Daniel Huntington's numerous historical compositions and portraits, two genre paintings from his hand are recorded by Henry T. Tuckerman, The Counterfeit Note and A Bar-room Politician". Catalogue, Mr. Robert M. Olyphant's Collection of Paintings by American Artists, Somerville Art Gallery, 1877, no. 68 The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1907-1870, Soundview Press, 1988, p. 106, no. 51 David Bernard Dearinger, Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design: 1826-1925, New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2004, p. 295, describes The Counterfeit Note as unlocated Stephen Mihm, A Nation of Counterfeiters, Harvard University Press, 2009, p. 229; the related engraving illus, p. 230 The Counterfeit Note by Daniel Huntington is a tour de force for an artist today remembered chiefly for his portraits. One of two genre scenes completed by Daniel Huntington during a European sojourn in 1857-58, it is an opulent picture, so rich in visual detail that it is a feast for the eyes. The variety shop is stocked floor to ceiling with inventory: baskets and buckets, brushes and cookware, straw hats and bright shawls hanging on rods up to the rafters, and bolts of vivid fabrics stacked neatly on shelves. Huntington must have delighted in the diversity of colors and textures as much as the challenge presented by so complex a composition. And in executing the painting, whether consciously or unconsciously, he incorporated elements from work he must have seen while traveling abroad. A young woman at the rear of the shop, her back to the viewer, is softly illuminated by a filtered light evocative of Vermeer. The polished tin cookware and basket of fresh flowers recall Dutch still life, and the scene itself is Hogarthian When The Counterfeit Note was exhibited for the third time in 1862, at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Huntington indicated that the work was for sale. By 1867, in his extensive discussion of the work in Book of the Artists: American Artist-Life, Henry Tuckerman wrote that it was owned by R. M. Olyphant (a noted collector of American paintings). A decade later, Olyphant's collection was sold by Somerville Art Gallery, and the work was acquired by J.F. Swift. From that moment on, the painting disappeared from the public eye, but eventually was acquired by Henry Richards McLane, whose wife, Ann Huntington McLane was a cousin of Daniel Huntington. It has been owned by members of the McLane family ever since. Tuckerman praised The Counterfeit Note and described it at length, writing that it "was commended at the Royal Academy Exhibition. The figures are of cabinet size; the interior of an English shop, with its assortment of dry goods, is painted with the finish and well-contrasted color that distinguish the best Flemish still-life execution; in the background, through an open door, we have a glimpse of the cozy 'parlor behind the shop,' so characteristic of the old-fashioned style of convenient 'variety store;' at an angle between the two stands a foreign-looking man, in dress, expression, and air, typical of the roguish adventurer; he has evidently made a purchase and tendered a large bank-note in payment; this note the old shop-keeper is inspecting behind the counter, while his shrewd wife whispers her suspicions in his ear, and points significantly over her shoulder at the strange customer, who, with assumed indifference but cunning glances, awaits the result. So far, the picture, while remarkable for execution and expression, only tells a story of common life and rascality; but to redeem this, with consummate taste, the artist has thrown rays of true poetry athwart the material scene; outside the counter sits a beautiful girl, dressed with a taste so appropriate, that we should think her costume alone would win scores of admirers; unconscious of what is going on she is ostensibly occupied in examining the quality of a fabric before her; but her air of refinement, the pure intellectuality of her countenance, and a certain superiority to the people and the scene around her, impress the spectator the more from the contrast; a lovely and tasteful English girl, she throws a beautiful charm over the whole; a vase of fresh flowers, exquisitively [sic] painted, is the only object that seems in affinity with her, and the two give a poetic interest to the clever delineation of the entire scene, which, in color, finish, and expression, is an evidence of facility rare in pictorial art." Of course, Tuckerman's lavish description of the "tasteful English girl" prompts the question: is she indeed a symbol of virtue as contrasted to the criminal attempting to pass a counterfeit bill? Or is she, as suggested by Stephen Mihm, an accomplice intended to distract the dubious shopkeepers? He writes "Critics had different interpretations of the work when it was unveiled in the 1850s, but they generally agreed on one thing: the genteel bespectacled man with the walking cane (itself a totem of respectability) was trying to pass a counterfeit note. The shover, equal parts gentleman and confidence man, looks out of the corner of his eyes, a faint smile playing on his lips. As for the well-dressed woman seated in front, she too may be in on the fraud: note that her glove has been dropped in a most unladylike fashion on the floor. In the subtle vocabulary of genre painting, as among the appearance-obsessed middle classes, such details mattered. Perhaps she is his accomplice, trying to distract the storekeeper. An opening gambit like this helped set the stage for the opening act in this theatre of exchange: the passing of the counterfeit note." Mihm based his observations upon an engraving of The Counterfeit Note, reproduced as fig. 20 in his text (Courtesy Newberry Library), mentioning that Huntington's painting "of the same name, . . . has disappeared." The engraving itself was published in The London Illustrated Times in 1859. The dropped glove in the engraving to which Stephen Mihm refers does not appear in the painting (it replaces the dog seen in the foreground of Huntington's composition), which leaves the story line all the more ambiguous. Although this tantalizing question can likely never be resolved, The Counterfeit Note is a masterpiece, a vibrant work informed with sympathy and humor, that has been missing from the public eye since 1877. C